Banjoed

Dessie Kelliher belongs to the three-note-are-better-than-one school of banjo playing: he can’t resist the urge to throw in triplets and rolls like nobody’s business. But he does it so stylishly that you gladly forgive him any excess of youthful exuberance. Besides, as the jacket copy proudly points out, this debut album was recorded, mixed and mastered in the very short space of two and a half weeks and was completed before Dessie’s 20th birthday. He’s a dab hand at writing original tunes, which feature in about half the tracks here; his slow reel ‘For Mags’ is particularly nice. And when he sits down with box player Pádraig Ó Sé and guitarist Jon Sanders for a fine rousing set of Kerry slides, you’d be hard put to keep a stray foot from tapping along. Banjoed is available through Claddagh Records.