In the early years of this website's existence, before I was married or had children or gardens to worry about, I reviewed CDs at an astonishing rate and, consequently, CDs regularly overflowed my mailbox. Then, life took a turn and, in so many ways, became richer and fuller ... but reviews were written less frequently and, sad to say, a great number of CDs ended up in boxes with the silent vow that I would find time someday to get to them. When I can, I keep that promise....

Somewhere in the early 2000s, I made a solo excursion up to Massachusetts to spend a little time in Boston, Salem and Gloucester. One night in Boston, I found an Irish session to attend and was thrilled to see Kimberley Fraser, one of Cape Breton's finest young fiddlers, among the circle of musicians. So I suppose it was less of a surprise to find Fraser again among the musicians who joined Boston trio Tri on A-measg Chairdean (Among Friends), their debut (and, so far as I can tell, only) album.

The short-lived trio consisted of Matthew Phelps (Scottish smallpipes and Highland pipes), Doug Lamey (fiddle) and Cliff McGann (guitar, whistles and vocals). According to some biographical information I found online, they described themselves as a "Scottish/Cape Breton traditional music trio," or, conversely, "Cape Breton Music with a Boston Attitude."

Lamey and McGann are "direct descendants of the Nova Scotia diaspora" ... Lamey's grandfather played fiddle for Cape Breton dances in Boston in the 1950s and '60s and hosted a Scottish music program on Boston radio, while McGann spent summers with family in Nova Scotia listening to his cousins Kendra and Troy MacGillivray perform. So they have the right heritage, for sure. Phelps, on the other hand, learned his craft from Scottish piper Tom Shearer, among others, and he met Lamey at the Gaelic College of Celtic Arts in Cape Breton when they were kids.

Besides Fraser (on piano, rather than her usual fiddle), the trio is joined by Keith Murphy on vocals, foot percussion and piano, and Eric Kilburn on harmonica. The album is a collection of 10 tracks, mostly instrumental but with a few songs thrown in. Instrumental tracks include two to six tunes, mostly traditional but with a few Scottish and Cape Breton compositions credited to the likes of John MacLean, Brenda Stubbert, Andrea Beaton, Ian Hardie and John Morris Rankin.

Tracks include the Cape Breton coal-mining song "When First I Went to Caledonia" and the Scottish whaling song "'S Truagh Nach Do Dh' fhuirich Mi Tioram Air Tir (What a Pity I Never Stayed on Dry Land)," plus a collection of tunes including "Moladh Maureen Nic Coinnich," "The Charms of Whiskey," "Piobaireachd of Donald Dubh," "Bog An Lochan," "Flora MacDonald," "Hull's Reel," "Nelson Mandela's Welcome to Glasgow," "Donald MacLean's Farewell to Oban" and "Old Copperplate."

I'm not terribly fond of the vocal tracks, which are a bit dry for my taste. But the instrumental tracks, which comprise the majority of the album, are excellent. It's a shame Tri didn't survive to produce more music together, although a brief Google search shows that all three members are still performing in various capacities.