Another Time

Another Time is the second solo album for whistle player Gavin Whelan, a Tallaght native who released his self-titled debut in 2002. Whelan has a lovely style that combines smoothness and fluidity with solid rhythm, and it’s well served by the spare arrangements here. Particularly nice are two tracks with Aogán Lynch on concertina and Calico’s Donncha Moynihan on guitar; there’s also a terrific unaccompanied duet with fiddler Zoë Conway (who used to play with Whelan in the band Dal Riada) that’s also the one track on which Whelan plays uilleann pipes instead of whistle. He’s no slouch on the pipes, and it’s a pity he doesn’t make more use of them. Guitarist Gavin Ralston provides a beautiful chordal counterpoint to an instrumental version of the old song ‘The Yellow Bittern’, while keyboards courtesy of Peter Eades on the slow air ‘Anach Cuain’ are spine-tinglingly effective (which coming from this confirmed synth-hater is high praise indeed).