The second Jimmy McHugh Memorial Concert

The very best of Irish Traditional Music recorded live at the Mitchel Theatre, Glasgow. 

Dirty Linen # 105 April/ May 2003 Review

Various Artists
The 2ND Jimmy McHugh Memorial Concert CD (Glenfinn GF001 CD)

The title may not be prepossessing, and the cover will be unlikely to jump out during the casual flip through the racks of CDs in the store, but this is one of the best Irish releases of 2002.

Not only does it feature a large number of excellent, but unknown musicians paying respects to a beloved member of the Glasgow Irish music scene; it represents the music in a manner that's rare on record. Quite a schism has developed between the performance style of professional lineups, who tend to group tunes into flashy medleys, and the more straightforward session practice of simply sailing from one tune to another, until everyone wants a rest.
On this delightful record, we get a slightly polished version of the session approach, and the results are much homier that the high tech stuff that the younger groups are almost obliged to offer.

The outstanding vocalist, Deirdre Scanlan is probably the most familiar performer, but the level of musicianship is extremely high throughout.
The proceedings are kicked off by The Four Provinces Ceili Band, in which Jimmy McHugh played during his lifetime and which features h is sons, Brendan and Martin. The Four Provinces are not just a dance school ceili band, as they demonstrate on their three tracks here.

The programming mixes things up well, so that groups lead to soloists, and the different instruments follow one another in the spotlight.

And one cannot help noting that for a group that's generally uninterested in political correctness, it's striking how many female and elderly players contribute to Irish sessions, a fact that's represented by the line up here.

Duck Baker. Richmond, V A