Fast tunes and slow songs keep the mood moving on Mortal Daze, the debut CD from the six-piece Canadian band Shenanigan.

The band, which hails from Vancouver, British Columbia, shows a lot of diversity over 17 tracks -- whether your tastes run to slow ballads or fast reels, you'll find something to like here.

Lead singer Clare Brett (who also performs children's music and tells stories as Clare de Lune) has an exquisite voice. She grabs your attention from the second track, the mystical "The Dragon and the Phoenix," a lovely song of her own composition. She follows up with the popular Irish ballad "Carrickfergus," before serving up another original, "Muruche," a mournful song about a selkie lover. Other Brett originals, "The Harper" and "The Wild One," continue in the romantic vein, demonstrating much talent for songwriting, although the latter takes a more strident tone and sounds much more modern than the others.

Other traditional songs on the album are "She Moved Through the Fair" and Robbie Burns' "Ae Fond Kiss." On traditionals and originals alike, Brett maintains strong, emotional vocals which draw you in and encourage you to listen closely to the words. Bandmate Revellie Nixon provides supporting vocals and good harmonies.

Shenanigan is no slouch when it comes to instrumentals, either. The CD starts off with a very lively, danceable set of reels, "Jackie Coleman's/Farewell to Milltown Malbay/Fred Finn's" and the album doesn't let up from there. Jazzy flute leads the way on the reel set "McGann's/Pottinger's/Charlie Mulvihill's," then takes a bass cue to kick into high gear. The fiddle takes the forefront in the French-Canadian reel set "Le Violin Accorde Comme Une Viole/La Bastringue/Spootiskerry," a track guaranteed to keep your toes tapping. And it doesn't end there; there are plenty more jigs, reels, airs and polkas -- and even a flute-and-fiddle tango! -- before this CD rolls to a close.

Besides Brett, who plays guitar, and Nixon, who adds percussion and more guitar, the band features Ruth Boggild (flutes, low and high whistles), Ewan "Sudsy" Clark (fiddle), Stu MacDonald (fretless bass) and the versatile Graham Johnson (tenor banjo, mandolin, bouzouki, guitar, piano accordion, whistles). Guests include Graham Carver on guitar and Randy Vic on foot percussion. Carver also supplies a pair of original compositions: the melancholy air "The Long Road Home" and the aforementioned tango, "Last Tango in Tipperary."

There isn't a throwaway track to be found in nearly 90 minutes' of music. Mortal Daze is a keeper, and Shenanigan will hopefully be back in the studio soon to produce a sequel.