THIS seemed a somewhat out of focus night for De Danann, a group which has been so consistently in the pole position, the hard, cutting and uncompromising edge of audience making traditional music over the last 22 years.

Singer Tommy Fleming was in flawless form on The water is wide and Rose and the briar, raising the rafters on Jackie Small's conversion of Nessan Dorma to a peace anthem, Fis na Siochana, and too on his big song, Danny Boy.

But his Irish Tenor with full vibrato, breaking all the rules of received traditional singing wisdom, did not sit comfortably with the band despite some terrific backing from Frankie Gavin's fiddle, flute and whistle, and Derek Hickey's accordion.

Only on their dance music sets did the band have a clear purpose - a treatment of the troublesome Girl that Broke My Heart which might have got the Pope out on the floor; a beautifully orchestrated Humours of Lissadell and Jimmy Collins's Jenny Picking Cockles, which could itself break hearts.

Guest Ronnie Drew restored a voice instrument equilibrium on a wonderful, built up Ragian Road, and swapping octaves with Fleming developed the nostalgia further in The Leaving of Liverpool.

Carl Hession on keyboard with a string quartet added a Chekovian grace and quite a body to the performance, but Colm Murphy stole the glamour spot with a drum solo that would sell 1,000 bodhrans - ticking off in 4/4, upping - tempo into 6/8, back to 2/4, then to an accelerating locomotive, an idling tractor, rhythms of life and machinery which seduced Gavin into magnificent spontaneous combustion on whistle.