Bruce Sylvester, Goldmine, March 22, 2002
McKeown's poised delivery has comforting warmth, but the CD can be hilariously irreverent too. Liner notes have extra laughs.

Scottish flddle wizzard Johnny Cunningham (1957 - 2003), Grammy-winning Irish singer Susan McKeown and Irish guitarist Aidan Brennan present a collection of songs and poems traditionally connected to the wintry season and the winter solstice.

'A Winter Talisman' grew out of the idea that Johnny Cunningham and Susan McKeown "thought we'd like to do a winter program that's different from the normal holiday fare" says Cunningham. So they went to work devising such a program, selecting pieces from their own childhood winter memories, and researching the music of what the Celts really got up to in winter. The results are sometimes exquisite, sometimes downright hilarious.

Winter in Ireland and Scotland was and is a time of celebration and great merriment, which is reflected in stories of the supernatural, and songs of courtship and drinking. The