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NUALA KENNEDY: THE NEW SHOES
Kenny Mathieson, Scotsman Fri 20 July 2007

FLAUTIST Nuala Kennedy is probably best-known for her part in Fine Friday, but her own recent projects have included a New Voices commission for Celtic Connections in January, and this debut album with her own band. Their energised, crisply played music often features an expressive twin-flute attack from Kennedy and Claire Mann (better known as a fiddler), with powerful rhythmic support from Marc Clement on guitar and pianist Mhairi Hall. 

Although now resident in Strathspey after a spell in Edinburgh, the flautist hails originally from County Louth, and the Irish traditional music with which she grew up remains at the centre of her repertorie, albeit with a contemporary gloss. She sings in both Irish Gaelic and English on the album's four songs, and most of the tunes included in the bright, imaginatively arranged instrumental sets are Irish in origin, or are her own work.