Lost in the Loop
Chicago-born Liz Carroll is a former all-Ireland fiddle champion with a repertoire that encompasses various regional Irish styles as well as her original creations.Lost in the Loopwas produced by fellow Irish-AmericanSeamus Eganof the bandSolas; he plays percussion and penny whistle and takes a guitar solo on "Lament of the First Generation." Most of the guitar parts are played by Solas's John Doyle, and Solas fiddler Winifred Horan trades fiddle lines with Carroll on a couple of tracks. Carroll often combines her own compositions with traditional jigs and reels, as on the hard-driving medley of the traditional "The Old Maid of Galway" and the original "Lizzy in the Lowground." Chief O'Neill, the 19th-century Chicago police captain who collected and preserved the music of his native Ireland, must be smiling from somewhere beyond the Loop.--Rick Mitchell