Crossharbour
Album: Crossharbour
Label: Higlet
Tracks: 11
Website: http://www.crossharbourmusic.com

Crossharbour, named after a London overground station and emerging out of the London Irish music scene, pull together a quintet of musicians that may have already crossed your path with other groups and guises.

Rosie Hodgson was a finalist in the 2013 BBC Radio 2 Young Folk Award, the same year as she appeared on a Fatea Showcase Session as a solo artist. Tad Sergent, I've heard perform with young fiddler Matt Tighe as well as Ranagri. Whilst I've also been able to catch Philippe Barnes in All Jigged Out, the remainder of the group, Orlaith McAuliffe and Sam Proctor are known to me only by reputation, which in Orlaith's case is as multiple All Ireland Champion in flute and whistle.

So it would be fair to say that CrossHarbour is a band with impeccable parts and pedigree, but, I hear you ask, how do they sum up those parts, are they greater than the whole or do they bring together the components and turn them into a fully fledged group, well, I'm happy to report it's the latter.

CrossHarbour, both group and album have a natural flow. As with the membership of the band there is both the new and familiar, in both song and tune set. A combination of both come from within the tradition and within the band, so whilst "Voldemort's" may not be familiar to you yet, "Blackwaterside" almost certainly will be, though not in this arrangement.

"CrossHarbour" gets the mix of tunes and songs about right and whilst I'm sure that fans of narrative and instrumentals may argue the minutia they will know in their heart of hearts that a good balance has been struck and it means that the album captures a broad appeal, whilst at the same time allowing all the band time in the spotlight, whilst not detracting from the fact that this is very much a band album.

I've yet to catch CrossHarbour live but there should be an opportunity during festival season or when they support Breabach at Bush Hall, either way, I'm sure they'll live up to their promise and if I can't get to see them, I've got a cracking debut album to fall back on.

Neil King