This week's Traditional music CDs reviewed

THE RED WELLIES
The Red Wellies Celtic Grooves***

When you mix an almost academic attention to detail with a North Carolina background, what you get is a sizzling debut from a trio who go by the name of The Red Wellies. Claudine "Beanie" Odell and her nephew, Duncan Wickel, play unison fiddle like twins, although they relish their sporadic harmonic variations with equal glee. Vincent Fogarty brings a formidable rhythmic presence to bear on the mix, with echoes of Dónal Lunny's inventiveness in his soaring accompaniments. The set of jigs capped by The Sporting Pitchforkepitomises the trio's intuitive playing. Elsewhere, the faintest echo of a Blue Ridge Mountain fiddle lurks beneath the distinctive Irish traditional music mix, but The Red Wellies' essence is clearly distilled from influences on this side of the Atlantic. SIOBHÁN LONG www.myspace.com/redwelliesirish