Deanta

There's a new sound in Celtic music. Pioneered by Ireland's Clannad, refined by Nova Scotia's Rankin Family, and pursued by Northern Ireland's Deanta and Kansas City's Scartaglen, this novel twist on an old music features the usual acoustic instruments but with a modern emphasis on melodic hooks, female vocals in English and percussion. There's no better argument for this fresh sound than Deanta, that quintet's second album and first U.S. release. Though the nine pieces on the album are largely traditional, the band brings out the music's contemporary qualities: a bouncy, regular beat linked to repeating melodic figures. --Geoffrey Himes