Well, it’s about time! “Forget Me Not” is the new offering from fiddler Rose Flanagan and flute player Laura Byrne. Simply put, it is a wonderful album that is beautifully executed from start to finish, and a must have for anyone who loves great music. Flanagan’s relationship with the music is remarkable. She started playing at 10, learned the basics from Martin Mulvihill and matured in the company of legendary players like Martin Wynne, Andy McGann and her brother Brian Conway. Each of these musicians had an important role in helping her develop her own personal approach to the “New York/Sligo” style and it shows. Although she first attracted national attention on the original Cherish The Ladies album, we’ve had to wait a long time for something substantial from her. “Forget Me Not” is definitely worth the wait and proves how formidable a player she is. In addition to being a great player, Flanagan is one of the country’s premier teachers. Along with button accordionist Patty Furlong and flute and whistle player Margie Mulvihill (both of whom also renown teachers and players), she is part of the Pearl River School of Irish Music, an outfit that is responsible for countless successful students and has had unparalleled success in the All- Ireland competitions. Among the ranks are her daughter Maeve Flanagan of the group Girsa (who not too many moons ago was an under-eleven All-Ireland champion), two-time Senior All-Ireland fiddle champ Dylan Foley (of The Yanks) and 2012 All-Ireland under-18 fiddle champion Sarah Buteux. Based in Baltimore, Byrne (www.laurabyrne.com) proves an outstanding foil to Flanagan. A graduate of the Peabody Conservatory of Music at John Hopkins University, she is an unusually sensitive lead player. Well known throughout the Mid-Atlantic region, she is a founding member of the Old Bay Ceili Band, released a solo album called “Lucky Day” in 2010 and has built a strong reputation as a teacher, not just in Baltimore but at teaching weeks throughout the country. Her many talents have been recognized twice by the Maryland State Arts Council, who gave her their Artist Award in 2010 and 2011. The playing on this album is just wonderful. Flanagan’s tone is incisive and powerful, and Byrne’s is smooth and rich; they blend beautifully. They balance they bring to each other’s music is evident on duet tracks like “The Killimor / …,” “John McGrath’s / … and “Forget Me Not / …,” where they seem to share an impressive singular vision for how a tune should sound. However, how this balance is forged is revealed on tracks like “Jacksons / …” and “Blys / …” where Byrne begins on her own and Flanagan joins later . There, the drive and clarity of Byrne’s solo work is immediately apparent, but it takes on a different sort of energy and intensity when Flanagan joins in. The lift the two create together is really lovely and is one of the best things about this album. Flanagan and Byrne are backed here by Brendan Dolan on piano and Eamon O’Leary on bouzouki and guitar. Dolan (Pride of New York) and O’Leary (The Murphy Beds) are truly two of the music’s finest backers and are exactly who I would want to hear playing here. Check out how nicely Dolan supports Flanagan’s unbelievable swing on her solo feature “Glencolmcille / …” or how well O’Leary compliments the phrasing on “Grainnes / …”; it’s just brilliant stuff from two of the best. Finally, a word about the album’s production: a few weeks ago I wrote sparklingly of Glenn Barrett’s work with The Yanks on their recent (and mighty) album “The Haymaker.” Here, again, we find another scintillating project with Barrett at the engineer’s helm. He’s a man whose knowledge of both studio technique and of Irish music gives him a unique ability to draw the best out of the people he works with. He’s done it here once again. I love “Forget Me Not.” It is a powerful album of traditional Irish music made by two brilliant players who are active in cultivating, refining and (in a sense) defining what Irish music in America is and can be. It’s one you will definitely want to rush out and get, so look for it on iTunes, festivals and wherever the finest in Irish music is sold. Irish Echo Review by Daniel Neely July 16-22, 2014 Forget Me Not Is Impossible to Forget (June 2014) by Earle Hitchner, WSJ Forget Me Not, the debut duo album by fiddler Rose Flanagan and flutist Laura Byrne, is an irresistible reflection of their shared core values in Irish traditional music. They believe in preserving tradition without knee-jerk duplication, ornamenting a tune without ostentation, and otherwise playing together in a way that allows their distinct musical personalities to blend in a melody without capsizing it. All of that is the outcome of separate, longtime listening, learning, training, teaching, and mentoring carried into their music together over just the past few years. Each is a popular, highly effective instructor prized by various music schools, camps, and festivals and especially by her adopted hometown: Bronx-born Rose Flanagan in Pearl River, N.Y., and Vergennes, Vermont-born Laura Byrne in Baltimore, Md. Each is a member of a céilí band—Green Gates for Rose, and Old Bay for Laura—where close musical communication and balance are paramount. Each has previously been featured on recordings: Rose on Cherish the Ladies in 1985 and Craic in the Catskills in 2011, and Laura on her solo albums Tune for the Road in 2005 and Lucky Day in 2010 as well as the Old Bay Céilí Band’s Crabs in the Skillet in 2011. Each has been individually honored for achievement: Rose, an alumna of Fordham University, was inducted into Comhaltas Ceoltóirí Éireann’s Mid-Atlantic Region Hall of Fame in 2013, and Laura, an alumna of the Peabody Conservatory of Music at Johns Hopkins University, has received the prestigious Individual Artist Award for solo performance from the Maryland State Arts Council in both 2010 and 2011. Perhaps most striking on this album is the inescapable sweet center of their tandem playing that is neither cloying nor constrained and that ultimately forms an Irish traditional music bridge between New York City and Baltimore, where tempo, detail, and feeling are served by skill. Rose and Laura could not be more compellingly paired than on the 11 tracks they perform together with the sure, subtle support of Dublin-born Eamon O’Leary on guitar and bouzouki and/or New York-born Brendan Dolan on piano. Add in two standout solo tracks—Rose’s rendition of the reels “Glencolmcille/Martin Wynne’s #4/The Curlews” with Brendan backing her, and Laura’s unaccompanied rendition of the slow air “Sliabh Geal gCua Na Féile”—and what you have left is what’s incontestably right. This is music played with transportive, hand-in-glove grace by two admired American masters whose formal emergence as a recording duo on the aptly titled Forget Me Not should be cause for widespread celebration and, no doubt, praise. Earle Hitchner writes about Irish traditional and other roots music for The Wall Street Journal.