JAMES KEANE
Sweeter As The Years Roll By (Shanachie)
Reviewed by Shaun Dale

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Friends don't, it's sometimes said, let friends play the accordion. Those who say such a thing obviously don't know James Keane. I suppose if he devoted his talents to developing the definitive rendition of "Lady Of Spain" or the "Beer Barrel Polka" I might feel differently, but Keane is a master of one of the most challenging musical realms, Irish traditional music, and his button accordion provides a delightful voice for the music on this collection of jigs, reels and airs.

He's helped along by an assortment of some of the finest young players in Ireland today, and a few not so young, including his brother Sean, a fiddler best known as a member of the seminal Irish trad band, the Chieftans. There are a dozen players altogether, though the largest ensemble on a single track is a septet. Keane mixes and matches his players according to the song, and manages to find what seems to be the perfect unit for each piece.

There are some who think that all this music sounds the same. Maybe they're right. It all sounds superb.

Track List:

Mrs. Crotty's/The Commodore/The Ballymahon Reel * Trip To Athlone/The Chapel Bell * The Bow-Legged Tailor * The Land Of Sunshine/ The Capel House/Hughie Travers' * Sweeter As The Years Roll By * Micho Russell's/The Little Pig Lamenting The Empty Trough/Paddy Taylor's * Lough Mountain/Kevin Crawford's/Murphy's * Paddy Fahy's Jigs * Master Crowley's * Mick Quinn's/Only For Barney/The Mist Covered Mountain * The New Customs House/The Derrycrag Reel/The Banks Of The Ilen * John Egan's/The Wheels Of The World/The Gallowglass * Miss Lyon's Fancy/The Road To Lisdoonvarna/Sandymount * Paddy's Rambles Through The Park

© 2000 - Shaun Dale