Roots

North Carolina fiddler Andrew Finn Magill makes a convincing bid for wider recognition with Roots, the first in a projected series setting out his musical agenda. Despite being from south-eastern US, Roots squarely anchors Magill within the tradition of Irish music. There's a feisty quality to his playing – as evidenced in the brace of reels that open the album – and poetry, too, in the soulful solo rendition of ‘Róisín Dubh’ and sweetly nimble treatment of legendary Irish baroque harper Turlough O’Carolan's ‘Maurice O’Connor's Third Air’.

Guest appearances by Lúnasa's John Doyle and Cillian Vallely serve to position Magill's direct, poetic and powerful playing style to an idiom that is both traditional and contemporary. As do the eclectic stylings of Pennsylvanian guitarist Seán Earnest and vivid contributions from Tipperary man Vincent Fogarty's ten-string bouzouki, not forgetting the five-string fiddle of Duncan Wickel (from Americana quartet The Rondo Rigs). A two-time finalist at the All-Ireland fiddle competition, Magill currently lives in Brazil, where he leads his own choro quartet and where has previously collaborated with Malawian Afro-vibes guitarist Peter Mawanga. But here on Roots, the dominant accent is that of Counties Clare and Sligo, in fiddle playing that is fresh, vital and fleet.