Various: Acoustic World Ireland (Coro Audio CD)

This album presents Irish music at its best, featuring some of the most respected musicians in their field playing fiddle, flute, pipes, uillean pipes, piano accordion, button accordion, melodeon, and concertina.

Irish traditional music has flourished in the last few years, and oftentimes the impetus for change has come from outside the Emerald Isle, giving us perhaps a more accurate definition to the expression ‘world music’. These influences are in some ways not surprising given that there are Irish communities in many parts of the world.

This disc captures the essence of Irish traditional music from America, Cape Breton Island, England and Ireland itself. The performances show how tradition and innovation sit comfortably together. There are two notable features: first, that none of the instruments has to be plugged in or amplified; and second, that these are live performances. Without an audience enjoying and encouraging the musicians these jigs and reels just wouldn’t take off.

The richness of the music comes from the individual musician’s treatment of it (and there are some 43 musicians featured on this disc), because although the tunes and harmonies are relatively simple, the stylistic differences between players in different geographic areas is remarkable.