Blood And Gold

Former members of Anúna, Maca have continued, unlike their mentors, to work with Riverdance, as it wends its way across Europe and further afield.

Blood And Gold, despite being way too short at 29 minutes flat, is for the most part, a fine piece of work which should be listened to, if only as an object lesson on how four voices should combine in harmony.

The title track, written by Andy Irvine for his Rainy Sundays album, is full of darkness and eastern harmonic structures, devoid of instruments bar Paul Moran's percussion. 'Cad É Sin Don Té Sin?' - literally " a who-should-give-a-shit song" - is great, with beautiful fiddle and guitar work underpinning the vocals to notable effect. 'Rosebud In June' despite the stereo vocals, doesn't have half the kick of Maddy Prior's original some twenty five years ago, and I was left cold by 'Dolas na Maighdine' which doesn't even come close to Sean Corcoran's version.

The album's crowning glory, though, has to be 'I Am Stretched Upon Your Grave'. It suffers not a whit by comparison with Sinéad's treatment and puts my minor cavils about other things into proper perspective. More of this kind of stuff and it would have been heading towards the top end of the dice.

It's not something I would listen to every day, but Blood And Gold does have its quirky charms.