This week's trad/folk reviews

STEPH GEREMIA

The Open Road

Blackbox Music***

Confidence and individuality emerge gradually from this chrysalis of an album. New York-born flute player, world traveller and long-time Irish resident, Steph Geremia betrays more than a trace of the accent of her adoptive home place. Her sprightly, breathy style pays homage to the great Peter Horan and that buoyant Sligo flute style to which she has been inexorably drawn. At times she tends to favour too much accompaniment, with the flute yielding unnecessarily to a panoply of instruments from bodhrán to harp, mandolin, bouzouki and piano accordion. But Geremia's spark is undeniable, particularly on the beautifully drawn flute and harmonium of a pair of Scots/Castilian tunes – Alasdair's Tune/Charrada De Bercimuelle– and on her own airborne composition, Linnane Terrace. Shards of laser-sharp playing wrestle to the surface of an over-abundant mix. www.myspace. com/stephgeremia SIOBHÁN LONG

Download tracks: Davy Maguire's

JAMES YORKSTON

Folk Songs

Domino ****

It was only a matter of time before James Yorkston, a man synonymous with the folk music scene in Scotland, took it upon himself to cover "the classics". Folk Songs is a collection of traditional songs from the British Isles (and one from Spain) that have been spruced up by the Fife native, who here forsakes his usual backing band The Athletes in favour of The Big Eyes Family Players. Takes on several songs by Anne Briggs (the wonderfully eerie poacher's tale Thorneymoor Woods, the soothing, rounded Martinmas Time) are particularly successful, while I Went to Visit the Roses, with its glistening harmonium-adorned chorus, sounds more like a Camera Obscura track covered by Adrian Crowley. Yorkston's usual fare is undoubtedly an acquired taste, but he proves a masterful raconteur of these timeless, thoughtfully handled compositions. www.jamesyorkston.co.uk LAUREN MURPHY

Download tracks: Martinmas Time, I Went to Visit the Roses