Compendium : The Best Of Patrick Street

After seven albums of top-notch reels, jigs, ballads, and polkas, Celtic supergroup Patrick Street have earned themselves a “greatest-hits” collection. Compendium: The Best of Patrick Street is a serviceable slice from an awfully big pie. For fans who have followed closely the careers of Andy Irvine, Kevin Burke, Arty McGlynn, and Jackie Daly, this anthology offers nothing new. For the uninitiated, however, it serves as a cohesive sampler of what these talented gentlemen are capable of. Although it features a fine balance of songs — “William Taylor” — and instrumentals — “Loftus Jones” — the exclusion of Gerry O’Beirne’s “Strokestown” and “Land of the Patagarang,” and the inclusion of the dynamically challenged live version of their peerless studio recording of Penguin Cafe Orchestra’s “Music for a Found Harmonium”- makes this Best Of a “rest of”. – James Christopher Monger