Album Review: Martin Hayes & The Common Ground Ensemble - Peggy's Dream

Every year Hot Press asks its readers to vote in for the Best Musician, but we could probably save everyone the trouble by just awarding it in perpetuity to Martin Hayes. That’s not to knock the latest indie hero negotiating a tricky F7 but Hayes’ mastery of his instrument is on a different level. Rather than just take my word for it, put on any of his recordings with the late Dennis Cahill, such as the heaven-touching Live In Seattle where the extended medley that begins with 'Port na bPucai' stretches to nearly half an hour and finds the players so in synch you might think they were two sides of the same mind, or the glorious output of The Gloaming, where the contrast between Hayes’ sound and that of Caoimhín Ó Raghallaigh’s hardanger fiddle marked them out as the trad equivalent of Tom Verlaine and Richard Lloyd’s majestic and sympathetic fret work in Television.

Peggy’s Dream – dedicated to both Cahill and Hayes’ mother – is his first full-length excursion with The Common Ground Ensemble. Accordingly, the gentle opening notes are not from Martin but from pianist Cormac McCarthy before Hayes’ fiddle takes up the tune and dances across ‘The Boyne Water’ with a tone of such purity it could reduce master distillers to tears. It’s a piece of music to make you stop what you’re doing, close your eyes, and just listen as it builds and then recedes, evoking the peacefulness of gently flowing waters.

‘The Longford Tinker’ moves from its see-sawing opening to a display of Hayes’ dexterity that borders on the supernatural, while ‘Cá Bhfuil An Solas’ recalls the majesty of The Gloaming at their most moving with McCarthy’s piano like drops of rain in a pond before Hayes insistent lines bring the sunshine. The transition from ‘Johnny Cope’, wherein Hayes subtly stretched notes, to the sprightly hop of ‘Hughie Traver’s Reel’ will have lesser musicians – i.e. all of them – heading to the pawn shop to hawk their instruments in despair, and the beauty of ‘Peggy’s Dream’ as Hayes first takes flight over a drone backing before being joined by Brian Donnellan’s concertina will take your breath away, should you have any left given what’s gone before it.

It’s truly ensemble playing, whether it be Kate Ellis’ eerie cello opening of ‘Garrett Barry’s Jig’, McCarthy’s dazzling jazz excursion in the closing ‘Toss The Feathers/The Magerabaun Reel’ or Kyle Sanna’s perfect not-a-note-wasted guitar playing throughout, but the heart-swelling beauty of Hayes touch on ‘The Glen Of Aherlow’ and 'Aisling Ghael' is so expressive and evocative, one wonders if the man is connected to an aesthetic dimension that mere mortals can only experience through him. A magnificent recording.