Ed Reavy is justly renowned as a composer. As Mick Moloney notes in the extremely thorough liner notes, "since Turlough O'Carolan in the 17th century, no other composer in Irish music has had his music adopted so widely by others. His tunes have appeared on hundreds of recordings -- often not even credited to the composer -- and they have become an integral part of the living musical tradition.

Unlike many tribute albums, Reavy was still around to record several of the album's 23 tracks. Also performing Reavy tunes are fiddlers Liz Carroll, Maeve Donnelly, Martin Mulvihill, Tony de Marco, Armin Barnett, Brendan Mulvihill, Maureen Fitzpatrick, Eugene E. O'Donnell, Paddy Cronin and Louis Quinn, as well as assorted other instrumentalists.

These low-tech field recordings were made in the 1970s in the musicians' homes, so don't look for glossy production values. In fact, if you're looking for sit-back-and-listen fiddle tunes, there are far better albums on the market. This is for preservation's sake; the performances are not all top-notch. Some are good, some are scratchy and some, frankly, hurt my ears. On the other hand, the liner notes provide an excellent description of the music and the times in which these tunes were written, including an in-depth question-and-answer session with Reavy during which he explained the genesis of the titles, an analysis of his compositional style and even a few brief charts as examples.

This is an excellent music resource and a valuable archive. Unfortunately, it's not a great listening experience.

[ by Tom Knapp ]
Rambles: 21 September 2002