BRINGING together the veteran Irish folkies and the American guitarist, slide genius and musicologist must have seemed like a good idea at the time. And there are a couple of moments when this unlikely collaboration really works – with Cooder to thank on both occasions: the sublime The Sands Of Mexico and the introduction to Cancion Mixteca.
Sadly, the US guitarist’s limited presence hardly counts as ‘featuring’ and even his role as a producer, with Paddy Maloney, of The Chieftains, fails to lift matters. The historical excuse for this uneasy Tex-Mex-Irish cocktail lies in the San Patricios, soldiers – many of them immigrants from Ireland – who crossed the Rio Grande during the Mexican-American war of 1846-48 to fight with the other side. Liam Neeson provides to doomy narration on March To Battle (Across The Rio Grande), a strange moment in an odd album.
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