Danú
Borderline, London ****

The best traditional Irish groups are in such demand abroad these days that your chances of sitting under the nose of some wild bodhrán player of repute are fading fast. What a treat, then, to see the next big thing, Danú, average age 24, in the poky Borderline.

The Doorley brothers from Dublin - Eamon on bouzouki and Tom on sprightly flute - lead Danú’s easy, session-rooted flow along with Jesse Smith, a fine if rigid fiddle player from Washington DC (not a drop of Irish blood in his veins), and punchy Waterford box player Brendan McCarthy. Despite jet lag and an arrhythmic couple clapping wildly in the front row, they build up great energy, urged on by bodhrán player Donnchadh Gough, his fringe flying up with the effort of beating. For one song he ditches his stick for a washing-up brush, a set of uilleann pipes at his feet amid beer bottles for when he doubles up as piper.

Not all Danú’s tunes are traditional; Peggy’s Nettles, for example, was written by guitarist Noel Ryan in memory of the morning his mother woke him from a deep sleep with a bunch of stinging nettles.

Best of all, freed of his piano accordion duties, Ciarán Ó Gealbháin from Irish-speaking Waterford unleashes a voice to lie down in the road for: rich, lilting, tender, lovelorn, playful. Even the bar staff heed his warning to women in a spellbinding Fair and Tender Ladies: “Men are only after one thing,” he explains, “your money.” Or in the words of the song: “For they’re like a star on a cloudy morning/ First they’ll appear and then they’ve gone.”

Let’s hope Danú don’t go away just yet.