Whistle Walks

Liverpool-born to Irish parents, whistle player Terry Clarke-Coyne spent the pandemic recording more than 150 virtual duets for YouTube with luminaries such as Michael McGoldrick, Lúnasa’s Kevin Crawford and Afro Celt Sound System’s Robbie Harris. Those and 13 more turn up in this infectious 11-track compendium, Whistle Walks. Given its genesis, it moves from the forlorn to the defiantly joyful on the turn of a sixpence, the transition from darkness to light of ‘Irish Mass Tunes /O’Carolan’s Concerto’ a beautifully judged segue with Philip Masure’s guitar and Hannah Williams’ church organ adding their own ballast. It opens with a fleet, fluid set of reels, Clarke-Coyne’s dancing whistle accompanied by Masure, McGoldrick’s in-step flute and Gino Lupari and Will Pound’s discrete bodhrán and harmonica.

Teaming up again with Masure, joined by Kevin Crawford’s flute, the jig-set that opens with Coyne-Clarke’s own ‘Belfast’s Secret Garden’ and ‘Netty Dances’ is unmitigatedly joyful. The rest is marked by an infectious delight, elegant waltzes and aching airs blending with riotous reels, in making music in a time of trauma. The self-penned ‘Freeflow’ finds Coyne-Clarke’s lilting mimicking a bansuri bamboo flute piquantly supported by Kevin Van Staeyen’s plangent piano, ‘Liverpool Remembers/Great Craic on Mount Pleasant’ a moving, rousing homage to his Liverpool heritage and roots.