Fourteen years on the road and eight albums under the belt can leave some musicians tired and emotional. Alternatively it can keep the fire roaring in the belly. Joanie Madden, Cherish The Ladies’ chief cook and bottlewasher has never been too partial to the autopilot route in traditional music. Now, with CTL’s reputation as fine musicians well established, they’re boldly going into the breach with a rake of new songs, and with accompaniment from an even wider rake of fine musicians (from Pete Seeger to Liam Clancy, Arlo Guthrie, Brian Kennedy, Tom Chapin, Luka Bloom and Eric Weissberg (of ‘Duelling Banjos’ fame). The Girls Won’t Leave The Boys Alone is not quite the incarnation we’re used to, is it?

Madden laughs raucously down the phone line from Galway, where she’s been ensconced for a couple of days’ r ‘n’ r before the circus around the album release kicks in.

“It was fantastic to end up working with some of my heroes like Matt Molloy and Liam Ó Floinn”, she offers, “and I’m pretty happy with it. It’s hard when you do a record like this, because we got to the studio, we shook hands and kissed, and then we figured out what to do. It’s very different when you’re just working with your own band, because you’ve already worked out all the arrangements. This time we had to cut to the chase and come up with the arrangements then and there.