The First Ten Years: 1986-1995

Presenting excerpts from the group's tenure on the Green Linnet label, which is decisively its most productive period, Altan's first ten years are expertly captured here. Notably short on Maighread N?Mhaonaigh and Frankie Kennedy's earliest pre-Altan recordings, the disc starts and ends with the band's most fruitful albums, bridging 1987's Altan and 1993's Island Angel. As always, the tracks selected feature inspired playing and singing, with the emotional scope and inherent beauty of the music never failing to impress. And while it's hard to recommend this set emphatically over 1997's The Best of Altan retrospective (which strangely features virtually none of the same songs although it draws from the same period), the tracks selected here do well to cover the breadth of their exceptional career as arguably Ireland's greatest expositors of traditional song. Overall, an excellent introduction and an essential purchase for Celtic music fans. ~ Matt Fink