Come West Along the Road features Brian O'Connor with some fantastic Irish flute playing. He keeps the rhythm lively and quick. Moving from whistles to flute to low whistles, the CD keeps your toes tapping.

This shows a vibrant side of O'Connor that, accompanied by Christy Jones on guitar, makes the air sing. I really think they've got a good thing going here. And there are some accents from Michael Witzel on drums, Johannes Eichenauer on keyboard and Frieder Gottwald on bass. Roman Knocker does guitar on one of the tracks.

With a feverish tempo for some tracks, O'Connor rolls around between traditional tunes with out any hesitation. He puts a fresh sound to many of them.

This is his only solo album but O'Connor also plays with Geraldine McGowan, was a member of the band Oisin and was a guest musician on two Midnight Court albums.

I couldn't find anything wrong or missing here. It's a wide arrangement of tunes, a flowing creation from start to finish and not a boring moment or off-putting note. Some of the tunes included were "The Golden Eagle," "The Iron Man," "Did You Wash Your Father's Shirt," "The Derry Hornpipe" -- and I was really taken with the funky, deep beat of "The Blackbird." You can't go wrong with this one.

- Rambles
written by Virginia MacIsaac
published 22 February 2003