Waiting For A Call

Album review

Tommy Peoples is a fiddler of such stature and mythical greatness that it comes as something of a surprise to find out that he's actually still alive. He is probably the finest living exponent of the Donegal school of Irish fiddling, and his name is spoken reverently by his colleagues; the reel that bears his name is one of the most frequently recorded modern compositions in Celtic music. Waiting for a Call offers an excellent opportunity to hear the evolution of Peoples' playing style over the preceding 20 years. It consists mainly of tracks recorded in 1985 with the fine bouzouki player Alec Finn (a founding member of De Danann), the young piper Sean Potts, and Donal Lunny on bodhran, along with five new tracks recorded in 2002 with the backing of guitarist John Doyle. The program is a pleasing mixture of traditional jigs and reels interspersed with Scottish strathspeys and highlands, which makes for a nice variety of rhythms and flavors. Highlights include the reel set "Miss Ramsay" and "Launching the Boat," and a gorgeous rendition of the highland "Dúlaman na Binne Buí," on which Potts threatens to steal the show with his expert piping. But the album's finest moment comes on Peoples' unaccompanied renditions of "Drunken Landlady" and "Fisherman's Island, two reels on which his melodic inventiveness and subtly virtuosic ornamentation are given free rein. Very highly recommended.

© Rick Anderson /TiVo