Runaway Sunday [Import]

Altan | Format: Audio CD

Product Details

• Audio CD (December 27, 2011)
• Original Release Date: October 21, 1997
• Number of Discs: 1
• Format: Import
• Label: NARADA PRODUCTIONS
• ASIN: B000000WEL
• Also Available in: Audio Cassette  |  MP3 Download
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #171,901 in Music (See Top 100 in Music)

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com

The Chieftains may be the best-known folk band from Ireland, but Altan are the best. This is meant as no disrespect to the Chieftains, who dominated the genre in times past and continue to make good music today, but Altan have achieved a musical peak that's impossible to ignore. Because most of their vocals are in Gaelic rather than English and because their instrumental dance tunes stick close to their folk origins, Altan may be less accessible than the Chieftains, but the sheer beauty of the music will reward the patient listener. Two Nashville figures--singer Alison Krauss and dobroist Jerry Douglas--as well as Chieftains flutist Matt Molloy help out on Altan's new album, Runaway Sunday, but the recording is dominated by Altan's co-founder and undisputed leader, Mairead Ni Mhaonaigh, a virtuoso of the legendary fiddle tradition of her native County Donegal. With her quick bow, she is able to articulate each individual note, no matter how quickly it passes by, and to string them together into lines that seem to sing. And when she sings herself, her soprano has the same resonant tone and sure phrasing as her violin. Her five bandmates (who play accordion, bouzouki, second fiddle and two acoustic guitars) follow her so closely that the group seems to move and breathe as one.

Instrumentals, organized into six medleys and a stand-alone piece, dominate, but it's the quality of the songs that make this the most impressive Altan album yet. Ni Mhaonaigh has found a kindred spirit in Krauss, and only a slight Irish accent separates the two singers on an exquisite version of Robert Burns's "I Wish My Love Was a Red Red Rose." Ni Mhaonaigh herself wrote "A Moment in Time" as a tribute to the older Irish musicians who passed the tradition on to her generation, and the lyrics' visual details, the slow, surprising melody, and the breathy vocal all convey an unmistakable affection. The album climaxes with "Time Has Passed," Ni Mhaonaigh's heart-breaking elegy for her late husband and former co-bandleader, Frankie Kennedy. --Geoffrey Himes

Product Description

Runaway Sunday by Altan

This product is manufactured on demand using CD-R recordable media. Amazon.com's standard return policy will apply.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

3 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Wish I could say differently, February 10, 2000

By 

Kevin L. Nenstiel "omnivore" (Kearney, Nebraska) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (TOP 500 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Runaway Sunday (Audio CD)

I know I'll be roasted on a spit by my fellow fans for saying this, but since Frankie Kennedy passed away, some of the texture and quality of Altan has faded. This may be partly because they signed with a major label, and partly because Frankie had a tempering influence on his wife, whose name I won't spell for fear of offending through error, and whose inestimable fiddling skill disproportionately dominates this album. I still buy and listen to their albums, and I'm not unhappy with them; I just think they were better when they were with an indie label and there were two stars in the family.

5 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Wish I could say differently, February 10, 2000

By 

Kevin L. Nenstiel "omnivore" (Kearney, Nebraska) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (TOP 500 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Runaway Sunday (Audio CD)

I know I'll be roasted on a spit by my fellow fans for saying this, but since Frankie Kennedy passed away, some of the texture and quality of Altan has faded. This may be partly because they signed with a major label, and partly because Frankie had a tempering influence on his wife, whose name I won't spell for fear of offending through error, and whose inestimable fiddling skill disproportionately dominates this album. I still buy and listen to their albums, and I'm not unhappy with them; I just think they were better when they were with an indie label and there were two stars in the family.

5.0 out of 5 stars An absolute must for Irish music buffs., January 14, 1999

By 

[e-mail] (Noordwijk, Holland) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Runaway Sunday (Audio CD)

If you get the opportunity to see this band, as I did, do not miss it. You will witness traditional Irish music at it's very best. The sheer professionalism of the musicianship and crystal clear voice of Mairead Ni Mhaonaigh are a joy to the ear. No finer exponent of the art, in my opinion. Having said that, this 1997 release is bang in line with the quality of previous offerings. Just buy it!