Saileog NÍ Cheannabháin - Roithleán album review: Trad in a state of flux

Saileog NÍ Cheannabháin - Roithleán album review: Trad in a state of flux

Roithleán
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Artist: Saileog Ní Cheannabháin
Genre: Traditional
Label: Raelach Records

Saileog Ní Cheannabháin’s second solo recording celebrates the concept of a recurring or whirling motion. The cyclical pattern that defines traditional song and music is embodied in the passing on from singer to singer, musician to musician.

Ownership is never the issue, but Ní Cheannabháin takes her curatorial role very seriously. Her Connemara singing style is a delight: unhurried, ornamented with extreme care, and propelled by a vocal range that makes even the classic Róisín Dubh her own. Ní Cheannabháin's fiddle and viola mine the deeper seams of her tune choices with grace, but it's her piano lines that really prick up the listener's ears.

Her refusal to follow the tired trajectory that often characterises that instrument within the tradition results in a beautiful lightness of touch, and her own compositions shimmer in the spaces in between. raelachrecords.com

Siobhán Long

Siobhán Long

Siobhán Long, a contributor to The Irish Times, writes about traditional music and the wider arts