Album review: John Blake, Lamond Gillespie and Mick Leahy

Published on Friday 5 December 2008 16:24

JOHN BLAKE, LAMOND GILLESPIE AND MICK LEAHY Humours Of Highgate **** ARC 0002, £12.99

Recorded in Limerick and London, on fiddle, flute and piano, with occasional guest accordion, this is the Irish music that generations of exiles played in the pubs and dance halls off the Holloway Road and Kilburn in the Fifties and Sixties – before show business discovered 'celtic' music. Although these tracks were put down recently, they have the authenticity of feel, phrasing, pace, style and an understated dignity that is rare in the Pogues and Riverdance generation. It's a pity there isn't a slow air, though.

Download this: Up Sligo/Shoemaker's Fancy