Greentrax Recordings

Tony McManus - Ceol More (CD)

CDTRAX226 (released February 2002)

category: instrumental

Following up on the highly acclaimed 1998 recording Pourquoi Quebec?, the breadth of Tony McManus' mastery and vision is now revealed with his third album, Ceol More.

Featuring accompaniment from Capercaillie's Ewen Vernal (bass) and Salsa Celtica's Guy Nicolson (tablas), the album reflects the extent of McManus's musical explorations both within and beyond the Scottish tradition.

The title is a pun on the Gaelic phrase ceol mhor, or 'big music', referring to the noble piobaireachd tradition of the Highland bagpipes, a form rendered here in Lament for the Viscount of Dundee. Other tracks range from Robert Burns' Ye Banks and Braes to Charles Mingus' Goodbye Pork Pie Hat, with Breton and French-Canadian material again featuring prominently alongside Scottish and Irish tunes.

Having opened with a tenderly lyrical sean nos song air, Sliabh Gheal gCua na Feile, the album closes in contrasting fashion with a 17th-century Jewish hymn-tune from eastern Europe, Shalom Aleichem, a greeting to the angels traditionally sung before the Sabbath.

Reviewers and fellow musicians have deemed Tony McManus to be one of the greatest acoustic guitarists in the world. Eagerly anticipated by guitar fans world-wide, Ceol More resoundingly confirms McManus' standing as one of today's most gifted and groundbreaking instrumental artists.

'Ceol More never goes wrong... quietly oozing with pure-distilled craft and taste' (Sunday Herald)

'The best Celtic guitarist in the world' (John Renbourn)

'One of the world's greatest and most innovative guitarists' (The West Australian)

'A talent second to none' (Phil Cunningham)

'A truly original and creative figure in the guitar community' (Pierre Bensusan)