Kate and Jode Dowling are mainstays of the St. Paul Celtic music scene and alumni of the locally famous
Doon Ceili Band; Kate is director of the Center for Irish Music there. They have played together as a flute-and-fiddle duo for 12 years, and this is their debut album. It's a beauty. Though both play with masterful skill, they keep the focus firmly on the tunes rather than on their own virtuosity, resulting in a sound that is clean and joyfully energetic, and tempos that are sturdy but never frenetic. Highlights include a swinging and utterly lovely rendition of the "Bluebell Polka," a slide set consisting of "Nelly Mahoney's," "Tadeen the Fiddler," and "Pete Bradley's" on which bouzouki player Paul Wehling and bodhran player
Brian Wade sit in, and a quietly spectacular hornpipe set on which Kate plays whistle and is accompanied only by
Wade, who plays with an uncommon tastefulness and range of tone. Part of what makes this program so satisfying is its nice variety of rhythms: polkas, mazurkas, waltzes. and hornpipes are all scattered among the more common jigs and reels, and many of the tunes are relatively uncommon and singularly pretty. This is an exceptionally fine album.