CELEBRATED folk diva Eliza Carthy is a natural when it comes to singing evergreen ballads about notorious highwayman Dick Turpin, The Gallant Hussar and The Unfortunate Lass, but it is the catchy traditional English dance tunes that give this album a real kick.

It is impossible to listen to Rough Music, named after a punishment dished out to wife beaters and hen-pecked husbands by their neighbours, without tapping your feet.

The musicianship of Carthy, Jon Boden, Ben Ivitsky and John Spiers shines through the multi-layered arrangements featuring fiddle, guitar, viola, double bass and melodeon. Earthy, lyrical and exuberant.

Four women have been making a name for themselves in Yorkshire as the guitar-led ensemble Waking The Witch.

The ten original compositions on Hands & Bridges till the familiar introspective ground of the singer-songwriter, namely the highs and lows of relationships.

But it is the beautiful harmony singing of Rachel Goodwin, Patsy Matheson, Becky Mills and Jools Parker that lifts these songs to a higher level, making the whole greater than the sum of its parts.

Updated: 09:13 Thursday, June 23, 2005