Signature is the 12th recording from Iona, a 32-year-old Celtic band from the Mid-Atlantic region. And it's a good blend of the band's varied Celtic influences, with songs and tunes from many Celtic traditions.

The first track opens the album with a Breton dance and a puirt-a-beul song from the Outer Hebrides. The second is a selection of tunes penned by the band's resident fiddler. The third demonstrates the band's broad reach by combining an Irish slip jig with a Cajun reel and a Victorian parlor song. The fourth joins an Asturian dance tune with a Breton lament. The fifth combines an Irish ballad with a Scottish reel and an original tune about a band member's dog.

And so on. There are five more tracks, each adding considerable variety to the mix.

Iona is Barbara Tresidder Ryan on lead vocals, bouzouki and bodhran, husband Bernard Argent on wooden flute, whistles, vocals, bombarde, doumbek and cabasa, Chuch Lawhorn on bass guitars and vocals, and Jim Queen on fiddle, banjo and vocals. Kathleen Larrick (vocals, cabasa and doumbek) guests on two tracks, and Bran (Barbara and Bernard's dog) provides a bit of artful barking on one track named in his honor.

Instrumentally, the musicians mesh together like a seasoned session band, supporting one another and passing around the spotlight without letting anyone steal the show for long.

I love albums like this, which really spotlight the musicians' love of their musical traditions. Iona has been doing it for more than three decades, and the band shows no signs of stopping.

Good.

[ visit the artist's website ]