Altan has long been one of the most consistently thrilling of the current crop of raditional Irish groups, and it's difficult to pick a single highlight from their catalog. But if pressed, many fans and critics would pick either Harvest Storm or the equally fine Red Crow. Although the program is a fairly typical collection of traditional reel sets, jigs, Gaelic songs, and slow airs, every track feels as if it were chosen for a unique sort of loveliness -- the soaring beauty of the "Rosses Highlands" set, the curiously eerie hush of the traditional wedding song "Dónal Agus Mórag," the chugging energy of "Drowsy Maggie." The singing of fiddler Maighread Ní Mhaonaigh is particularly noteworthy on "Donal Agus Morag" and "'Si Do Mhaimeo Í" (the latter of which offers the unusual opportunity to hear a didgeridoo part on an Irish album). This is one of the last albums the group made with flutist Frankie Kennedy, who died of cancer after making one more album with them, the excellent Island Angel.
This St. Patrick's Day stuff doesn't work for me in any way. For one thing, my family is orange. I never thought this was a big deal growing up - though when we went to the Irish pub at the '64 World's Fair in New York, I couldn't understand why all those other Irish family names were pinpointed on the map of Ireland printed on the paper placemats, but our rather common last name was missing. ...
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 "Harvest Storm")
