Live In The Piesting Valley

Roscommon-born singer/guitarist Michael Banahan is best known on these shores for his work with the band Rig The Jig, but he’s a popular solo artist over on the continent. Recorded live last February in Austria, his new album was made purely as a reference tape, with just one vocal mic and a direct line from the guitar. However, as the liner notes inform us: “it was felt that the feel and emotion of the performance more than compensated for the lack of planning a live record.” That’s true, but a bit of editing wouldn’t have gone amiss: 18 tracks is a bit on the long side, and chestnuts like ‘Carrickfergus’, ‘Ride On’, ‘Nancy Spain’ and ‘The Lakes of Pontchartrain’ might safely have been left out in favour of such lesser-known songs as Banahan’s touching a cappella rendition of Ralph McTell’s ‘Easter Lilies’ and Charlie McGettigan’s ‘Lifting of the Latch’, also sung unaccompanied.