Adopting a historical approach, Martin Dowling traces the trajectory of traditional music's development in Ireland since the 18th century, looking at the constellation of political, economic and social influences on its generation. This decision to highlight the historical context of music is Dowling's key original contribution to the existing oeuvre of research on traditional music in Ireland; most existing academic research on traditional Irish music tends to emanate from an ethnomusicology background and therefore typically draws from various cultural studies approaches. As such, what makes Dowling's book so innovative is his charting of the impact of a range of historical milestones – political, economic and social historical milestones, namely, the pre-18th century union with Britain, the Famine, the revival, and contemporary conflict and peace in Northern Ireland – on traditional music's evolution. To integrate these various fields of study together is no mean feat, but very conveniently for the rest of us Dowling has painstakingly condensed into one book a political, economic and social history that we previously would have had to read approximately over 20 books to absorb.

The book is comprised of five chapters and opens with one that investigates the foundations of what we now know as ‘traditional music’. Moving from Chapters 1–3 through various critical historical conjunctures such as the pre-Famine, Famine and post-Famine years, it becomes clear that this type of music fomented and cemented out of a very particular set of circumstances that has at its core the Anglo-Irish War. The notion of ‘traditional’ music only emerges at the end of the 1800s with Dowling explaining over the course of Chapter 3 that prior to this the now so-called ‘traditional’ music was simply the ‘popular’ music of the time. However, in the context of the Anglo-Irish War this music gradually becomes part and parcel of the identity-building exercise concerning what exactly connotes ‘Irishness’. Simply, Irish identity becomes everything that isn't British. This means that traditional music, the Gaelic language, Gaelic sports and Catholicism are presented as key facets of this new national identity. Dowling's (p. 161) focus, however, is on traditional music in particular and he shows how ‘popular’ music came to be painted as anglicised in 1892 with Douglas Hyde's comment that ‘our music … has become anglicised … I must hope … that people may be brought to love the purism of “Siubhail, Siubhail” or the fun of “Maureen Ruadh” in preference to “Get Your Hair Cut” or “Over the Garden Wall” … ’. From the 1890s on, then, ‘traditional’ Irish music was to be distinguished from the supposedly anglicised popular music.

Throughout these chapters, the book progresses from an exemplary merging of the work of an array of academics such as Christopher Marsh, T.C. Barnard and Adrian Scahill to focusing on Dowling's own primary research into music making in the 19th century. The book thus appears to constitute two distinct segments, with Chapters 1–3 moving seamlessly through a linear historical narrative, while Chapters 4 and 5 focus on James Joyce and the music traditions of Northern Ireland, respectively. However, the connection of these two latter essays to the earlier narrative seems to be the discussion in Joyce's depictions of Dublin concerning traditional song. Moving further into the 20th century, then, the final chapter reads almost as an autoethnographic piece on Dowling's own engagement with the music traditions of Northern Ireland – his adopted home since the 1980s – with him writing compellingly about the challenges facing the Ulster-Scots culture and identity. This is another facet which demarcates Dowling's book from others on the topic – given the sometimes hostile treatment this particular tradition receives in studies of Irish music, Dowling's depiction is refreshingly passionate and inclusive.

The book draws to a close, then, as it began, with Dowling's personal reflections on his journey through traditional music. His text thus elaborates on how music provides not only the texts that recount the lives of societies but also the texts that recount the lives of individuals. This personal autoethnographic touch is something not often revealed in academic texts but then, as Dowling puts it on the first page, his first book was inspired by the message on an ‘oblique strategy’ card created by the ambient musician Brian Eno, which urged him to take a self-displacing move and, in a way, this willingness to take a risk is what has led Dowling down the side paths to originality – and this book is no exception.