Search - Kevin Crawford :: In Good Company

The heart and soul of Irish music

Peter Kasin | California | 05/05/2001

(5 out of 5 stars)

"Flute Player Kevin Crawford, of the Irish band Lunasa, has released his second recording (outside of Lunasa's CD). Here he pays homage to the flute and fiddle, a pairing which represents for him "the perfect instrumental combination." After listening to this recording, who would argue with him? Here he plays duets with various fiddle players, nine fiddlers in all, one per track, a sort of traditional Irish version of the Frank Sinatra "duets" album! They are: Sean Smyth, James Cullinan, Frankie Gavin, Martin Hayes, Tony Linnane, Tommy Peoples, Manus McGuire, Mick Conneely, and Conor Tully. Some of these players, such as James Cullinan, Sean Smyth, Conor Tully, and Mick Conneely, are rarely heard outside of Ireland, and it's a special treat to hear these players featured on a CD which is readily available internationally. Such a great lineup of melody players deserves great accompaniment, and this they get with Arty McGlynn, Jim Higgins, and Carl Hession on guitar, bodhran, and keyboards, respectively. To my ear, Arty McGlynn is the finest guitar accompanist in Irish music. The exciting track of reels with Crawford, Peoples, and McGlynn is alone worth the price of the CD, for its breathtaking beauty and power. Tommy Peoples also reprises a set of Mazurkas he had recorded once before on a solo LP, an album that has been out of circulation for many years. One of these is his own composition. The musical sympathy between Kevin Crawford and all these fiddlers is very evident. Many individual styles are represented here, and there is much variety of tunes, including the beautiful Scottish tune "Coilsfield House," but there is a flow to this whole recording, both in the tight unison playing, and the tune selection. All in all, Kevin Crawford has offered up a beautiful recording, and a testament to small ensemble traditional Irish music."

Irish Music, Plainly played by true Masters

Eld | 08/27/2001

(4 out of 5 stars)

"Hi, got Kevin Crawford's CD "In Good Company" a few months back and have been meaning to say something about it so here it is. I bought this CD because I liked Crawford's earlier work like the famous version of "Christy Barry Set" and his rendition of "George White's Favourite/Sligo Maid". It turned out to be something quite different from the earlier stuff, and stuff from Lunasa. This CD is Kevin Crawford playing in a straight-ahead manner with many fiddle magnificents like Tommy Peoples, Sean Smyth, Martin Hayes, Manus McGuire and more. No complex arrangements here. Basically, everyone just plays the melody together like in a session, with guitar and bodhran accompaniment. I intially thought that the CD tends to get monotonous soundwise because most tracks are just basic arrangement with fiddle/flute combo. However it got much better with repeated listenings as the deftness of these musicians eventually dawned upon me. This is not a CD for those looking for flashy fireworks or arrangements. Buy it if you like to hear (*extremely*) good musicians play tunes, without too many twists. Or if you're looking for a CD with many fiddle legends on it, this is the one to buy. By the way some of these fiddlers can actually make their fiddle sound like other instruments! Manus McGuire's fiddling on a slow air (Track eight), actually sounds like Uilleann Pipes! Sean Smyth's fiddle also sounds suspiciously like a box accordian sometimes. Special recommendation of this CD for people who are into learning tunes by ear through recreational listening. Thats what I use it for too. The tunes here are not played too fast and most of the time its only the basic melody with variations kept to a minimum so its actually easy to pick up a melody after a few spins."