I bought this CD at a Celtic festival in Maryland back in the early 1990s. Not yet steeped in Celtic music traditions, I was lured by the convenient package of familiar Irish tunes.

I know better now.

That's not meant as a slam against Carl Peterson, Carolyn Hannan and John Boyce, who perform together here as Wooden Spoon. Their singing and instrumental accompaniment here is best described as "fine" -- not terribly inspired, certainly a bit hackneyed in their selections, but still solid enough in their presentation.

In its original packaging -- before it was later reissued more than a decade later with a postcard cover of an Irish cottage -- this CD featured a generic stock cover photo of a blond-haired, blue-eyed Irish (?) woman smiling. Inside, the liner notes promoted other albums with similar themes: a doe-eyed Latino woman smiling under the words "I Love the Bull Fights," a typical Heineken girl-type looking sultry under "I Love the Music of a German Beer Hall," and a bemused-looking woman of indeterminate nationality beneath "I Love to Dance the Polka."

Obviously, Nesak was more interested in packaging a variety of niche-market discs than promoting any specific culture thoroughly.

The singers are good, though, and the music overall is of the genial sort you're likely to hear -- if not in Ireland itself -- in any number of fine Irish-themed gift shops. Selections, as you might probably guess, include "McNamara's Band," "When Irish Eyes are Smiling," "Molly Malone," "Danny Boy," "The Wild Rover," "The Wild Colonial Boy," "Toora Loora Loora," "The Gypsy Rover" and "The Black Velvet Band."