Davy Spillane: The Sea of Dreams (Sony)
The maturing of an uileann piper can be a wondrous thing, but even Liam O'Flynn's taking-it-handy style in recent years has nothing on the over-produced Celtic minimalism into which this rock'n'roll druid is receding; flat-lining into mists of cheesy listening, only the odd cranning or trademark pitch-bend fetching up any musicality at all. There are after-tastes of sweetness on the Georges Zamfir-esque Big Sea Ballad with Spillane fwooting off on the low whistles, and fellow celeb Sinead O'Connor exposing another emotional nerve on a vocally treated Dreaming of the Bones, but like everything else, this is washed away in the repetitive gush of synthy drones, cymbals and Greg Boland's sadly sedated guitar. If there's nothing more to say, why say it again?
By Mic Moroney
Paul O'Shaughnessy with Frankie Lane: Stay Another While (Independent Release)
Sit down and listen close to this infectious old-style solo fiddle recording (with the exquisite low-key touches of Lane's Dobro) from this young Artane man with a lot of the north-west in his playing: the old Donegal stops and jagged bow-stutters, the off-kilter high notes and little skites of ornament. Curiously, the style is assiduously schooled, taking tunes from Mayo-man Paddy Mills and Donegal people like Mairead Ni Mhaonaigh, Francie Dearg O Beirne and the late Frankie Kennedy and Con Cassidy; even tossing in a descriptive hornpipe of his own. That peculiar mix of almost classical earnestness with the bewitched dithering of the great old fiddlers creates a raw brightness and anxiety which set the ould ears on fire.
By Mic Moroney
