A review of the third album; Translations by Aaron Drake From Celtic.Duckwurks.Com - February 24, 2003 Baltimore, MD: I've only really been through there a couple times, and stopped for dinner once, and although I realize that I could be completely wrong, it is not a city I would associate with Celtic music, good or otherwise. Maybe that comes from living on the border with Canada for so long. So, regardless of the image I had of the city before, I was pleasantly surprised (in many ways) by the CD from The Donegal X-Press. No matter what I did expect from this CD, I couldn't have expected what it is. And what it is, is a great mix, a confluence of influences so wide it is hard to imagine. I can't think of another CD that changes gears so often or so effectively as Translations. The CD starts out with the song, "San Patricios," a high energy rock song with a Spanish feel, and verses that are almost rap, and a great vibe, and cuts into the second song, "Sportin' In The Kitchen," increasing the tempo more and going for more straight ahead rock, but keeping a fiddle going that gives it a nice Celtic feel. "Work Shanty" slows it down quite a bit, to a mellow ballad, with a good pop hook to it. "Everywhere" is a cool fast-driving song that starts off on the edge of falling apart, but stays together and rolls on like a train. "Good Ale Makes the World Go Round," tosses a bit of humor in, now where's my beer? "Irish Ways and Irish Laws," is the second of the two most blatant Irish songs. After the previous two songs, "Mojita," makes you look at the CD player to see if something is wrong with it, at least i did, as the spoken word piece starts. One word for this one - Hip! "Cajun Song," one of my favorites, has a really great chorus that pulls you in. "Angelaz Ashes," well I hope you don't have any preconceptions of this one because of the name - wow, did it take me by surprise, and it grooves. The last two songs, "The Old Orange Flute," and "Tugboat Song," are both more Irish sounding songs again. "Tugboat" is just great, no other way to put it. It reminds me a bit of the Mahones, right before the chorus, and it seems a tad reminicent of 'American Pie' for a few seconds. It will be a great song to see done live, so much energy there. You can order the CD's through the band's website, and I encourage you to. It's a damn good CD. There is no way to compare the band as a whole to another band, but there are the occasional (and I mean occasional) similarities to the Paperboys, the Pogues, Captain Tractor, the Mahones, and lots of others. I am trying to get permission to post one of the songs on my site for you to check out, but you can go to their site and listen to songs and even watch a few videos. Go do it. And go see these guys (and gals) live when they come around.