Notes Between The Lines - FullSet

This past year has been one of FullSet's busiest to date but quite how the Irish Music Association’s ‘Top Traditional Group’ have found the time to produce a new album of such exceptional quality will astound even their biggest fans.
Raising the bar above heights that already had them firmly established as one of the most accomplished and exciting bands in Irish traditional music, ‘Notes Between the Lines’ is undoubtedly their finest work yet. And all this in the midst of a phenomenally busy twelve months that has seen FullSet in a permanent state of touring across North America and Europe.

The album opens with a powerful set of reels entitled ‘Miss Ramsay’s’ which will have your foot tapping from the moment you hit play. Renowned for their energy and innovation whilst all the time remaining true to their traditional roots, the influence of the band’s travels doesn’t go unheard either on this exceptional record, the third from a band only building on its reputation as one of today’s most exciting and sought after acts at home and abroad.

‘Talons Trip to Thompson Island’, composed by master Shetland fiddle player Kevin Henderson and a tune the band first heard while playing in a mighty session at the Shetland Folk Festival, sits comfortably alongside ‘The First of Winter’, a deeply personal – and stunningly melodic – composition by FullSet’s fiddler extraordinaire Michael Harrison. The tune was Michael’s special gift to the band’s accordion maestro Janine and debuted publicly when the pair said ‘We do’ during what was has been a hectic, life-changing time for
the FullSet gang. The duo have since welcomed a new addition to the
Harrison household and with FullSet songstress Marianne Knight and her husband providing a playmate a month later, babies Milo and Ida are calling a new tune.

‘Notes Between the Lines’ is a great insight into how this is a band bursting with energy, in full control and having such fun, yet well able to bring things down to a tearful pause on ‘The Welcome’ or rip up the tarmac on ‘The Brocca’.

Staying true to the ‘sound’ established on previous recordings, there’s no doubt too that their worldwide adventures and collaborations have shaped the latest instalment in their ‘Notes’ series. The end product is a further demonstration of why few bands are as in demand as FullSet and why they sit comfortably in the pantheon of traditional super groups.