This is the Waterford band’s fourth album, but the first with newly acquired vocalist Muireann Nic Amhlaoibh. You only have to wait for track two, the Tommy Sands-written ‘County Down’, to realise what a substantial discovery she is. Nic Amhlaoibh comes across like a more muted Dolores Keane, her voice full of warmth and unforced expression.
The Road Less Travelled finds the Danu instrumentalists in top form too. When he’s not quickening the blood with his uillean pipes as on ‘The Fairy Reel’ and the intro to ‘Peg and Awl’, Donnchadh Gough brings a rare subtlety and sensitivity to that much abused instrument, the bodhran, while Benny McCarthy’s fluid accordion-playing shines through, most notably on ‘Jazzing With Mag Leary’.
Garry O Briain’s production allows plentiful breathing space among the instruments, so that the overall effect is of a band intent on expressing emotions and highlighting the phrasing of tunes, as opposed to pointless grandstanding. Danu are now right up there among the pantheon of current Irish trad stars. This album explains why.