Various Artists: Journey The Best of Donal Lunny (Hummingbird)
The superb Mr Lunny can't claim sole credit for these 24 tracks. But it's a joy to revisit the hard knuckles of the iconic Bothy Band (Paddy Keenan, Matt Molloy) or Planxty (Andy Irvine's head-funk 9/16 Bulgarian tune); or Lunny's constant alchemy, chopping wood behind Liam Og, Sean Og Potts or Cormac Breathnach; the off-beat flog of the double-strings leavening Triona and Maighread; Frank Harte's ballsy tinker's Shan Van Vocht (sic!); the wondrous O Riada Retrospective band; or Eddi Reader's weird masterpiece, The Blacksmith. This is My Father is horrible, but that's the only false move made here by the undeniable Ould Master. A great double album.
- Mic Moroney
Josie McDermott: Darby's Farewell (Ossian)
Reissued from 1977, this is a gorgeous testimony to immaculate textbook fluting, whistling and didling from Coolmeen townland, Sligo. The delivery is tight and crisp: the little rollicking whips of flute-breath; the razorblade tonguing on the whistles as he flails the backside off Murphy's Polka, or hammers out The Tap Room with an accompanying bodhran tattoo that fetches up visions of a gang of Land Leaguers marching straight for you and breaking into a gallop. Oh, but there's soul to his impeccable didle of The Collier's Reel, or the treacly longing of Murlough Mary. You often have to shake yourself to realise that Josie died in 1992, Lord rest him.
- Mic Moroney
