BUTTONS & BOWS
The Return of Spring
Philippe Cousin
Although formed in 1983, Buttons & Bows are not very prolific in terms of albums, since The Return of Spring is only their fourth in their forty-year career. It must be said that they waited almost twenty-five years between the previous album and this latest one.
The band takes its name from a song written in 1947 by Jay Livingstone and Ray Evans for the American film The Paleface. They reworked and modified the original version into a jig.
Buttons & Bows is a quartet from the West of Ireland, made up of brothers Séamus and Manus McGuire on fiddle and viola, Jackie Daly, long-time accordionist with the bands Dé Dannan and Patrick Street, and Garry O'Briain on guitar and piano (Boys of the Lough).
This album is a skilful blend of traditional tunes and contemporary compositions, delving into the rich heritage of Irish music, while keeping a fresh and lively sound. The music is unadorned and remarkably well played by musicians who have nothing left to prove about their talent.
The approach of the four members of the band is to tastefully arrange traditional tunes and to emphasise their beauty with very fast tempos and relentless virtuosity.
Over the course of the fourteen tracks, we move from charming waltzes, Oyster Island or Sweet Aibhilín to jigs from Sliabh Luachra (southwest), Bill the Weaver set. We rediscover reels by Michael Coleman (1924) The Prohibition Reel and The Contradiction Reel, as well as two other reels by Paddy Killoran (1937) The Gatehouse Maid set. An Fuiseógín Dearg is reminiscent of the song Do You Love An Apple? recorded by Bothy Band on their first album in 1975.
Apart from the traditional ones, the four musicians have put their hands to the task of composing several songs.
In short, we have here a collection of gems, old and new, a real musical treasure.
Autoproduit BABMCD2015 -http://www.buttonsandbowsmusic.ie/