Traditional Irish Music From London

This album by three youngish Londoners of Irish descent is quaintly old-fashioned in its aesthetic, featuring standard session favourites like ‘The Templehouse’, ‘The Pigeon On The Gate’, ‘Scatter The Mud’ and ‘Jenny Picking Cockles’ taken at a stately pace, with discreet piano and bouzouki accompaniment. A bit more care could have been applied to the selection of tunes: there are no less than nine sets of reels here, augmented by a mere two sets of jigs and one of hornpipes. Still, Blake’s flute and Gillespie’s fiddle roll along nicely together. Guest fiddler Brian Rooney’s duet with Gillespie on ‘The Golden Keyboard/Kiss The Maid Behind The Barrel’ has a pleasingly raw scrapiness reminiscent of an older generation of players, and accordionist Tommy Maree also makes an appearance on one track.