Album Notes

For over a decade, Talisman has enlivened scores of festivals, concert halls, pubs, weddings, farmers markets, rallies, street fairs, parties, dinners and fundraisers with their percolating blend of Celtic-flavored tunes and songs. The band's hammered dulcimer, fiddle, flutes/whistles, guitar, and four voices give their music a rich, nuanced texture with solid rhythmic drive.

Talisman's musicians sail their instruments across a 300 year reach of dance music and songs from the Celtic tradition, along with their own original music, often creatively weaving old tunes into modern songs. Indeed, Victory Review highlighted the strength of the band's imaginative arrangements on its 1996 CD, "Phoenix." Talisman can be soothing, even hypnotic, but they also regularly turn listeners into dancers with expertly tackled jigs, polkas, and reels.

Audiences are now enjoying Talisman's long-awaited new CD, "Just Up the Hill," released in 2004. It features their inspired arrangements and accomplished, good-humored playing on more than an hour's worth of uplifting tunes and songs. Talisman's music stirs the feet and gives the brain's pleasure receptors a warm nudge.