His early career found him immersed more in American blues and jazz than his own Celtic heritage, but Van Morrison has periodically revisited that facet of his music since the mid-'70s, when Veedon Fleece offered his first clutch of explicitly Irish songs. No album has found him digging deeper than this 1988 collaboration with the Chieftains, who more than meet Morrison's always high standards for musicianship and produce a rich, empathic backdrop for a set of traditional ballads, jigs, and reels, with an acoustic remake of Morrison's own "Celtic Ray" and the lovely title song. With two of Ireland's finest female singers (Maura O'Connell and Mary Black) along for the ride, this amounts to an Irish supergroup--and the music lives up to that promise. --Sam Sutherland