I favorably reviewed Cady Finlayson's 2002 CD Shines Like Silver as well as her 2007 release Irish Coffee ... and both, I might add, were reviewed in a timely fashion! However, a lot of CDs fell through the cracks over the years -- we get far more than we can reasonably listen to, and sometimes the discs end up in a box somewhere that doesn't get reopened for far too long.

This is one of those cases, but I'm going to review Cady's 2004 CD anyway; having moved recently, I am rediscovering a lot of "lost" music from years gone by, and my natural curiosity is driving me to give some of these discs a spin.

Harp & Shamrock is as good a recording as I'm accustomed to receiving from this talented Seattle native. She plays a fine, energetic fiddle with great skill, and she has a deft ear for arrangements. She also relies on a fine crop of talented musicians to back her: Elkin Brown on guitar, David DiGuiseppe on accordion, Rex McGee on Banjo, John Mock on tin whistle, mandolin, concertina and bodhran, Shane Theriot on electric guitar and bass, Jim Roberts on percussion and Cynthia Wyatt on harp.

I'm still not sure why Cady gets so much love in new age circles; she's definitely not a new age musician, she's purely traditional, if on the mellower side of the genre. This is an enjoyable album featuring 15 solid tracks.