REDS Band - River Eros Dante Sage

REDS band are a band of (a pair of) brothers, enumerated in the Simon & Garfunkel-styled album title. Their album is also a diversion from the customary psych, pop, hard, and experimental rock that Green Monkey are known for. The teenagers play lively traditional fiddle music from the four corners of the world (well, US, Canada, Scandinavia, Scotland, and Ireland) with vim and vigour well beyond their years. Regular performers on the Pacific Northwest folk scene, they feature cello, fiddle, bodhran, bouzouki, Shruti box, mandolin, and guitar to create a mesmerizing maelstrom of get-up-and-dance tunes that’ll light a fire under your happy feet and have you dancing well into the night.

Signposts (which may be too old for them to recognise!) include Dr. Strangely Strange, the legendary Dubliners, and Ashley Hutchings’ eclectic ethnic projects like Albion Country Band, Etchingham Steam Band, and the Rainbow Chasers. The tunes run the gamut from the kick-up-yer-heels opening Irish medley ‘Lus na mBanrion’/’The Glen Road To Carrick’/’The Reconciliation’ to the contemplative Scandinavian fiddle tune ‘Engelska från Korpo’, combining English, Swedish, and Finnish styles into a rather romantic, waltz-styled English country dance. These kids are nothing if not eclectic, and amazingly knowledgeable about their source material.

The Irish reel medley ‘Dick Cosgrove’s’/’Tuttle’s’/The Earl’s Chair’ are sure to leave you breathless and in need of a Guinness refill, and the preponderance of additional medleys ensures there’s something for just about everyone in this fun time collection.