Track Listing    1. The  Bohola Jig/ The Besom in Bloom/ Paddy Taylor’s/ The Piper on Horseback 2. Hardiman the Fiddler/ A Fig for a Kiss/ Fisherman’s 3. The Beautiful Goldfinch 4. There’s a Path Across the Ocean 5. The Barge Inn/ New Year’s Eve/ John Brennan’s 6. Rodney’s Glory 7. William McGonigal’s/ Kitty Sean Cunningham’s/ The Rat in the Thatch 8. The Ball of Yarn 9. Bridget Cruise/ O’Sullivan’s 10. Imelda Roland’s/ Maeve’s Reel/ The Master’s Return 11. The Geese in the Bog/ Taylor’s/ Father Tom’s Wager 12. The Red-Haired Man’s Wife 13.  Kerryman’s Daughter/ Paddy Fahy’s/ Mary McMahon Click on underlined titles to hear sound samples in Real Player

Finally the long awaited second album of internationally renowned traditional Irish band, The London Lasses and Pete Quinn, featuring their new line up, is released in the UK (after a hugely successful album launch tour of Ireland).

The turn of the millennium saw the release of the debut album of The London Lasses and Pete Quinn, to great critical acclaim. 

The press said of their first album:

‘One of the most remarkable releases of 2000’ The Rough Guide to Irish Music

‘There is a genuine sense of personality and a magnetic attraction to the music that enables them to produce  performances laced with skill, sincerity and a lack of pretension’ John O’Regan, fRoots
 

‘a sheer delight, a beauty of a collection…Strong, tight playing, very polished and together with an instinctive understanding’ John Brophy, Irish Music Magazine
 

‘the album shows off their combined musical talents brilliantly’ Traditional Music Maker
 

‘fresh and inventive, diverse and entertaining while never being anything less than totally traditional’
                                                                                    Ron Kavana, Musical Traditions

Equally, the band’s stirring live performances have been captivating audiences around the UK, USA, Ireland and mainland Europe:
 

'surely one of the best bands on the scene today,' Irish Music Magazine
 
 

‘They’re a terrific new group of London Irish women, great musicians coming from a long line of traditional players…at Sidmouth they took the roof off the marquee.’ Mike Harding, BBC Radio 2
 
 

‘it was a pleasure to hear such a spirited band who obviously enjoy the music they play so much’
                                                       Vicky Williamson, Cambridge Folk Festival official website
 

‘The band brought fire and plenty of rhythmic energy to a capacity audience in the musical heart of Sligo’                                       Oisin MacDiarmada, Irish Music Magazine
 

‘a classy, formidable act’, The Irish Post
 

‘they look great and sound great’, The Irish World
(selected as one of top 5 gigs of 1999 and winners of ‘Best Traditional Performer’ Millennium Award)

The refreshingly pure and dynamic traditional Irish music of The London Lasses includes a full range of tunes and songs, reflecting the healthy mixture of styles that London has always had to offer.  Traditional Irish music has always been very strong among the children of Irish emigrants in Britain.  The London Lasses are representative of the fine traditional music which has had such a presence in London ever since mass emigration from Ireland in the 1950s.  Exposing musicians of the next generation to the traditional styles of just about every county in Ireland, this vibrant city’s extraordinary melting pot produced a unique ‘London style’.  The Lasses, comprising Karen Ryan and Elaine Conwell (fiddles), Maureen Linane (button accordion), Dee Havlin (flute) and Kathleen O’Sullivan (vocals), are joined by pianist Pete Quinn, who brings his diverse musical background to accompany the Lasses in an exciting way which still manages to remain faithful to the tradition.

Having played to consistently packed houses, performances have included The Ennis Trad Festival, The Jazz Café (London), Cambridge Folk Festival, Sidmouth International Festival, Both Sides of the Tweed and Return to Camden Town Festival. As well as playing at this year’s major St Patrick’s Day celebrations in London, the band recently made their mainland Europe debut at the highly successful ‘Irish Night’ in Limburg, Holland. Other musical endeavours, including two tours of Ireland, have seen them share the stage with the likes of Dervish, Boys of the Lough, Liz Carroll, The Waterboys, Solas, Lúnasa and Máirtín O’Connor.  Their debut album has been receiving extensive airplay and they have been featured on the BBC Choice programme ‘Backstage’, BBC Radio 2, BBC Radio London Live, TG4’s (Irish National TV) Geantraí and live TV show Ardán.  Their most recent TV appearance was on the BBC’s hugely popular EastEnders.  May 2003 will see the release of the band’s second album Track Across the Deep, with launches planned for Ireland, the UK and the US.

The Lasses are proud to bring you a taste of London…enjoy!

Copperplate is very proud to have this title on our roster and to help it achieve its full potential will be supporting this release with a full-scale promotional mail out to media and retail.

 Also available from Copperplate, London Lasses & Pete Quinn’s classic debut album from 2000.
 
