Sweeney's Men, Planxty, Patrick Street: Andy Irvine has been in the some of the most important and spectacular Irish groups over the last 35 years. With Rain on the Roof and Way Out Yonder, he has put together a pair of solo CDs with strong doses of social justice and traditional songs. 

Rain on the Roof is rather a bare-bones recording, recorded mostly in one take, with Irvine playing either mandolin or bouzouki, as well as harmonica and singing. Two of the stronger tracks are the first and last. "Prince Among Men," the story of a miner who manages works himself to death so that his son can get an education and not have to follow him into the mines, is as strong as the version on Patrick Street's All in Good Time, perhaps even more so due to the one-man arrangement. "Never Tire of the Road," Irvine's salute to his hero, Woodie Guthrie, is an on-target, Irish-American blend. "Forgotten Hero" is Irvine's excellent biographical ballad of Michael Davitt, the 19th century founder of The Land League, an Irish response to English landlordism.

 On the less political side, "Come With Me Over The Mountain" is a charming song of love and elopement and is paired with "A Smile in the Dark," an equally charming jig by Irvine. Declan Masterson provides some nice whistle-playing on the latter. Irvine is joined on several instrumental tracks by Rens van der Zalm on mandolin and fiddle and Steve Cooney on digereedoo and drums. Several of the sets are from or inspired by music of the Balkans, where Irvine has spent a fair amount of time. Particularly successful is "Take No Prisoners" and "Old Brunswick," in which Balkan and Irish traditions are blended.

Way out Yonder has much the same type of material, but Irvine is backed by more than a dozen musicians and singers. Consequently, the arrangements tend to be more lush. Irvine and Steve Cooney's "They'll Never Believe It's True" is a wonderful song about a singer who meets The Faerie Queen; it is an excellent addition to that sub-genre of folk songs. "The Girl I Left Behind" deals well and sadly with the difficulties of long-distance relationships before telephones were invented, and includes some really nice whistle back-up by Cormac Breatnach. "On a Distant Shore" is a beautiful air by Irvine that features him on bouzouki and Declan Masterson on whistle and uilleann pipes.

There are two songs that stand out above the rest. I have admiration for political songs that appeal to all politics. Marcus Turner's "When the Boys are on Parade" is a prime example of this, managing to summarize the truly difficult decisions that go into committing armed forces to combat, in only 13 verses. Thirteen verses is long for a song; it's short for a position paper. Irvine gives the song a jaunty bounce that belies the seriousness of "And you may well prefer abstention, but I feel compelled to mention/ You'd do well to pay attention when the Boys are on Parade." The other outstanding song is Loreena McKennitt's arrangement of the Alfred Noyes poem, "The Highwayman," about the ill-starred affair between the title individual and "Bess, the landlord's daughter." The emotion in Irvine's singing matches the lyrics perfectly.

Andy Irvine has been a major part of more than three decades of Celtic music, but for all that, he doesn't seem to be lacking freshness or interest in his craft.

Both Rain on the Roof and Way Out Yonder are solid CDs with "The Highwayman" and "When the Boys are on Parade" making the latter stand out.

[Chuck Lipsig]