World Village is proud to present Sweet Liberty - a new album of traditional songs from Irish vocalist Susan McKeown. An adventurous vocalist and producer, McKeown assembled a small group of remarkable musicians to record an album of beauty and simplicity which focuses squarely on the songs and on her clear, stirring contralto. One of McKeown's specialties is reviving rare songs that have yet to be explored in the current Celtic revival. Her arrangements of these songs sometimes employ traditional instrumentation but are as likely to surprise the listener with instrumentation not expected on an album of Celtic songs. "Oró Mhíle Grá" (A Thousand Times, My Love) is a fascinating collaboration between McKeown and Ensemble Tartit, a group of Tuareg musicians from Northern Mali. Mariachi Real de Mexico provides a rich, nostalgic accompaniment to the English folk song "Eggs in her Basket." Traditional Irish colors are also very much in evidence. The album opens with McKeown leading the instrumental quartet Flook (also on World Village Records 468015) in the spirited "The Wee Birds All Have Come and Gone" and the rich accompaniment to "Shamrock Green" is simply a guitar and fiddle, but the effect is stark and dramatic.