For many years as vocalist with Cherish The Ladies, Cathie Ryan was recently named as one of the Top 100 Irish Americans. Since leaving Joanie’s band of outlaws, her solo career has certainly blossomed, a process which seems certain to continue with this, the release of her third solo album. In the accompanying notes she describes it as a return to roots which, after a fashion, it is.

While it is grounded in the tradition in style, structure and presentation, no less than eight of the songs on Somewhere Along The Road are of contemporary origin, five of them at least part-written by Cathie herself.

What makes this album compulsive listening is the simplicity of producer John McCusker’s arrangements, which never stand in the way of the stories being told. Meanwhile, Ryan’s ‘In My Tribe’ – not the Natalie Merchant piece – is as strong an assertion of Irishness as one would wish for, put beautifully in the closing phrase: ”Music is blood memory”.

Somewhere Along The Road deserves repeated play, revealing new delights at every turn. One of the year’s finest albums to date.