 

East Bay Express Sept 2003
 The American audience is not generally aware of London’s importance in the development of Irish music over the last half century, though it’s taken for granted in Ireland. Pubs such as The Favourite in Finsbury Park, or The White Hart on Fulham Broadway held regular sessions in the 60s and 70s, and when the revival took off, London based youngsters like Kevin Burke were ready to make their own contributions.

The London Irish music scene remains vital, as Track Across the Deep demonstrates. Fiddlers Karen Ryan and Elaine Conwell seem to have absorbed something of every major Irish regional tradition- from the octave doubling of County Kerry to the virtuosic embellishment of the Sligo masters—while Maureen Linane’s accordion work reflects the influence of the great Galway box-man, Raymond Roland.

Flautist Dee Havlin and singer Kathleen O’Sullivan round out the excellent London Lasses, who are joined on this, their second release, by pianist Pete Quinn. High points include a barn dance composed by Donegal fiddler, Danny Meehan that sounds almost like a Scottish strathspey, and a nicely paced reading of the set dance, Rodney’s Glory. Richard “Duck” Baker.

Taplas, The Welsh Folk MagazineOct/ Nov 2003
From the opening bars of the first set of jigs and reels it's clear that these five women know what they're about.
Crisp, purposeful playing on fiddles, flute, whistles and accordion is backed by Pete Quinn's highly capable piano-playing: driving music with a light touch.

Kathleen O'Sullivan's three songs provide softer interludes. The four instrumentalists play so tightly together that it's sometimes hard to pick out the individual instruments: not many bands achieve that degree of integration.

The other side of that coin is maybe a slight lack of space, soul, and character; but that's a tall order for a studio recording
(this is their second) and I'm sure it's there live. John Neilson

WWW.NETRHYTHMS.COM Music Web Site
The Lasses produced an album three years ago which encapsulated the very best of the current London Irish scene, a fifty-minute selection of melodious yet punchy instrumental sets (with a few songs thrown in for good measure), all played with real gusto yet at a civilised speed, losing nothing of the spirit of the dance or the welcome of the craic.

Since then, they've appeared to great acclaim all over the place, including a celebrated storming appearance at Sidmouth festival. Track Across The Deep, their second recorded offering, retains the first's strengths but rings a few changes too. The Lasses themselves have had a couple of lineup alterations since that first CD - Dee Havlin has replaced Sharon Welton on flute and whistle, and accordionist Maureen Linane has replaced emigrating banjoist Bernie Conneely, while the mighty twin-fiddle front-line of Karen Ryan and Elaine Conwell is thankfully unchanged. In place of Sue Cullen, on this latest CD the Lasses now employ the fine singer Kathleen O'Sullivan (whose name I must admit was new to me) on three tracks here (Ball Of Yarn, There's A Path Across The Ocean, The Red-Haired Man's Wife - the last-named, learnt from Kevin Mitchell, being a particularly fine interpretation I thought).

Casting a further glance at the new lineup might now begin to invoke superficial comparisons with Cherish The Ladies, but to be honest I find the Lasses' playing more invigorating. Look no further than the enchanting set of reels at track 5 for an illustration of the delicious way the players run rings round each other in superbly controlled musical banter.

Thus far, I've not namechecked the masterly Mr. Quinn, whose keyboard work is a considerably more integral part of the group sound than the mere tacking-on after the "and" in the group name might suggest. Pete's contributions should not be underestimated; they're marked by a vital yet stylistically straight forward musicality that's firmly in tune with the playing of the lasses, and prove that strict-tempo metricality in the rhythms need not make them unattractively lumpy and four-square, they can be every bit as captivating as more experimental rhythmic input and to my mind infinitely more satisfying than tricky flashy syncopation-ridden fusion effects.

Pete and the Lasses have produced another refreshingly unpretentious and very strong collection that the living tradition can be justifiably proud of.  David Kidman

The Irish Post, July 26 2003
There’s an old musician’s joke which goes – how do you define a minor seventh?  Answer – two fiddlers playing in unison.  Not a suspicion of that here, however.  When the two fiddles of Karen Ryan and Elaine Conwell crack into the New Year’s Eve reel, the cohesion between the two wouldn’t allow a triplet to go astray, let alone a minor seventh chord.  But then I’ve always suspected all-women bands play with a greater cohesion than all-male bands.  None of that testosterone-fuelled one-upmanship, you see.  Of course it’s competitiveness that often leads to virtuoso playing – but again there’s no lack of that with London Lasses either.  I suspect that there’s the equal of traditional players anywhere in the world contained among this band.

I have been so far referring to the distaff side of this ensemble – but there is one man, Pete Quinn, the piano player.  Pianists, however, are a breed apart, so he probably doesn’t mind his anomalous position as the only man in an all woman band.  And it would have to be said that he does a great job providing a straightforward vamping background to some of the dance pieces, and imaginative backing to the vocal numbers.

