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“Two Tone” - Kieran O’Hare & John Skelton
For reasons not entirely relevant, Kieran O’Hare recently, and very generously, sent me a copy of his latest recording with John Skelton, a musical sequel to their equally excellent flute duet CD, “Double Barrelled”.
There’s been a real outburst of Irish flute CDs recently - I’ve purchased 7 since April, and have to say that this is the one I come back to listen to more than any of the others. Great, solid playing from both musicians, on flutes and whistles - not needing to impress anyone with pointless virtuosity, just Irish music of the highest quality played with total respect for the tradition, and that’s always been enough for me.
Sympathetic accompaniment from John Blake on guitar and piano, and Joey Abarta on bodhran is kept to a tasteful minimum, so that it doesn’t turn into a band album by adding loads of “guests” which sadly to mind, seems to be the norm in many recordings these days.
The choice of tunes is excellent, with quite a few I haven’t come across before, which is always a bonus, and I’m delighted that someone has got round to recording “The Jolly Pigeon[s]”, which is a reel I posted here a while back. John Skelton got it from the same source as I did. If you want a good new reel, still fairly obscure, go learn this one.
If I hear a better CD this year, I’ll be very surprised.
I guess that means I’d better start saving my pennies, and seeing where I can chase up some listens and a copy of this… 😉
It’s available from “CD Baby”, "c’, if that’s any use.