Blackwater
After much soul searching following the death of flutist Frankie Kennedy in  1994, Altan founding member Máiréad Ní Mhaonaigh finally decided to keep Altan going but  without a new flutist. Instead she promoted accordionist Dermot Byrne from part-time  session guest to full-fledged member. "Blackwater" begins as if nothing much as changed  except the substitution of Byrne's reedy squeezebox for Kennedy's mellow wooden flute.  The tunes mostly come from the northwestern County Donegal, a place where Irish and  Scottish traditions mix more easily than anywhere else. The twin fiddles soar above the  driving rhythms of guitarist Daithi Sproule and bouzouki player Ciaran Curran. Hints of  the band's sorrowful loss make themselves felt, however. Ní Mhaonaigh sings both the  Gaelic love song, "Tá Mé 'Mo Shui," and the English love song, "Blackwaterside," in a  pure soprano filled with a harrowing sense of loss. And the album concludes with the  instrumental, "A Tune for Frankie," which features a slow fiddle part that seems to hover  between mourning and fond affection.--Geoffrey Himes