North Connaught in western Ireland has long been a fertile garden of traditional music. Its distinctive style of fiddling -- a loose, lilting cadence -- has remained virtually unchanged over the centuries. London-born
John Carty returned to his ancestral Ballinameen, County Roscommon, as a young man and has since become one of the leading interpreters of the Connaught sound. His third collection,
At It Again, is a sweet, subtle set of reels, jigs, and polkas, with fine accompaniment from accomplished comrades James Carty, Arty McGlynn, Francis Gaffney, John Blake, and Brian McGrath. The dynamic "Copperplate/Flogging Reel" is the perfect example of
Carty's laidback style, and his version of the Celtic classic "Sligo Maid" is among the genre's best.
At It Again breaks little ground, but it shouldn't. With the enormous amount of material available for the Celtic connoisseur, solid, reliable records like this are getting harder and harder to find. ~ James Christopher Monger