My latest grab from a seemingly endless pile of older, unreviewed CDs reacquainted me with an old friend: Mary Custy. Custy, a fiddler from County Clare, has been in and out of my music rotation since the 1990s, and I've met her a time or two over the years. I'm happy to find another of her recordings to add to the mix.

Barr Tra, named for a coastal region in Clare, pairs Custy's fiddle, accordion and piano with Quentin Cooper on guitar, five-string banjo and mandolin. (Cooper, according to the liner notes, has also performed with the Ceili Bandits, whom I had the pleasure of seeing once or twice at McGann's Pub in Doolin.)

The CD is a pleasant mix of music, some traditional, mostly Irish, although there's a lot of diversity among the 14 tracks. The liner describes music from Sicily, Galicia, Mexico (via REM), Brittany, China and Russia, plus an original tune written by Cooper in New Zealand. That shouldn't suggest an uneven assortment by any means; it blends together neatly, giving both Custy and Cooper plenty of time in the spotlight and, of course, lots of seamless instrumental duets.

Custy says she and Cooper first played together at a protest against a cement factory proposed on the Itchatuckne River in Florida in 2000, and they enjoyed the experience so much that they decided to make an album together. (Whether they stopped the cement factory isn't revealed.) But the musical pairing they cemented (sorry) there certainly produced a fine album. The music is, for the most part, fairly relaxed and easygoing; this isn't a fast-paced recording, but it certainly serves as a fine showcase for their skills.

Anyone who likes Irish music with a twist will like this. A lot.