Greg Russell & Ciaran Algar
Album: The Queen's Lover
Label: Fellside
Tracks: 15
Website: http://www.russellalgar.co.uk

Here we have a debut CD from a very young duo indeed (Greg being only 19, Ciaran 16), which was only formed last summer! Clearly, Greg and Ciaran had gained the attention of the right promoters, for their 2012 festival and club diary has been encouragingly full. No apology or special pleading is necessary either, for on the evidence of this CD they're clearly both extremely talented young musicians with a lot going for them.

Although it would seem that Greg and Ciaran have cut their musical teeth as a duo in the folk clubs around the Wirral and Chester, you might already have come across Ciaran as a member of the three-piece Tri, who themselves have already been making a big impression on festival crowds over the past couple of years; he's a mightily capable instrumentalist, here principally concentrating on fiddle but also listing guitar-bouzouki and bodhrán.

His playing style might best be described as dextrous; it's unusually responsive for someone of his tender years, and it turns out a pretty ideal match for Greg's own equally dextrous guitar stylings. Inevitably, on occasion, the lads' playing gives a sense of there being still a fair amount being held in reserve, and yet the listener doesn't feel shortchanged in expressive impact. The latter point is also a feature of Greg's singing - confident, heartfelt and emotionally convincing.

Another distinct plus is that Greg displays a mature repertoire choice that strongly recalls the combination of good taste and enterprise I associate with fellow-Fellside artist Bram Taylor (that's meant as a true compliment, by the way). The disc's title track is a composition of Greg's, while the lovely song The Hills Of The West, which Bram himself had brought to our attention when it provided the lead track for his Further Horizons CD (and the lyric its title), turns out to have been written by Ciaran's dad Chris.

Having said all that, I do feel that some of the songs here (e.g. On Raglan Road, Mick Ryan's Love Is Life) have been recorded too soon and that Greg will have more to say interpretively in the years to come; also, he doesn't always entirely seem to be able (yet) to break free from his acknowledged sources. Even so, on the other hand Greg's not afraid to adapt lyrics sometimes, in order to reflect his own experiences for instance - which he does with flair (and permission!) in the case of Bernie Parry's classic portrait of Davy. And there's more than enough intelligence in Greg's fresh reassessment of songs like the American standard New Railroad to indicate the amount of potential still to be tapped.

For purpose of contrast, the disc's well-balanced selection of songs is interspersed with four instrumental tracks: these consist of a particularly fine rendition by Ciaran of the slow air Green Fields Of Canada, and three fairly orthodox tune-sets, which do the job efficiently enough as interludes here but would probably work better in the live gig context. So - what we have here is a nicely lengthy (63-minute) disc that gives a reliable flavour of the appeal of this duo and a good indication both of their talent and their considerable promise.

David Kidman