PAUL BROCK & ENDA SCAHILL
Humdinger
Claddagh Records
****

For sheer verve and virtuosity, Paul Brock and Enda Scahill are collecting laurels from aficionadoes and sometime tradsters alike for this aptly titled winner. Pairing melodeon with banjo, bolstered by the funkiest piano this side of Dr John (well, almost), and the most impish percussion from Tommy Hayes, Brock and Scahill trace circuitous pathways through the familiar (Miss McLeod's), the not so familiar (the knuckledusting Jackson's Polka) and the downright obscure (John Kimmel's Accordion Fantasy). Basking in the vim and vigour that characterised Irish traditional music's transformation Stateside back in the 1930s, Brock breathes fresh life into the beleagured melodeon, while Scahill's timing coincides with a brave new world where the banjo has come in from the cold.

There's a music hall schlep in Humdinger's step: it dips and dives with what could so easily have been pantomime fervour, particularly on Medley of Clogs, and yet somehow still manages to root itself in the virtuoso playing that set so many expatriate Irish musicians apart many decades ago, from James Morrison to Paddy Killoran. Ryan Molloy's piano accompaniment equally manages to defy the horrific encroachments of the past visited by the piano on the tradition. Weaving in, out and around Brock's mischievous melodeon and Scahill's double-jointed banjo wheelies, he lends a lightness of touch that simply fits to perfection.

Brock and Scahill: a partnership every bit as conversant with filigree playing as Lunny and Irvine in their heyday. Hip swivellingly sublime. www.claddaghrecords.com