Patrick Street

To call Patrick Street a "supergroup" is a bit of an understatement. The quartet reunites Planxty founders Donal Lunny —the record's producer — Andy Irvine, and Arty McGlynn, as well as the Bothy Band fiddler Kevin Burke, and De Danaan guitar player Jackie Daly. Their eponymous debut is a ten-song juggernaut of original and traditional material that showcases all of the member's talents equally. Burke, a master of the Cape Breton style of fiddling as well as traditional Irish playing, displays his chops on the sprightly "French Canadian Set "Le Cardeuse," and effortlessly works his way through Celtic standards like "Loftus Jones." Irvine, a peerless ballad writer who composed the majority of Planxty's finest songs, is the group's primary vocalist and lends his rich voice to the Midwest lament "The Dream/Indiana," Tommy Sands' "Man With the Cap," and Gerry O'Beirne's "Holy Ground." This is impeccably played music that offers little in the way of daring, but to call Patrick Street the band's weakest album is still a compliment, as it remains leagues above the countless others in its' genre.