Review: The Telegraph

Yehudi Menuhin once said that while folk fiddlers may not get out of first position, they do have soul. What would he have made of Anna Esslemont, the Welsh musician at the heart of Uiscedwr? Perhaps he would have rebuked her for dropping out of the Royal Northern College of Music, but admired the spirited application of her training to folk and other fiddle styles.

Everywhere is an adventurous album and a remarkable achievement. Vibrant tunes picked up at Irish pub sessions sit comfortably alongside original compositions and a Yiddish piece found on an old tape.

Cormac Byrne (who did finish his RNCM course) and Ben Hellings make inspired contributions, but it is Esslemont's fiddle-playing that dominates, just as her star quality grips live audiences. She also sings confidently, notably on Sandra Kerr's No Going Back, about the miners' wives emboldened forever by their roles in the 1985 strike.

Behind the inelegant name (Uiscedwr combines Irish and Welsh terms for water), Esslemont and her companions are delivering the promise of their 2002 BBC Young Folk Award.