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Artist: Fleur Mainville & The Bedlam Boys
Album: My Rare One
If you think you know the music of the fiddle inside out, Fleur Mainville is here to prove you wrong. While incorporating traditional elements of Celtic music, Fleur’s violin play completely transcends tradition. She’s very virtuosic with the violin, cranking out melodies at such a breakneck speed that you’d have to be made out of stone if they didn’t make you at least bop your head along.
I think I could easily listen to an entire CD full of just Fleur playing the violin, but this album brings more to the table. Apart from playing the fiddle, Fleur sings as well, and quite well at that, reimagining old favourites and giving them a rock flavour, without making them inaccessible. The great performances from the Bedlam Boys throughout also add a lot to the music. There’s even a song in French, and it’s handled surprisingly well.
Most of the songs are pretty fast, which also means they’re not always very long, but that’s okay, because they’re good. In fact, I would rank the slower songs among the weaker ones of the album. Still, My Rare One is a fantastic listen if you like Celtic music with an edge, without venturing into hard rock territory.
Jan Jacob Mekes has a passion for history, writing, and writing history (and music, of course). He runs an online cultural magazine, Cultural Zest. You can read more examples of his writings on his portfolio. Jan also writes reviews for Marc Gunn’s Celtic MP3s Music Magazine.
