Album Review: Caroline Keane, Rise

Current trad boasts such renewed vigour that the concertina, once treated as the accordion’s better behaved sibling, now has players of the stature of Limerick's Caroline Keane.

Rise generously delivers on the promise of her debut Shine, with much to delight the ear and heart, as she explores the further reaches of the instrument. In the process, she delivers a smorgasbord of original tunes, alongside known polkas, reels, hornpipes, jigs and a delicious slow air.

There’s a clear focus in her controlled playing on tracks such as her own ‘Martin’s Cahill’s’, and again with ‘Tommy Maguire’s’, while ‘Raghadsa is mo Cheaití' from the Blaskets is equally captivating.

But the pièce de résistance is ‘Mon Père Vit Dans Les Étoiles’ (‘My Father Lives In The Stars’ as Bearla), which is tricked out with a video depicting the delights of the Kerry and Atlantic landscapes.

The plaintive track features the guitar skills of Steve Cooney and Caroline’s mother herself on concertina, in a tune that honours Caroline’s father.

You can sense how the woman now resident in Kerry plays off her guests in a way that enriches many moments. Other notable participants include Tom Delany (uilleann pipes), Eamon Murray (bodhrán) and Conal O’Kane on guitar – and it all makes for a wonderful listen.

8/10