Review: Leedsmusicscene.net
Cleckheaton Festival 2005

Whether to drive out melancholy or to indulge merriment, take an occasional dose of Uiscedwr, a vigorously hard-working trio which began in 2001. Headline act of this year's festival, with a reputation ever broader and stronger since their breakthrough as winner of the BBC Young Folk Award 2002, their shows offer high quality with intense activity.

Anna Esslemont, who is also lead singer, has played violin through the decade and a half since she was six, and is unquestionably getting the hang of it. The instrument likes it so much that it now almost plays her at times, in an output that calls for rhythm almost more than for melody, and feeding a repertoire that bears witness to the music of Ireland, eastern Europe, the Middle East and Africa. The excellent Kevin Dempsey on guitar probably has more years behind him as a music pro than the others have in all their learning and performing time put together, and he too is kept busy with huge amounts of rhythm work, in pieces often built on percussionist Cormac Byrne's astounding amplified bodhran, where in addition to his total command of a conventional array of sounds, Cormac gets vivid results out of the rim of the woodwork.

This band's name can't just be Celtic for 'water' : it must be something to do with whizz-kid-awe..

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