Crossing The Bridge Norman OK

Crossing The Bridge

Eileen Ivers

Sony Classical Music, 1999

REVIEW BY: Duke Egbert

ORIGINALLY PUBLISHED: 03/04/2004

Eileen Ivers has some rather serious credentials. She is anine-time All-Ireland Fiddle Champion, has played with the BostonPops, London Symphony, and the National Orchestra, and has playedon over one hundred Celtic, Celtic fusion, and other recordings.She may be the greatest Irish fiddler alive today; certainly she'sthe most prominent.

She's also one of the most adventurous. Since 1999, her workwith Immigrant Soul has blazed a trail for cross-genre music,incorporating African, Latin, and roots American music in an Irishfiddle framework. It is appropriate, then, that Crossing The Bridge is called what it is; this was the albumwhere she went from traditional fiddler to the hazy andbreathtaking world of Celtic fusion, and nothing would be the sameagain.

First off, the details. As is usual with Sony Classicalreleases, Crossing is impeccably produced and engineered; clear,crisp, and uncluttered, the musicians take center stage. That way,when you hear something that makes you go 'What the hell was THATagain?', you're sure you heard it right.

Because, in the end, Crossing is filled with brilliant moments that sneak up onyou like the musical equivalent of a Navy SEAL. The slashing,sudden guitar solo on "Gravelwalk," the exuberant Senegal vocals on"Jama," Al Di Meola's Flamenco guitar breaks on "Whiskey AndSangria" -- and just when you think you've gotten a hold of thingsand can handle whatever comes next, Ivers nails you with a solofiddle performance of "Nearer My God To Thee" that's one of thesweetest things I've ever heard. Fittingly, perhaps, she closeswith two traditional tunes, "Crowley's/Jackson's" and "Dear IrishBoy," that are just fiddle, guitar, uilleann pipes, and athrumming, thumping bodhran. Effortlessly, Ivers takes us aroundthe world -- through the Bronx where she grew up, to Senegal,Spain, Poland -- and then back to where it all began, the greenhills of Eire. We're richer for the journey.