Track Listing

1. The Dirty Nine Steps
2. Prescription Junkie
3. Sunshine
4. Seven Letters
5. Tip Tap Baby
6. Germs
7. Girlyjig
8. End of the Day
9. Crucked Reels
10. E.S.P.
11. Neptune

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #41802 in Music
• Released on: 2009-05-18
• Number of discs: 1

CD Description
The eagerly anticipated third instalment of the Uiscedwr story is here at last. Fish Cat Door delivers the diverse musical ideas of founder members Anna Esslemont and Cormac Byrne (of Seth Lakeman band fame) in eleven brand new foot-stomping tracks. Previous winners of the BBC Young Folk Award, recipients of a PRS Foundation Award (Esslemont) and the BBC Fame Academy Bursary (Byrne), Uiscedwr have lived up to their numerous accolades, producing an album guaranteed to have you dancing, grooving and singing along from the first listen.

Uiscedwr is all about Big Power – Small Package, clearly demonstrated by Esslemont and Byrne in the duo track, “E.S.P” which challenges the role of the musicians as they explore Indian and Latin inspired styles with only fiddle & bodhran. Quirky songs such as “Prescription Junkie” and “Tip Tap Baby” follow Esslemont from her recent bone marrow transplant through to the tale of a dancer who can’t groove, with all the lyrical prowess of a young Kirsty MacColl. Underpinned by special guests James Hickman on guitar and Karen Tweed on accordion, the extra sounds allow for awesome textures and variety in tracks such as “The Dirty Nine Steps” and “Sunshine”.

Uiscedwr are the folk musicians of the future, drawing on traditions from all over the world and bringing them home with unmistakable skill, panache and relevance.

Customer Reviews

Ah, now I know how to say it!
With their third album, former BBC Young Folk Award winners Uiscedwr have decided to help all of those of us who have struggled with their name; the title is a handy rebus; just remove the F and C to produce ISH-CA-DOOR. The band itself has gone through several changes and is now a four-piece. Founders Anna Esslemont and Cormac Byrne have been joined by James Hickman on guitar and Karen Tweed on accordion.

Despite these being traditional musicians, there's no traditional music here. It's a mixture of tunes and songs; slightly more tunes. Everything's written by the band apart from Jim Malcolm's "Neptune" and Katie Bennett's "End of the Day". The tunes have a great mix of variety and drive, and the addition of accordion really rounds out the sound. Having said that, one of the most exciting things on the album is the fiddle/bodhran duo "ESP". These guys rock.

There are two songs by Anna Esslemont. "Prescription Junkie" is her meditation on the haze of illness, surgery and medication that resulted from her having aplastic anemia. Following a bone marrow transplant, she's (fingers crossed) cured now. "Tip Tap Baby" is more traditional young songwriter material.

Overall, it's great to see Uiscedwr back on form and this is, I think, their best album yet.

BEST just gets BETTER!
They just keep getting better! This is a superb album. Keep you feet moving to this music!
E.S.P. Extra Special People playing extra special music - fantastic and, what a bonus - I now know what they are called!

Jiggy-jiggy
The 3rd record from the folk band with an unpronounceable name sees them make further progression towards the main stream. Songs like `Tip Tap Baby' and `Prescription Junkie' sound to me to have been written for daytime radio airplay and to my ears don't do the band a great favour. Don't get me wrong they are good songs but Uiscedwr excel when they focus on jigs and reels and musically rich instrumentals.

Thankfully the bulk of the record is made up of the latter with `Girlyjig', `E.S.P' and `Crucked Reels' being the best examples. These are excellent tracks that really get the feet moving and I cannot wait to experience them in a festival field this summer.

This is a very good record but sadly just falls short of being a great one, but with the way the band is moving the classic release can only be just around the next corner.