By Sean Smith
Reviews this month:
Mick McAuley with Colm O Caoimh, “Highs & Bellows”
Natalie MacMaster & Donnell Leahy, “One”
Kaela Rowan, “The Fruited Thorn”

Mick McAuley with Colm O Caoimh, “Highs & Bellows” • Kilkenny native McAuley is a former member of super-group Solas, now on indefinite hiatus, but he’s had quite a few other ventures (such as a musical role in Sting’s stage production “The Last Ship”), many involving his Solas colleagues – notably fiddler Winifred Horan. He’s highly regarded, and justifiably so, for his multi-instrumental excellence, tune composition, songwriting and sensitive, clear-voiced tenor singing, all of which he demonstrated on his first solo album, “An Ocean’s Breadth” (2003), supported by Horan as well as other Solas members Seamus Egan and Eamon McElholm.
But where that recording had a lot of the intricate Solas sound, “Highs & Bellows” is a decidedly stripped-down affair, with McAuley playing accordion, his signature instrument, accompanied by guitarist O Caoimh, who has collaborated with McAuley and Horan as part of an all-too-occasional trio.
It’s not too fanciful to glean a certain exhilaration here on the part of McAuley, with no elaborate arrangements or multiple instruments (other than guitar on “As I Roved Out”) to work through: He and O Caoimh simply mount up and go, tearing through some venerable traditional reels (“The Bird’s Nest/Moving Cloud,” “Jackson’s Favorite/All Hands Around/Scott Skinner’s,” “Mayor Harrison’s Fedora”), polkas and jigs. McAuley also includes some originals, such as a trio of jigs (“The Ballycotton Jigs”), “Doreann’s Waltz” and two slides in a set (“The Constellation”) that also includes the revered “Star Above the Garter,” and evokes the cosmopolitanism Solas was known for through excursions into 1930s French jazz (“Indifference”) and Brazilian pop (“Domino”). O Caoimh’s accompaniment, with delightful hints of jazz and swing, is an impeccable complement to McAuley’s skillful touch (keep an ear out for some cool ornamentation and other flourishes).
McAuley’s renditions of estimable traditional Irish ballads “As I Roved Out” and “Paddy’s Green Shamrock Shore,” meanwhile, are tenderly and gracefully delivered – enough to make you wish he’d done a few more songs on the album. While “Highs & Bellows” may inevitably call to mind the abundant combined talent in Solas, it helps you appreciate the gifts of a fine musician and singer like McAuley on his own individual terms. [mickmcauley.com]
Natalie MacMaster & Donnell Leahy, “One” • Two of Canada’s most accomplished Celtic fiddlers, who just happen to be a married couple, team up for – believe it or not – their first album together. “One” represents the fruits of a rather unique labor of love: As Leahy has explained, their particular fiddle styles – hers Cape Breton, his Ontario/Irish – didn’t mesh very well together at first, so they had to work at creating some common ground. It took a while (having six kids and busy tour schedules will do that), but the result is as high-energy and exuberant as you can imagine.
The contributions MacMaster and Leahy have made to their respective forms of traditional music are considerable, of course. Part of their portfolio has involved bringing contemporary influences – rock, country, pop – to the music, along with showmanship and virtuosity: in other words, being conscious of the full dimensions of the word “performer.” Those qualities are evident on “One,” which features tunes mainly from the Cape Breton, Scottish and Irish traditions, as well as the creative minds of MacMaster and/or Leahy themselves.
For sheer effusiveness, it’s hard to do much better than the opening jig-to-reels trio, “St. Nick’s,” or the “Clog Medley” (particularly the ebullient “Cottonwood Reel”) or the MacMaster-Leahy original “The Chase” – and the aptly named “Joyous Waltz,” which segues into the equally jovial “American Polka.” For seriously hard-charging intensity, you’ve got “Fiddler’s Despair,” and “The Whistler of Rosslea” medley (with the Ed Reavy tune of the same name). And then there’s “Ellin Polka,” a rapid-fire Finnish tune, on which MacMaster and Leahy display unfathomable bowing precision. It’s well worth mentioning that the pair has a stalwart group of accompanists, among them pianists Mac Morin and Rachel Aucoin, guitarist/accordionist Tim Edey and drummer Mark Kelso, who add to the excitement.
Two tracks provide the crowning touch, “Tribute to Buddy” (dedicated to her uncle and mentor) and “The Balkan Hills.” A group of Cape Breton mainstays – pianist Betty Beaton, fiddlers Kinnon Beaton, Brenda Stubbert and Dawn Beaton, and fiddler/piper Kenneth MacKenzie – join MacMaster and Leahy, and the atmosphere is one of an informal kitchen ceili, complete with chatter and laughter at the beginning. It’s a heartfelt, even reassuring reminder that this couple has respect for the roots of this music they’ve taken to such a high level of performance. [www.natalieanddonnell.com]
Kaela Rowan, “The Fruited Thorn” • Rowan, a native of the Scottish Highlands who sings in English and Gaelic, was part of an innovative movement in the 1990s/early 2000s that saw Scottish/Celtic music fuse with jazz, electronica, funk and world music forms, giving birth to bands such as Capercaillie, Shooglenifty and in particular Mouth Music, of which Rowan was a member (as was Talitha MacKenzie, who performed with Boston’s St. James Gate back in the 1980s). She’s since signed on with Shooglenifty, and in her solo work has often been accompanied by two of its members, James Mackintosh and Ewan MacPherson, who appear on this album, her second release.
Elements of that earlier experimental approach crop up in “The Fruited Thorn” – such as the Afro-world-style bounce to “Nighean Nan Geug” – but the focus is on Rowan’s enchanting, clear, soaring vocals on these songs, which are from Irish and Scottish tradition. With arrangements and pacing that are, for the most part, unhurried and uncluttered, Rowan savors the pleasures of words and melody – perhaps most of all on “Lord Gregory,” the epically tragic seduction-abandonment ballad she mines for its maximum dramatic impact, as she does “The Bonnie Woods of Hatton,” a Scots ballad of unrequited but undying love.
She also invigorates songs that will be familiar to many if not most listeners – “Westlin Winds,” “As I Roved Out,” “Mary and the Soldier” – with able assistance from Mackintosh, MacPherson, and guests such as John McCusker, Jarlath Henderson (especially his vocal harmony on “As I Roved Out”) and Patsy Reid. The power, range and beauty of her voice is at peak display on “Blackbird (What a Voice),” emotive but not excessive.
There also are two fascinating collaborations with Dayam Khan Manganiyar, a singer from the Indian state of Rajasthani versed in that region’s traditional ballad style. On “Eilean Fhianain” and “Grioghal Cridhe,” he interpolates verses in the Marwari language alongside Rowan’s Gaelic ones, touching on similar themes and emotions expressed in both songs. The effect is, to put it mildly, mesmerizing and enlightening of how much seemingly disparate cultures share.
If “Fruited Thorn” whets your appetite for more of Rowan’s work, there’s good news: She has plans for additional recordings with Manganiyar, and with Shooglenifty, during the course of this year. [kaelarowan.net]