It's hard to qualify what "best of" could mean in the case of a band as prolific as Altan. This was a record label collection (the best of the Green Linnet years) and it is just that from Frankie Kennedy's slow reel, "The Sunset," through the jigs, reels and airs that they play so well. Mairead Ni Mhaoinaigh on fiddle also supplies their trademark voice, Ciaran Tourish and Paul O'Shaughnessy are on fiddles as well, Frankie Kennedy is on flute plus various instruments by Ciaran Curran, Mark Kelly and Daithi Sproule. As a bonus there is a second CD, a live recording taken from the soundboard of a 1989 concert. --Louis Gibson