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Our Review

The husband-and-wife team of Matt and Shannon Heaton bring intelligent, well-executed traditional Celtic tunes and fresh originals to your hearth this holiday season. Their Fine Winter's Night is understated elegance, spritely and beautiful to behold. In the wee hours of the day after Thanksgiving, I savored its flavors as a lovely after-the-turkey treat.

This is not my first exposure to the excellent Heatons. Three years ago, it was my pleasure to review A Very Siucra Christmas, a superb holiday release featuring the Heatons and Beth Leachmann. Like that offering, Fine Winter's Night keeps you happy and warm when the December winds blow.

The album seamlessly integrates several fine Heaton creations, including the gentle First Snowfall of December, a story of Victorian-era young love and dancing into the night; the delicate harmonies are soft and sweet. The title track is another Heaton original; Fine Winter's Night paints an intensely lovely picture ("the heavenly stars refresh the sky and the wintry world below"). No question about it--the Heatons are great story-tellers, and Shannon's Julius the Christmas Cat tells the tale of Bethlehem's barnyard cat preparing the stable for the noble couple and the newborn king. Of the traditional numbers here, I especially enjoyed the traditional spiritual Fisherman's Lullaby with its nicely-crafted harmonic refrain ("Oh, sing gloria!), Matt Heaton's lead on Wexford Carol, and Shannon's turn on the hypnotic Carol of the Bells. The vocal selections are enhanced by the inclusion of instrumental reels, airs, and jigs; my favorite was the closing Top of the Bow, a rollicking piece featuring Shannon's fast-moving flute.

It's all good on a Fine Winter's Night. The music shimmers, leaving me relaxed and refreshed to face the day. If you favor the bracing brilliance of a Celtic holiday, the Shannons can show you the way. Enjoy!

--Carol Swanson
(Reviewed in 2007)

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From the liner notes:

Shannon Heaton: Irish flute, whistles, vocals
Matt Heaton: guitar, bouzouki, vocals
Eric Merrill: fiddle on track 4


Shannon plays Patrick Olwell flutes and Michael Burke whistles.
Matt plays a Paul Jacobson nylon string guitar, Davy Stuart bouzouki, Kevin O'Connell bodhran, and Martin steel string guitars.


From the Website:

Matt & Shannon Heaton blend Irish traditional music with original songs about bicycles, love, and death. Their own compositions tell timeless tales, while their renditions of centuries-old songs feel modern. They access real stories, real emotions, and each show is unique.

Their traditional music backgrounds are conventional enough:

They learned in Irish music sessions in Chicago. They took regular trips to Ireland, where they learned tunes with some of Clare's finest. (They took just a little time out to get married.) And they moved to session-rich Boston in 2001... Hear them play, and you'll know that they've logged a lot of time building straight-ahead Irish music chops.

But once you scratch the simple traditional music pedigree you find something else--a unique personality and vibe that could only come from these two.

Matt & Shannon Heaton

Fine Winter's Night

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Track List