Altan fiddler Ciaran Tourish has taken his own sweet time in getting round to making his debut solo album – and the results are sweet indeed.
Even if Tourish weren't the tremendous musician he is, Down The Line would be worth listening to merely for the rare opportunity to hear the glorious voice of Maura O'Connell, singing in Irish on the soulful 'Slán Le Máigh'.
A host of Nashville heavyweights lend their talents to Tim O’Brien’s charmingly laid-back rendition of ‘Are You Tired Of Me My Darling?’, including Alison Krauss on harmony vocals, dobro player Jerry Douglas, guitarist Darrell Scott and Viktor Krauss on bass.
Rounding out the song list is ‘Dreams Will Come’, a lacklustre composition from Paul Brady that’s only partially redeemed by Tourish’s nifty multitracked high and low whistles.
Happily, there are no such disappointments among the instrumental tracks. The great Arty McGlynn's guitar backing is impeccably judged as always, particularly on 'Molly Bán/Flowers Of Edinburgh/Famous Ballymote', a vigorous set of reels that builds to a powerful finish.
The whimsically meandering 'Carlisle Bay Waltz' was composed by Tourish while reposing on a beach in Antigua, and it's pure pleasure to listen to the sinuous interplay of Percy Robinson's pedal steel, Neil Martin's cello and Phil Cunningham's accordion behind Tourish's fiddles.
The beach in question was evidently well favoured by the muses, as it also provided the inspiration for 'Oldtown', a jaunty slowed-down reel with occasional jazzy flourishes from McGlynn. Other highlights include a beautifully spare whistle solo on the evocative Blasket Islands slow air 'Port Na bPúcai'.
That aforementioned Brady plodder aside, the only flaw here is one of omission: coming in at under 40 minutes, the disc seems a tad short. Another track or two surely wouldn’t have gone amiss, but we’ll just have to wait for the next album, hopefully sooner rather than later.