At Home

If it's a roll-call of the best traditional musicians on the far side of the Atlantic you're after, then Cherish The Ladies' latest album will probably sate your thirst. It's brimful of magnificent talent, including the core sextet of female musicians who've paved such a fine path for others with their spunky, intricate arrangements of traditional tunes.

Joanie Madden, Donna Long et al. have always been at the top of the queue when it comes to technical virtuosity and creative instinct. Listening to their last six albums, even if you never managed to catch them live, you couldn't but be struck by their appetite for inventiveness and their respect for the tradition.

And listening to At Home (a title that must surely appeal to traditionalists and superhighway surfers alike), their roots are showing probably more forcefully than ever. Listening to the reel set that begins with 'Harvest Moon', images of childhood feiseanna come flooding back. With ex-CTL member Eileen Ivers guesting with gusto, it's a set that demonstrates its sheer delight in the music.

In between the highs, though, there are a number of dodgy lows that sully the atmosphere and jar the sensibilities. The predominance of piano seems downright disturbing rather than cushioning, mindful of a music that's been freezedried in a time warp circa 1964. Loathsome as it may be to suggest it, some of the arrangements smack of an ex-patriatism that's been long usurped by so many dazzling musicians, Cherish The Ladies included.

The song selection is another bone of contention. While the sentiment expressed in the Dan Fogelberg song, 'Leader Of The Band', might ring bells for sons and daughters everywhere, it simply groans under the weight of the saccharine arrangements afforded it here.

Misgivings aside though, At Home invigorates the spirit with a handful of its tunes, and whets the appetite anew for a live session in the splendid company of these gifted musicians. And that, surely, is where the music truly shines.