I promise you: you will not sit still through this CD. At the very least Finlayson will have you tapping your toes to her jigs, marches and soulful Irish waltzes. Combining the fiddle with keyboard, accordion, guitar, harp, Uillean pipes, all sorts of percussion instruments including the traditional Irish bodhran, she has created a wonderful array of Irish music to lift the spirit and move the feet.
From the first track to the last, there are no duds in this CD and if you like Irish music you will love Finlayson’s work. She has created a playful, sassy expression of the Irish soul. Most of the songs are jigs or marches meant to get the listener out of their seat and dancing. However she incorporates a nice mix of slower tunes as well. She creates a nice balance of jigs fast enough to take your breath away to slower ones to have you gliding across the floor with your lover. As she plays her fiddle, Finlayson has you chasing leprechauns under a rainbow or walking along a lonely lane hand in hand.
Finlayson helps the listener learn about the Irish love of life through the pieces she plays. She takes you from the lighter side of the Irish with happy and dancing music to the soulful depth of their spirit. She soothes with one song and has the listener dancing with fairies in the next one. In one song the listener can almost here a soft declaration of love all with her fiddle and a few other instruments.
With only a few instruments Finlayson transports the listener to the inner secrets of the Irish souls. All nineteen tracks are winners. Well worth the purchase with a joyful and uplifting experience to listen to.
5 broomsticks
~review by Eileen Troemel
Artist: Cady Finlayson
$15.00, approx 63minutes, 2007
