Album Notes

“Alex is one of my favorite young musicians and is, without a doubt, one of the finest musicians of her generation. In her talented hands, the music is safeguarded and will be nurtured for the foreseeable future.”
-Brian Conway

Alex Reidinger began the fiddle at an early age and later took up the harp and concertina. Drawing on the influences of Michael Coleman and Andy McGann, Alex plays in the traditional Sligo fiddling style, which she learned from Brian Conway and Rose Flanagan of NY. Grainne Hambly of Co. Mayo taught Alex the harp and concertina and her influence can be heard across all instruments. Alex is continuing the new movement to bring the harp out of the parlor rooms and into the sessions playing driving jigs and reels alongside the fiddles, accordions, and banjos.

“This CD is fantastic. What I like is that Alex’s music is of a consistent high standard right across all instruments. I admire her for what she has done in light of the fact that she doesn’t have access to the multitude of musicians that we have here (in Ireland). She obviously listens well and assimilates what she hears.”
-Tim Collins

“Spend a passing moment on Youtube, Myspace, Facebook, or I-tunes and you can be influenced by the playing of virtually anyone in the world. I really admire Alex in that despite the overwhelming array of choices and influences brought upon today’s young budding musicians by such marvelous technology, she has managed to find very solid, deep-rooted traditional influences upon which to base her playing. Just to hear her play, one would not expect Alex to be but a teenager. Add to that her gift as an accompanist and one gets an entirely new perspective. You meet someone who has reached the highest standard in several areas of Irish music already. I have spent the past ten years in the US and I rarely enjoy our music more than when I hear it played well by young Americans who have barely visited Ireland. Even at that, there are still some surprises. Alex Reidinger is certainly one who surprised me. She is a multi-instrumentalist in the true sense, with a keen sense of harmony and rhythm. Well capable of displaying all her talents on this recording, Alex is someone from whom we’ll hear much more in years to come. There is a serene gentility throughout this entire album, yet an accomplished assertiveness keeps it all together. An astute listener, her music is full of style, life, expectation and surprise. Not alone is she a model musician for any young people interested in Irish Traditional music, but a model of humility in how she handles her accomplishments. She appreciates her gifts and is more than willing to share them with other musicians. That, I think, is why I admire her most.”

-John Daly
Director, Irish American Heritage Center, Chicago
January 2008