Oisín Mac Diarmada
Ar an bhFidil
Ceol Records; 51 minutes;
2002
One of the brightest young stars in the
panoply of Ireland traditional music, this is fiddler Oisín Mac Diarmada’s
third album, though the first to bear just his own name. First came, in 2000,
the sparkling Traditional Music on Fiddle, Banjo & Harp, recorded
with banjo player Brian Fitzgerald and harper Micheál Ó Ruanaigh, followed
earlier this year by Oisín’s band Téada’s self-titled debut album, also on Ceol
Records. However, Ar an bhFidil (“On the fiddle”) tops the lot, fully
confirming Mac Diarmada’s position as a wonderfully adept and evocative
musician.
Oisín’s
early years were spent in County Clare where he learnt his first music before
the family moved to South Sligo where he took lessons from the notable fiddle
teacher, Paddy Ryan. Now noted as a music tutor in his own right, and still
only in his early twenties, Oisín’s playing on Ar an bhFidil creates a
relaxed confection of the music of Sligo and Clare, topped with the delicacies
of an astounding technique given full expression by the sheer imagination of
his tune settings. His playing of the slow air Bean a ‘leanna,
associated with the late Connemara singer Joe Heaney, simmers with an
unrequited passion. Jigs and reels are threaded with an innate merriment and,
above all, Oisín has the power to invest very familiar tunes, such as The
Lark in the Morning with new life fashioned by the pure merriment in his
playing. Thoroughly enjoyable throughout, this is unquestionably an album that
merits repeated listening.
This review by Geoff Wallis was originally written for Songlines
magazine – www.songlines.co.uk.
For more information about Ceol Records visit www.ceolrecords.com.
The CD is distributed in the UK by
Copperplate - www.copperplatemailorder.com.