Instrumentals are very often not my cup of tea. I have, however, listened to and reviewed quite a lot of them. I strongly disagree that because I don’t personally love all or even most instrumentals, that I am dismissing their importance in trad music, (my love affair with bagpipes is well documented around here) declaring that they are all boring, or denying their merit. What I’m saying is, that instrumentals are not my favorite type of songs. As a poet and a writer, lyrics are what I primarily get off on. That is absolutely not going to be the case for everyone, and I know plenty of people that listen to music and never pay the lyrics much attention at all.

On an album done by a band whose vocal resources are as amazing as The Langer’s Balls’ it was a pleasant surprise to me to take so strongly to a song that didn’t utilize Michael’s voice. If you’d be interested in a more complete understanding of my views on instrumentals, I’d love to point you in the direction of The Irish Experience’s Green Energy review, which is an entirely instrumental album, or
Síocháin’s Peace By Peace, whose King Of The Faeries instrumental is one my most played mp3s.

Slainte,
Bonnie

My comment is not about them per se as it is about your review. You stated: “The Sailor’s Return is one of the best instrumental songs by a Celtic band that I have ever listened to over and over. I am easily bored by many instrumentals and it’s rare that one will pique my interest, particularly if it’s nestled in amongst songs with actual words.”

As an extensively-studied Celtic musician, I am baffled by this. Traditional music is equally dependant on instrumental tunes as it is on songs, if not more so.
If you aren’t one to rock out to a reel, that’s cool. But why in the world would you dismiss the importance of the aural tradition of those “boring” instrumentals?