Liz Carroll & John Doyle

By Alice Farrell in New York

On one of the coldest evenings yet this winter, the new home of the Blarney Star Concert series welcomed the fiery fiddle and guitar virtuosity of Liz Carroll and John Doyle. Despite the chilly temperature and biting wind, the church was packed with music lovers coming out to hear an inspiring evening of music.
The chill in the air did wreak havoc with Liz' fingers and John's strings, but they soldiered on and gave a wonderful show full of roaring reels and plaintive airs. Their styles are wonderfully suited to each other with jazzy undertones and quirky syncopation that infuses many of Liz' original tunes with an air of fun and whimsy.
Highlights of the show included John performing the song “A Miner's Life” which he popularized while a member of trad supergroup Solas and Liz' moving interpretation of John's southern flavored waltz. And probably the funniest moment of the evening, in their final set of the first half, when they launched from Liz' tune “Up All Night” into “Pigeon at the Gate”, John broke his second string of the evening and Liz slowed her playing down to allow him enough time to restring and jump back in, hardly missing a beat. - www.jigtime.com

"In Play is the latest jewel... (Liz) and guitar wizard John Doyle are in perfect harmony, whether it's a set tinged with whimsy such as "Rolling in the Barrel," one that flashes classical influences under the unlikely title "The Man With One Kidney," or a gorgeous slow air the ilk of "A Long Night On the Misty Moor." Doyle has quietly jigged and reeled himself into the top-accompanist ranks, and Carroll stands among an even loftier pantheon of peers. With clarity and purity of tone rivaled only by Alasdair Fraser, a well-crafted set list, and complete command of her instrument, Liz Carroll recordings induce joy and admiration that exhaust this reviewer's feeble descriptors." - by Rob Weir, The Valley Advocate

"...a magnificent balance of virtuosity, drive, and finesse is firmly upheld. Carroll's bowing and Doyle's picking represent a kind of soloing in sync, each supporting and inspiring the other without a whiff of self-indulgence... (They) are a duo in every sense of the word here: synaptic in communication, instinctive in reaction, tight in execution, rich in ideas, and unabashedly having a ball. So will everyone else who listens to "In Play," one of the best Irish traditional recordings of the year." - by Earle Hitchner, Irish Echo