CD CHOICE: Siobhán Longreviews a collection celebrating five years over Bantry's Masters of Tradition festival.
Various Artists: Masters of Tradition ****
RTÉ/Lyric FM
Like a circus tent full of tightrope walkers, this 40-strong gathering of musicians and singers balance - sometimes precariously - atop a gaggle of tunes that thrive on the sheer impromptu fizz of the performance. With no room for tricky tweaks at the mixing desk, this double album celebrates the magic that's conjured by countless live performances over five years (2003-2007) at Bantry's Masters of Tradition festival.
If this is the pulse of traditional music in the 21st century, then it's in a rude state of health. The dextrous wordplay of the late Frank Harte on The Lambeg Drummer, with almost invisible skeins of guitar accompaniment from Dónal Lunny, acts as a lively reminder of what an original thinker and voracious song collector Harte was. Musicians who normally bask in the belly of a band shimmer in the cool light of the solo performance. Lúnasa's Seán Smyth and Téada's Oisín MacDiarmada's fiddles swoop and soar, and MacDiarmada's reel set ( The Bloom of Youth) is a lesson in the satisfaction of mining a tune for its very essence.
There are few grand gestures lurking within, although Tony MacMahon's The Wounded Huzzarwould raise the dead with its insistent authority. It's a celebration of the lift and life inherent in the music, as the trio of reels from Máirtín O'Connor, Cathal Hayden and Steve Cooney illustrate: only the terminally doleful could fail to marshall a broad grin in their company. Other gemstones abound, from Iarla Ó Lionáird to Matt Cranitch, Ronan Browne and Peadar O'Loughlin.
Reservations, if any, reflect on the sparse presence of Martin Hayes, the festival's guiding light. Still, Hayes's solo pair of reels ( Fair Haired Molly/ The Green Gowned Lass), with only his trademark metronomic footfall for accompaniment, encapsulates the essence of this recording in all its clean-shaven glory.
www.rte.ie/shop
Download tracks: Táim Curtha Ó Bheith Im' Aonair Im' Luí, Boys of Tandaragee
