A finalist for the BBC Radio 2 Young Folk Award in 2002, the band comprises Matt Griffin on banjo, guitar, whistles, and keyboards, his younger brother Daniel on percussion, Liam O’Sullivan on button accordion, and Tim Dowd on uilleann pipes, flute, and whistles. Each has one or both parents who emigrated from Ireland, principally Kerry, where the group formed. The two Griffin brothers and Dowd have won at least one All-Ireland title, while O’Sullivan was an All-Britain champion.
Ironically, the most successful tunes on their debut album, “Firefly” (www.misemusic.com), are those resisting any youthful tendency toward speed or swagger. There’s a beautifully measured grace in the pace maintained by O’Sullivan’s box and Matt Griffin’s guitar in the traditional “Carraroe Jig” and by Dowd’s low whistle and O’Sullivan’s box in the traditional “Ingohish Jig.”
Matt Griffin’s four-string banjo playing in “The Wee Duck” is strong without being frenetic, and he also displays a soulful delicacy on guitar in “The Wibblies.”
Even the brisk uilleann piping solo by Dowd in the traditional “Humours of Ballyloughlin” never loses its grip on the melody or elides any of the notes. The tune paired with it, “Tom King’s Jig,” written by Matt Griffin, is a good complement, allowing the band to balance their bustling energy with a sure sense of control.
The Continental flavor of “The Busker’s Waltz,” another Matt Griffin tune, shines through O’Sullivan’s accordion playing and Dowd’s piping, with a nice touch of counterpoint from guest Emma Sweeney on fiddle. This flair for exotica continues in O’Sullivan’s fun-filled box playing of the Latin American tune “Tico Tico,” where his approach seems inspired by a version on Donegal accordionist Dermot Byrne’s solo album in 1995.
The album stumbles, however, in a medley comprising two classical pieces, Gabriel Faur