By Giles Whiting

IT was slightly disconcerting to sit down waiting for acknowledged ambassadors of Irish traditional music and West Belfast’s finest to take to the stage while Michael Buble crooned Mac the Knife through the Brewhouse sound system.

But that was soon forgotten as the considerable individual talents of the four band members, showcased on an array of instruments – banjo, guitar, mandolin, fiddle, tin whistle and Uilleann pipes – fused together to produce a refreshingly unpretentious and beautiful traditional music in their distinctive northern style.

Craobh Rua now have six albums under their belts, a number of which have quirky Belfast sayings as titles; ‘The More That’s Said the Less the Better’, ‘If Ida Been Here, Ida Been There’ and this year’s ‘I’d Understand You If I Knew What You Meant’.

From the opening three jigs, hornpipe set and ‘The Road to Clady’ from the latest album right through to the rousing finale, they had the sadly rather small audience on side, and despite some sound issues and a couple of broken guitar strings the multi-layered texture of their arrangements and the driving rhythm of the guitar made their songs fizz along.

There are some vocals, but they are primarily an instrumental band and they have no thoughts of crossover.

The band’s purpose is more to re-interpret their country’s traditional music, along with a few pinched Scottish tunes and a 16th Century English folk song, the standout ‘The Unquiet Grave’, and this they do brilliantly. 

It was an extremely enjoyable evening.