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Tony McManus : Ceol More

© 2002 Compass Records

Ceol More resoundingly confirms McManus’s standing as one of today’s most gifted and groundbreaking instrumental artists. Establishing such a reputation is certainly an honour, yet poses itself as a challenge to live up to. With his latest recording, McManus executes this challenge with a humble grace and indisputable passion.

Featuring artfully sparse, subtle accompaniment from Capercaillie’s Ewen Vernal (bass) and Salsa Celtica’s Guy Nicolson (tablas), its eleven tracks continue to extend McManus's musical explorations both within and beyond the Scottish tradition.

The title is a pun on the Gaelic phrase ceol mhor, or 'big music', referring to the noble piobaireachd tradition of the Highland bagpipes, a form rendered here with hauntingly stark grandeur in 'Lament for the Viscount of Dundee'. Other tracks range from Burns’ 'Ye Banks and Braes' to Charles Mingus’ 'Goodbye Pork Pie Hat', with Breton and French-Canadian material again featuring prominently alongside Scottish and Irish tunes.

Having opened with a tenderly lyrical sean nos song air, 'Sliabh Gheal gCua na Feile', the album closes in exquisitely contrasting – though equally spine-tingling - fashion with a 17th-century Jewish hymn-tune from eastern Europe, 'Shalom Aleichem', a greeting to the angels traditionally sung before the Sabbath.

List Price: $18.99