Customer Reviews

Uncommon Bonds

5 star:		(3)
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This is my favorite of the Moloney/O'Donnell CD's -- it's a bit of everything for everyone. Look closely at the cover and you'll see Mick and Eugene!!! Two wonderful musicians,performers, and good friends who are having great craic!!! The only thing better is to hear them in person.

I'd never heard of these guys when I stopped in to listen to them during First Night activities in Raleigh, NC many years ago, but I enjoyed them so much I bought this CD as I left their performance and have always been so grateful I did. The performances are fabulous and run the gamut of Irish folk song styles, funny, fun, and melancholy, vocal, a cappella and instrumental.

Possibly the worst tragedy in recorded music and the one I always fear when I listen to a recording for the first time occurs when great performances are marred by recording problems. Bad venues, tape hiss, poor dynamics, and so on all take their toll on my listening enjoyment. My concern tends to be greater with older recordings like this (1984). My goal and hope has always been that what reaches my ears will be as close as possible to what the artist intended. I've done everything I can to uphold my end of that process and I'm happy to say these folks have done their part on their end. I can find nothing in this recording about which to complain. This is as good as it gets.

Highly, highly recommended.

I fell in love with "St Brendan's Fair Isle" for it's rolicking great tale that had the whole audience singling the chorus. "Miss Fogerty's Christmas Cake" is great Celtic humor. Their sense of history in their music is wonderful.