Having previously reviewed Nathan Gourley and Laura Feddersen's first album as a duo and, more recently, their outing as the quartet Ship in the Clouds (with Natasha Sheehy on button accordion and Anna Colliton on bodhran), I decided to give a spin to the duo's sophomore release, Brightly or Darkly.

It's more of the same -- and that's not at all a bad thing.

The album features Feddersen on fiddle and Gourley on fiddle, guitar and bouzouki. Combined, they perform 37 tunes over the course of 16 tracks, and that's a lot of traditional music packed into one neat package.

The liner notes provide each tune's origins, including where the duo learned it and what key they're playing it in.

Gourley, a native of Wisconsin, and Feddersen, originally from Indiana, met in New York and migrated to Massachusetts, where they have maintained their musical partnership for several years now. They're good at what they do, and I hope they keep doing it, because the genre can always use more music that ignores all the frills and variations and sticks to its traditional roots with solid, quality musicianship.

By the way, you should get this album.