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One thing I can say is that I have heard neo-Irish and Celtic groups who, in my opinion, completely ruin the music. They add all these strange electronic effects, and mix the ancient music with a few too many electric guitars and such. Cherish the Ladies is not a group in that category. They understand traditional music, and how to use modern instruments to enhance it rather than destroying it.

First, the alternating enervating dance numbers with tender ballads gives the album a great balance. The fact that one of the ballads, "The Waves of Kilkee", is strictly and beautifully instrumental just adds the variety of this CD.

And then, there are a couple of welcome surprises here. One is a touching rendition of Dan Fogelberg's "The Leader Of The Band", dedicated to their fathers. Fogelberg's song is enhanced by the weaving of a traditional reel, "Devaney's Goat", with the main melody.

The set of dances that follows is a Father's Day Medley that starts with a hornpiipe played by banjo and accordian, the same combination of instruments playing the following reel. Third part of the medley, "Drag Her 'round the Road", features Paddy Rafferty's authentic traditional lilting. The medley ends with "Bag of Spuds, featuring some step dancing.

This medley is followed by another welcome surprise,the song "John of Dreams", borrowed first from a Southern Italian lullaby and then used as a principal theme in Tchaikovsky's Symphony No. 6.

These, cuts 6,7,8,& 9, form the heart of the album, but the energizing jigs and reels and the exquisite ballads as sung by Aoife Clancy that surround this "heart" set off the whole collection perfectly.