Seanachie is back with another self-released album which easily lives up to the standard set by its predecessor, Telling Tales.

The band from Calgary, in Alberta, Canada, is largely the same as it was for the 1996 release, losing only bassist Bernard Graham and gaining Diane Kooch as his replacement. The others -- Gordon McCulloch (vocals, acoustic guitar), Annie Gray (Highland bagpipes, Scottish smallpipes, low whistle, mandolin, mandola), Robin Tufts (various percussion) and Jackie Bell (vocals, violin, piano) -- all stuck around, and I'm glad they did. James Keelaghan appears in some tracks as a guest guitarist.

The album begins with a tight set of three modern hornpipes featuring Gray on Highland pipes. Next, McCulloch sings "The Kingdom to Canmore," a touching song he wrote about a Scottish miner who has settled in Alberta. Then Bell steps up to take the lead for the carefree "Mingulay Boat Song," a traditional fisherman's song which she sings with extra light-hearted flair. The rest of the band joins in for the chorus, to nice effect -- this is an excellent version of the oft-recorded song.

In "Faith in Rhetoric," another McCulloch original, the band tackles the issue of Scottish self-determination. The nation is accustomed to blaming England for all its woes, "for everything from baldness to impotence," as McCulloch explains in the liner notes, and he ponders how having its own parliament will change things. The next is also McCulloch's, a song called "Cattle Raid," which tells of men from Clan MacDonnell who, having settled in Glengarry, Ontario, in 1776, returned to their former home in the Mohawk Valley during the War of 1812 to lay it to waste "with fire and sword."

Gray takes the lead with her pipes again for the lively "Memphis Set." Then Bell sings the deceptively cheerful "Johnnie Teasie Weasel," which follows in the Scottish tradition of masking tales of untrue and unhappy love in a rantin' happy tune. Then McCulloch offers up another original, "Children of the Mist," an excellent song about Clan MacGregor and the Highland Clearances. And then another original (McCulloch has been busy!) called "Dieppe," a touching, melancholy song about a man blinded in the clash at Dieppe, France. Bell's backing vocals are a sweet touch.

Bell returns immediately to sing "I'll Meet You There," a livelier song by McCulloch, which tells a somewhat amusing tale of a woman who's married poorly, and offers sage advice for others who do the same. Then McCulloch sings "Leaving the Banks" (I'll bet you can guess who wrote it...) about the dying way of life for fisherman on the Grand Banks of Newfoundland.

The album closes with "The Waulking Set," which begins with the woeful Gaelic song "An Toll Dubh." (The first verse, translated, reads: "At the back side of the door there will be no sun / Sit at the table / There will be no food and there will be no wine.") A bit grim, but the band sings it as a fine song, response and chorus before livening things up with a pair of jigs, "The Broadview Burglar" and "The Curlew." Everyone cooperates to provide the rhythmic "thumps" throughout.

A Quarrel with Whisky is a fine recording. I'd have to say I'd give a slight edge to their previous release, Telling Tales, but the newer album should be easier to find. I urge fans of the Celtic-Canadian tradition to seek both out, and don't shun either if they're found.