Blackwater

After much soul searching following the death of flutist Frankie Kennedy in 1994, Altan founding member M¡ir©ad N­ Mhaonaigh finally decided to keep Altan going but without a new flutist. Instead she promoted accordionist Dermot Byrne from part-time session guest to full-fledged member. "Blackwater" begins as if nothing much as changed except the substitution of Byrne's reedy squeezebox for Kennedy's mellow wooden flute. The tunes mostly come from the northwestern County Donegal, a place where Irish and Scottish traditions mix more easily than anywhere else. The twin fiddles soar above the driving rhythms of guitarist Daithi Sproule and bouzouki player Ciaran Curran. Hints of the band's sorrowful loss make themselves felt, however. N­ Mhaonaigh sings both the Gaelic love song, "T¡ M© 'Mo Shui," and the English love song, "Blackwaterside," in a pure soprano filled with a harrowing sense of loss. And the album concludes with the instrumental, "A Tune for Frankie," which features a slow fiddle part that seems to hover between mourning and fond affection. --Geoffrey Himes