How about some glorious trad music for you to wrap your ears around this week then?

Glasgow-based band TRIP have just dropped their debut album ’A Drop for Neptune’.

The six-piece unites the kindred Celtic traditions of Scotland, Ireland, Northumbria and the Isle of Man in their music - a reflection of where each band member hails from.

The line-up features Manx fiddler and Peel native Isla Callister, Newcastle accordionist Michael Biggins (BBC Young Traditional Musician of the year 2021), Sligo flautist Tiernan Courell (All-Ireland champion) and Scots Alasdair MacKenzie (guitar and voice), Rory Matheson (piano) and Craig Baxter (bodhran).

You’ll know Isla for all her performances at Inter-Celtic festivals in the island and further afield, where her passion for performing, collaborating and bringing Manx music and language to a wider audience began to flourish.

In 2016, she moved to Scotland to study Traditional Music at the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland in Glasgow, and soon after, she joined TRIP.

In 2018, the group were semi-finalists in the BBC 2 Young Folk Awards.

They say it best themselves: ’The group’s powerful, driven and distinctive sound is underpinned by a versatile top-line featuring accordion, fiddle and flute/whistle and a dynamic rhythm section of Piano, Guitar and Bodhran.

’Their considered arrangements feature a blend of traditional melodies and self-penned tunes and songs, and celebrates the band’s roots in traditional music, whilst showcasing their contemporary, cross-genre influences.’

A Drop for Neptune is a culmination of four years of musical kinship that started on the trad music scene in Glasgow.

The record was written during the pandemic and was heavily inspired by the sea - as is made clear in song titles like ’September Sea’, ’Turning Tides’, ’The Ninth Wave’ and ’Towards The Storm’.

As the band say, the sea is ’something that connects and shapes us all’.

It’s rousing good fun from start to finish and well worth a listen.

’Madeleine’s’ is a stand-out. The fade out and build-up near the song’s close is simply awesome.

The band dropped the album in conjunction with Celtic Connections - Glasgow’s annual folk, roots and world music festival which celebrates its connections to cultures across the globe.

The festival is still on until February 6.

The huge celebration sees over 2,100 musicians from around the world bring the city to life for 18 days.

During that time, there are concerts, ceilidhs, talks, art exhibitions, workshops, free events and a special series of commissions celebrating Scotland’s Year of Stories 2022.

l You can check out the band here: www.trip-music.com/ and read more about Celtic Connections here: www.celticconnections.com/