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The Duluth dog-obsessed group’s second offering, Sticks and Stones, for the mostpart comprises upbeat Scottish and Irish Celtic tune with a definite American twang, and shows in their chosen tracks the love of collaboration and re-arrangement for which they are well-known.

The least impressive numbers on the album are the pop-crossover tunes; ‘For All That’, which uses the venerable Rabbie Burns’ lyrics and transplants them onto a jumpy tune which seems a little forced and Caeri Tomson’s vocals are not to everyone’s taste, or rather not particularly to mine. There is a certain 60s revival, old-fashioned quality to them, the one to which many will flock, but I prefer to steer clear of.

This said, The Bordercollies version of Mary Fahl’s ‘Going Home’ (from the soundtrack to Gods and Generals), over John McCusker’s rather lovely tune ‘Ann McGuire’s Silver Wedding’, is a highpoint. ‘Danika Smile’, written by John Cutliffe, when living with Barry McGuigan. He wrote it to cheer up McGuigan’s daughter, who at the time was suffering from Leukaemia. It has a particularly American alt-country feel to which it is easy to warm to, and the playing on the album is fresh, light and there is a fair amount of tried and tested festival fodder in there too.

The Bordercollies are planning a tour in March 2007, and their current touring calendar can be found at www.thebordercollies.com - check this out too for their rather bizarre attachment to pictures of dog shows and of the Border collie after whom they are presumably named.

Sticks and Stones is released on 10 March.