The latest Copley Street offering, featuring former L.A. player Joey Abarta plus Nathan Gourley and Owen Marshall, is a fitting sequel to the first album, which is now 8 years old. Since moving to the Boston area many years ago, Joey has become a fixture in the New England Irish traditional music scene. Likewise, Nathan and Owen are well known musicians in the Irish tradition, both on the U.S. East Coast as well as on the West Coast and in Ireland.

All three of these musicians are masters of their respective instruments: Abarta’s piping is wonderful, as always, as is the fiddle of Nathan Gourley and the Bouzouki and Guitar backup of Marshall. It’s readily apparent from the recording that all three of these lads have played with one another for quite a while now as they blend their instruments seamlessly throughout the recording, which makes for a sweet sound.

This is a no-nonsense album of jigs, reels, slides, marches, O’Carolan pieces, and airs, each played with much reverence to the tradition. Many of the tunes, such as the “Grand Spy” “Gallagher’s,” “Three Litte Drummers” (which is apparently an American version of “Ten Penny Bit” recorded by Tom Ennis)  “Patsy Geary’s” “The Road to Lisdoonvarna” and “A Tailor I Am,” are favorite session favorites with some unusual versions.

Several of the tunes hail from the Slieve Luachra area and from the master Kerry fiddler Pádraig O’Keefe, whose famous students included Denis Murphy and Julia Clifford. For example, “The Gleanntán Frolics,” “The Ceanngulla.” and “The Hare in the Corn” were a set of slides played by Pádraig O’Keefe. Joey’s pipes are great in this set. Additionally, Callaghan’s was taken from a recording of O’Keefe with Murphy and Clifford.

So too is the repertoire that Gourley picked up from Paddy O’Brien from Offaly while he played with the Doon Ceili Band, including one of my favorite reels “Sailing Into Walpole’s Marsh” “The Primrose Road” and “The Siege of Guingap.” Likewise, we have tunes associated with the playing of fiddler John Kelly such as the eponymous “John Kelly” and “The Humours of Carrigaholt.”

The album includes three stately O’Carolan pieces. “Loftus Jones” is a beautiful tune I remember playing quite a bit with Cáit Reed, Derry flute player Paddy O’Neill, and Dublin flute player Frank Simpson back in my days in Los Angeles. So too with “O’Carolan’s Draught” and “Planxty Davis.” All three are done beautifully.

The marches are Scottish and Irish – one by 18th century Scottish composer and fiddler Neil Gow (“Bonnie Prince Charlie”) and the other recorded by Irish pipers James and Séamus Ennis (Return to Fingal”). The Neil Gow piece, in particular, is a lovely and heart wrenching piece, evoking all of the anguish of the lost Jacobite cause.

The album comes with extensive liner notes for all of the tunes, which is wonderful in this day and age of spare information on CDs. Not sure you can get that on the digital downloads.

I will be listening to this album over and over again – and may be picking up a tune or two for myself. Maith thú, lads!

Websites: Joey Abarta Nathan Gourley Owen Marshall

Purchase the CD or Download on Bandcamp