Press Reviews

Live Ireland Web Site

THIS is a young fiddler!!! Wow! Joined by a myriad of guest stars, this Manchester-based fiddler is overwhelming! All the energy, all the drive, all the talent!!

This may well be our favourite album out of all these, and he is a serious contender for Newcomer Of The Year, or Musician of the Year! Now, go find this album. Get on it, and you will be rewarded.

All the influences, Mc Goldrick, Carty, Mairin Fahy, this boy has done his homework, practiced and practiced and come up with his own deal! We are blown away. (God help us, he also plays a great banjo and a passable bass!!) Lots of diversity. Let's repeat. Wow!! Bill Margeson

Net Rhythms Music Web Site

Donegal-born, Manchester-based fiddle player Gerry presents a very eclectic mix of tunes indeed on this his debut album.

Opening with a stirring set of reels, followed by a Grappelli-style Hooley (mm, that tasty jazzy shuffle!), a fairly laid-back version of Bonnie At Morn (with vocal by Lisa Knapp, who also sings The Blacksmith later on), then a set of Roumanian Hora. Get the picture?

Sure, Gerry excels himself instrumentally as you'd expect (principally on fiddle, but with occasional excursions onto banjo, guitar or bouzouki), always the musical virtuoso but without being over-flashy, and sometimes he's multi-tracked.

Variously, he enjoys instrumental support from Ed Boyd, Tim Edey, Ollie Blanchflower, Gino Lupari, James O'Grady and Richard Pryce (to name but a few), and there's even a Pete Townsend credited on double bass on one track!

Taken individually, each track is a gem; Gerry has the knack of pulling together disparate musical strands into a seamless whole, at any rate within the compass of each of the individual tracks; the drawback is that in the final analysis I can't help feeling that the very Diver-sity of styles and material weakens rather than strengthens the album's overall identity - but you may well disagree. David Kidman

Froots October 2003.

Belfast fiddler Gerry Diver's debut album lives up to it's name, with everything from Jazz, Western swing and homegrown traditions. While his approach is cheeky and competent, it struggles as times to make a definitive personal statement.

However, its victories outnumber its defeats; potentially a major border crosser in embryonic form.

Hot Press. Sept 2003

This is a grand jolly debut CD. No slouch on the fiddle and banjo, Donegal's Diver also plays guitar, bazouki, bodhran, bass, shaker and is a dab hand at writing new tunes, several of which feature on the album notably, Hot Summer Hooley, a bouncy tribute to the swing jazz style of Stephane Grappelli. A pair of Rumanian horas and two Peter Ostroushko tracks add an international element to the mix and Lisa Knapp sings a Northumbrian lullaby called Bonnie at Morn as well as an interesting waltz tempo version of the classic The Blacksmith. Sarah McQuaid

Pay The Reckoning. Music Web Site September 2003

Diver (fiddle, banjo, guitar, percussion, bass) is a major talent. No two ways about it. You don't even need to listen to the album to know that he's in the first division. Simply check out the list of people who've gone out of their way to guest with Manchester's maestro. Lisa Knapp (vocals, fiddle), Tim Edey (guitar, accordion), Lucy Randall (bodhran, bones), Gino Lupari (bodhran, bones), Ed Boyd (guitar, bouzouki), Ollie Blanchflower (double bass), Jo May (djembe), James O'Grady (pipes), Ben Clark (drums), Edel Sullivan (fiddle), Pete Townsend (bass), Johnny Hennessy-Brown (cello), Les Hill (pedal steel) and Richard Pryce (double bass) contribute their various and varied talents to a smorgasbord of an album.

Diver's tastes are diverse. Eastern European influences feature at various points on the album, as does a Western Swing/country jazz aesthetic on the epic "Hot Summer Hooley".

However Irish traditional tunes form the album's bedrock. Some quality sets here, grounded in the "pure drop" approach, but accommodating more than a little experimentation. "Ferny Hill/Rakish Paddy/Christmas Eve" is a real corker and leads into the compelling "The Orthodox Priest/Charlie Lennon's/The Sailor's Bonnet".

"Henry's Jig/Calliope House/The Munster Buttermilk" gets our vote for the highlight of the album. The first jig was composed by Diver himself as a tribute to his dad. The closing jig is the first tune he ever learned. There's a very real sense of the forces that drive Diver in this set; that, despite his love of exotic musical forms from other places, his roots are very much in the Irish tradition. A modern classic. Utterly contemporary and yet solidly traditional.

Folking.com Music Web Site

Gerry Diver brings to mind a young Kevin Burke from the opening track 'The Shepherd's Bush Reel/Goldhawk Road/

The Procrastination Reel' and it's bound to set the listener in mind of The Bothy Band on heat (!) with its driving rhythm

and soaring fiddle.

The only problem I have with it is that all of the musicians seem to have a problem in keeping up and unfortunately nobody seems to have a chance to draw breath such is the unrelenting speed. There are quite a few clipped notes in order to attain

the speed which is a shame really as Gerry is without doubt a fine musician.

The second track, a more evenly paced Grappelli style jazz infused number called 'The Hot Summer Hooley' really swings

and collaborator Tim Edey's "Django" guitar is the ideal compliment but why, oh why the inclusion of the pedal steel guitar - more than a bit jarring for my tastes I'm afraid.

No, I must admit that although I know the album is supposed to focus on the instrumental talents of Gerry it is on the songs

that I am most impressed. The simplistic approach taken on bouzouki backing the delicate (but delicious) vocals of Lisa Knapp is a real coup.

'Bonny At Morn' has long been a favourite of mine and Lisa gives it depth without making it insipid. It has to be said that when he's not going for gold in the speed stakes this talented multi-instrumentalist proves his worth either leading the field or accompanying.

For me, Gerry has a lot of potential but it appears at the moment it's a case of trying a bit too hard although hopefully by

that all important second album he'll achieve his ultimate goal. Pete Fyfe

The Irish Post 19.7.03

You're unlikely ever to find yourself thinking: now, what I'd really like to listen to is some Irish traditional music mixed in with a bit of Stefan Grappelli/ Northumbrian/ Rumanian/ English/ Ukraine music. But should that mood ever descend upon you, I have the very album.

Diversions contains all the above — plus a few self penned numbers as well.

Of these, The Shepherd's Bush Reel and The Procrastination Reel put me in mind of the old joke: How do you tell one Irish tune from another? Answer: by their names.

The thing is there's about 6,000 pieces in the Irish national store of traditional music stretching back these last 300 years or so.

Now we're talking here about a very precious music, the best in the world as far as I'm concerned, and I seldom listen to anything else.

But one would have to say that being a fairly rudimentary music, as all folk music is, 6.000 pieces is really all we need.

Everything you can do with the 'ould music' has more or less been done — and there's nothing about any of the self-penned music on this CD to persuade me otherwise.

Let me say here and now: there's some absolutely terrific musicians on this album, not the least Gerry Diver on fiddle himself.

There's some exceptional accordion playing from Tim Edey, and of course, you can't really improve on Gino Lupari on the bodhran.

But by the end of the album you feel with all that musical firepower as his disposal, Gerry might have been better visiting just one or two places in the world and confining his musical style accordingly. Malcolm Rogers