Altan and Liz Carroll Concert in Chicago

Liz never fails to inspire with her gentle and ferocious mastery of the instrument and the idiom. Her tunes and compositions have entered the traditional repertoire, and some number of them, without a doubt, will be played by those fiddlers living in distant centuries! Mairead's precise, sharp articulation, in the northern tradition, has become a major influence in my own playing, an ideal to strive for! Her singing voice is unequalled in clarity, tone and beauty, equally capable of eliciting tears of joy or of sorrow.

I was also very pleased that Liz had invited John Williams sit in for a few tunes with her and John Doyle. John swims in his music, breathing it, leaving sparkling eddies of tune in his wake. His intuitive command of his instrument, whether accordion, concertina or flute, blends with his mastery of music theory and structure so that even a five minute walk-on is guaranteed to be a unique encounter with the Muse.

Altan's Dermot Byrne stopped every breath in the house with his concertina solo, a slow air which smelled of the peat smoke and the longing of the ancients for one more glimpse of the green groves.

The concert was intimate, the soloists exquisite, and the good comradery evident throughout the night, as well-traveled musicians whom have known each other and played together many times over the years will display.

I was pleased to have a moment to greet Mairead, who signed a CD for me!