by Catherine L. Tully

Artist: Round The House
Album: "Safe Home"
Year produced: 2007

Traditional Irish music here, yes, and a lot of it too! Round The House has been doing this for almost ten years, and this solidly done, long 15-track CD gives a lot of variety as well as great musicianship and energy. You'll hear vocal music, (although not all of it in English, which is a nice touch), instrumentals and even a contra dance set--for they are also a contra dance band!

This grouping of songs has a real mixture--you'll hear reels, a march and of course a jig--mixed with vocal tracks and some really well done instrumental work. The drum thump totally resonates and adds a "heartbeat" to the music often; it's lovely when this is highlighted like it is here in several songs. Always a shame to relegate it to the background as a mere force for keeping time--it's more than that.

The band does a stellar job at focusing on instruments and showing them off, sounds rising, then falling as another takes the center stage. It makes the mix of tracks quite eclectic in terms of feel. The band doesn't really pin itself down to one sound per se musically, preferring instead to let each track highlight various musicians or vocals. Lovely.

Particularly enjoyable were track 2, "Rory Og McRory," and the contra dance set which really lit things up, swirling and whirling its way through the set like their very lives depended on it.

---

Catherine L. Tully is a freelance writer and photographer who specializes in the arts. She has written for American Style and Classical Singer, among others and reviews music for Marc Gunn's Celtic MP3s Music Magazine. You can reach her through her photography website at www.moonbeamdigital.com.

Labels: cd_review_2007

Posted by Marc Gunn, Thursday, April 12, 2007.
New to Celtic MP3s Music Magazine? Subscribe to this blog's feed. Or sign up to get email updates. Find free Celtic music downloads from Marc Gunn!