The Outside Track
Album: Light Up The Dark
Label: Lorimer
Tracks: 12
Website: http://www.theoutsidetrack.com/

'Light Up The Dark' is the fourth studio album from a band who've won the acclaim of folk and roots associations worldwide and who espouse a blend of Celtic music, song and dance which is truly international. Made up from musicians from Scotland, Ireland and Cape Breton, they offer up a combination of influences and traditions. And true to the make up of the band, it's also a right eclectic collection of material from all four corners of the world which comes together painted with a lively Celtic brush.

Recorded at various studios from Canada to Scotland to England and Ireland, the album contains material sourced from each of the band members homelands. Traditional for sure yet the band have made a point of embellishing that sense of the traditional by picking material penned by contemporary songwriters and tunesmiths such as Lennie Gallant and Damian O'Kane. The notion that they felt it would suit the band's identity in combining the old with the new may not be rocket science but works really well.

From the off, the music passes the Simon Cowell test in that after about ten (maybe fifteen) seconds, it's made enough of an impression that you know this is going to be an album which you'll stick with. The crucial hook of the first track which typically combines tunes from Cape Breton, Ireland and Scotland grabs the attention immediately and is typical of the way the band excel themselves on the tune sets - the opening 'Drilling', the dynamic changes in pace of 'Hurry Up And Wait!' and the feelgood exhilaration factor of the aptly titled 'Glorious Eh?'

On the other side of the coin, this is the first album which features new singer Teresa Horgan from County Cork who shows her transfer value immediately with the East coast Canadian classic 'Peter's Dream' bemoaning the demise of the fishing industry with an uplifting tune. On 'Get Me Through December', she shows a more sensitive side with a song that develops into a Gallic feel and wouldn't be far removed from something you'd hear emerging from a café bar on the banks of the Seine ans then she goes all Cara Dillon on the brisk 'Set You Free'.

Overall though, it's the sum of the parts - the blend of fiddle, accordion, harp, guitar and especially flute and whistle - which adds to the drive and energy of the album and is a perfect model of how five people can bring their individualism to a team and reach these heights. Twelve tracks and what's the surprise is that after a listen through you realise that almost an hour has passed.

While it's not up there as a Celtic tour de force - it's more subtle than that - 'Light Up The Dark' is a light and energetic album which is going to do exactly what it says on the tin.

Mike Ainscoe