Several years ago, I received a copy of Dervish's Playing with Fire to review for a small print (OK, photocopied) folk 'zine. I hadn't yet heard much of the band, a sad fact I can only excuse because Dervish had just launched their first U.S. tour and had only recently found a distributor in the States for their albums. I liked the album so much I feared wearing the disc through ... but repeated playings sparked a memory, and a search through my Irish music collection. Sure enough, I'd picked up a copy of the band's previous album, Harmony Hill, at the Midwinter Celtic Music Festival in King-of-Prussia, Pennsylvania, a few months before and, for whatever reason, hadn't played it yet.

I corrected that oversight fairly quickly.

Thank the fates which sent me back to find it again! Harmony Hill is a killer recording, an album any Irish band would be proud to call its own. The fact that Dervish has only gotten better in the years since is a testament to their dedication to their music ... but had they never progressed beyond the level achieved in Harmony Hill, they could have retired without shame.

From the first notes of "Apples in Winter" to the end of "Slides and Reels," this is an album which dazzles the senses. The musical excellence demonstrated in Dervish's first, all-instrumental album The Boys of Sligo is even better than before. On top of that, the band here unveils for the first time the lovely, honey-dipped voice of Cathy Jordan. Wow. Was there ever any doubt this band would go places?

Besides Jordan (vocals, bodhran, bones), the band is Liam Kelly (flute, whistle, vocals), Shane Mitchell (accordion), Shane McAleer (fiddle, viola), Brian McDonagh (mandola, mandolin) and Michael Holmes (bouzouki, guitar).

Our first taste of Jordan's sterling vocal style comes in track 2, "The Hills of Greenmore," a lush tale of hunting told at times from the perspective of the quarry hare. The lilting "Ballaghy Fair" gives us a clearer sample; the short a capella piece proves just how good her voice stands on its own. Then she launches straight into the jaunty "The Ploughman" and the wistful, homesick "Welcome Poor Paddy Home." Her version of "The Fair Maid," about a woman who disguises herself as a man to be a sailor, is the best version of the often-recorded song I've yet heard, both vocally and instrumentally. "A Stor Mo Chroi" is the final song, slow and mournful, marking someone's leaving of Ireland for the opportunities waiting elsewhere.

Mix the songs with some of the best instrumental sets ever burned onto a disc, and you've got an album worth playing time and time again. And remember ... the band only gets better from here. The only failing here is in the liner notes, which are frustratingly unspecific about several tune sets. Sure, they tell us that "The Virginia Set" includes "Paddy O'Brien's," "The Sandmont Reel" and "The Virginia Reel," but most of the sets leave you guessing. What tunes comprise "The Green Fields of Miltown"? All we know is it's a "set of reels." Same goes for "The Green Mountain" set. And "Jig C Jig" is a "set of jigs." Aaargh!

Ah well, it's a small price to pay for music this good. Dervish continues to rest comfortably at the top of the Celtic music heap. Those who aren't familiar with the band should lend an ear to their early days -- I'll wager you'll soon own every disc they've ever made.