by Joe Wallace

Artist: Cluan
Album: The High Road
Year produced: 2004

Cluan mix up reels, jigs and songs to good effect on The High Road. The Texas sextet's fifty-minute studio album lives up to its name with plenty of high quality sounds from Ireland and beyond. Singer Erin Bobruk adds just the right touch of emotion on the opening jilted-lover song The Blacksmith. More impressively, Bobruk handles the tongue-twisting Bímse Féin ag lascaireacht with considerable skill and grace.

Cluan stick with what some call the all-natural sound; they don't try to spruce up the mix with electrified sounds, heavy echo or other studio tricks. The acoustic guitar, bouzouki, and two fiddles are expertly recorded; The High Road has a spontaneous quality difficult to capture on a studio album.

It's obvious the band put much thought into the flow of this release as a long-play experience. With plenty of variety from track to track, the music ebbs and flows from the mellow Green Grows The Laurel to the spirited jigs of The Butlers of Glen Avenue. The finale, Aly's Waltz, rounds out the album well, its easygoing tempo a nice contrast to the energetic Skidoo, Johnny Allen's, and Farewell To Whisky.

For a group only in existence for a few years, the group already has an impressive selection of quality work. Cluan have three releases under their belts now, the six-song The Buck Stops Here, and the longer-playing Night Out. After getting a taste of The High Road, the other two titles are very tempting. Sadly, The Buck Stops Here is unavailable, but Night Out is still in print, featuring the same skilled guitar and good fiddle playing that's found on The High Road.

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Celtic MP3 Music Magazine writer Joe Wallace reviews music for many publications and writes both nonfiction as well as short stories. His nonfiction work includes articles for Korean Quarterly, Indie-Music.com, the Alternative Culture Guide, and Factsheet Five. Contact him through his website at www.freelance-zone.com.

Labels: cd_review_2005

Posted by Marc Gunn, Tuesday, July 26, 2005.
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