With ‘Deichtine’s Daughter’, Dee Armstrong steps from the ensemble shadows of Kíla into her own resplendent light, and the result is nothing short of spellbinding. After decades as one of Ireland’s most quietly essential musical visionaries, Armstrong delivers an album that feels less like a debut and more like the unveiling of a personal mythology long in the making. This is music rooted in memory, myth, and place- a deeply lived-in body of work that radiates both reverence and revolution.
The textures are earthy and cosmic all at once, dulcimers shimmer like morning frost, banjos ripple like mountain brooks, bodhráns pulse like heartbeats. It’s the sound of tradition being lovingly reshaped, not as preservation but as continuation.
Armstrong’s playing- on fiddle, viola, dulcimer, and more- is spectacular. Her compositions weave stories of lost plants, loyal dogs, mourned friends, and spirited children. Tracks like ‘Bearna Waltz’ and ‘Ed the Visitor’ are as rich with sentiment as they are with musicality.
‘Frailach’, a reimagining of a jubilant Jewish wedding melody, is performed with a gentler touch, reminding us that joy, too, can be contemplative. ‘Django’s’ rollicking charm belies the tender family naming story behind it. And ‘Prince of Laughter’- written in memory of a child whose smile lit up a room- is almost unbearably moving.
But the soul of the album lies in its title track. Inspired by Louis De Paor’s poem reimagining a fierce feminine counterpart to Cú Chulainn, ‘Deichtine’s Daughter’ is a recognition for all the unnamed women who walk the warrior’s path daily. There’s nothing performative in Armstrong’s tribute- it’s lived-in, bone-deep, and defiantly graceful.
That this album was recorded at her Leitrim home only adds to its magnetic pull. You can almost hear the mountain winds on ‘Boihy Mountain Road’, feel the hush of silver birches in ‘Birch Wind’, and taste the turf smoke of a Leipzig bar in ‘The Killi Willi Waltz’. The songs bloom like mossy stones, familiar, yet full of surprise.
Armstrong has long been a custodian of Irish sound, and ‘Deichtine’s Daughter’ is her personal testament to the stories we carry and the spirits we channel. It’s a woven tapestry, a fireside tale, a lived history set to strings and skins. Equal parts homage and invention and this album invites us to look backwards and forward at once, rooted in the wild beauty of now.