Trì is Gaelic for three and this album from harpist Hair and her two bandmates, Jenn Butterworth on guitar and vocals and Cameron Maxwell on double bass, showcases three stringed instruments expertly balanced with each other, finely contrasting in tone and bursting with melodic energy.
A nice mix of traditional and contemporary material ranges from jazz pianist Tom Gibbs’s quirky Marching Gibbon to the crisp 18th-century strathspey Tobar nan Cean, while sets such as the Tea Towel Polkas and Starry-Eyed Lads sets fairly skip along, the latter concluding with the irresistible spin of an Irish jig, the Rolling Wave.
Butterworth sings her own, catchy Angel, but doesn’t sound totally at ease with Allan Taylor’s lovely Roll on the Day, although it’s well set amid ascending harp and bass. Instrumentally, however, there’s much to enjoy here, not least Hair’s Tune for Esme, commemorating a harpist who died tragically young, which, rather than being a lament emerges as an eloquent and positively ongoing melody.
****Jim Gilchrist, Scotsman