efn Reviews

From there we have an Irish sounding reel composed by Mayor and then, justifying the whole CD on its own, a lovely setting of The Shearing's Not For You.

The settings of dance tunes will of course infuriate anybody who knows the dances, but then this is not inteded for dancing to. Hunt the Squirrel on mandolin and guitar is delicate and stately while Newcastle has a fragment of song with it and a nice jazzy up-temp feel.

The piece by O'Carolan, named here as Carolan's Concerto is easy to dismiss as "twiddly" but has some nice intricate work on guitar and mandolin. The next track, Andew Lammie uses the fiddle to dramatic effect to introduce and punctuate this magnificent example of a "big" ballad. The power and narative of the ballad do rather throw James and Mayor's own compositions Fireflies and the eponymous Laughing with the Moon into unflattering relief although the latter track in particular is rescued by another first rate arrangement.

To finish the shanty Shenandoah is performed as a lullaby. I had my doubts when reading the notes but it works, very very well.

All in all a superb professional recording only spoiled for me by the fact that you only get 40minutes and 26 seconds of music for your money.