There’s a delicious depth of texture throughout this recording – Irish music in all its splendour is here. Malcolm Rogers

HOT PRESS, 2 July 2003
Since then they’ve gone through a line-up change or two and solidified into a six-piece band, but their sound is still as honest and unpretentious as their manner.
Vocalist Kathleen O’Sullivan has an old-fashioned singing style that matches the rather conservative nature of the instrumental arrangements, with a small céili band’s worth of melody players (two fiddles, accordion and flute) plus unobtrusive piano backing from Pete Quinn.
High points include the deliciously raunchy double-entendres of ‘The Ball of Yarn’ and a wistful slowed-down version of the set dance ‘Rodney’s Glory’. Sarah McQuaid

The Irish World Newspaper. 18.7.03
With a new line up and an already impressive reputation for great music, many critics have been awaiting The London Lasses follow up album with anticipation. They won’t be let down, as the new line-up has only enhanced their sound and the Lasses are sounding as fresh and unpretentious as ever.

The musicians, all young, have once again produced as album that reflects a London style, which has come about through the legendary pub sessions of the fifties and the sixties, which merged playing styles and repertoires from every county in Ireland.

Track Across the Deep is a fine manifestation of the very best elements from every known trait of the Irish tradition.

The album contains some fine tunes, with a lovely blend of jigs, reels and waltzes. A high point of the album, though, must be Rodney’s Glory, a classic old set dance that the Lasses play at a slower pace.

Just as worthy as their first one, Track Across the Deep is a brilliant reminder of the great amount of talent that exists, not just in London, but in many parts of Britain. Xenia Poole.

Pay The Reckoning July 2003
The follow-up to 2000's debut from the London Lasses and Pete Quinn repays the patient fans of their timeless, dignified music.  Karen Ryan (fiddle/whistle), Elaine Conwell (fiddle), Dee Havlin (flute/whistle), Maureen Linane (accordion), Kathleen O'Sullivan (vocals) and Mr Quinn himself (piano/keyboard) play with restraint and feeling.  Pyrotechnics and machismo don't feature in their approach.  Instead, the lasses and Pete appreciate that passion and power are not reliant on elaborately-strummed guitars or vast clouds of rosin dust.  The true power of Irish music is in its innate pulse, its quietly insistent message aimed at both head and feet.

Among the tunes we have old favourites and the lesser-known, all settling happily alongside each other, shepherded by the players into coherent and well-balanced sets.  The first set (The Bohola Jig/The Besom In Bloom/Paddy Taylor's/The Piper On Horseback) captures the listener's attention from the start; the switch from 6/8 to reel-time injects the set with energy.

Elsewhere, a tender rendering of Marcus Hernon's "The Beautiful Goldfinch", shows the band's feel for the most delicate of waltzes.  And their firm grasp of sets such as "The Geese In The Bogs/Taylor's/Father Tom's Wager" and the glorious closer, "The Kerryman's Daughter/Paddy Fahy's/Mary McMahon" shows their absolute command of the music.

It is good to hear "Rodney's Glory" turn up; many of us will have heard the tune's name long before we ever heard the tune
tself since it's one of those name-checked in the ubiquitous "Galway Shawl".  Taken at a stately pace, this set dance is an intricate and inspiring piece and one well-worthy of the outfit's attentions.

O'Sullivan is in distinctive voice on this album.  Her versions of "There's A Path Across The Ocean", "The Red-Haired Man's Wife" and "The Ball Of Yarn" are graced and ornamented liberally and instinctively, but never so as to distract the listener from the tune or the narrative.

Track Across The Deep will continue to be hot property in years to come.  In the Irish music world, the reputation of this or that album grows slowly but, where true talent outs, surely.  Be one of the first to grace your CD collection with this fine music by visiting  http://www.copperplateconsultants.com.  Find out more about the band at their website http://www.londonlasses.net

Folking.com Web Site
I know that comparisons can be irksome but  unfortunately this will occur due  to the similarity in musical line-up (fiddle, whistle & accordion) with their American counter-parts Cherish The Ladies.

Now that's out of the way, let's  settle down and enrich our audio pleasure in the glorious sound that is The London Lasses and Pete Quinn. This album proves time and again that good honest  musicianship will out all of the technology and flashiness that sometimes swamps an artists performance.

Listening to this I remember with fond nostalgia the  many happy hours I spent at The White Hart in Fulham and The Boyle Family at  The Riverside Studios and this recording will bring a lump to the throat of those old enough to remember the sessions in Camden (now sadly long past).

I'm pleased to say that along with some of the more established tunes such as 'Hardiman The Fiddler' and a lovely rendition of 'Rodney's Glory' this is the kind of album that let's the listener and musicians amongst you 'in' for the craic.

The tunes are all performed at sensible speeds so you can easily pick up those tricky reels by Paddy O'Brien and the dum-ching piano accompaniment provided by Pete Quinn adds just the right effect to the proceedings.

I for one heartily applaud the girls for taking my jaded ears back to the roots from which I started and can only hope that their musical prowess finds a more youthful audience as eager to embrace the tradition as I once was. Tremendous Stuff! Pete Fyfe
 
 

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