It may have her name on the cover, but Cara Dillon's latest album Hill of Thieves brings together some of the greatest folk musicians around and it's a brilliant ensemble piece.

Dillon's husband Sam Lakeman has co-written the album, and brought his brothers Seth and Sean along in supporting roles, with Seth's band member Ben Nicholls playing excellent double bass. Flook's flautist Brian Finnegan and guitarist Ed Boyd appear,� Eamon Murray from hotly-tipped young folksters Beoga brings his bodhran to the sessions and there's All-Ireland Senior Fiddle Champion Zoe Conway as well.

For all the talent, it's a very understated and quiet album. Dillon has taken traditional songs as her starting point, and produced a delicate acoustic album. It lets her voice � soft, breathy, but incredibly powerful � take centrestage.

You'd expect this on tracks like The Parting Glass and The Verdant Braes of Skeen, where Dillon is accompanied only by Sam Lakeman on piano. But on tracks like Jimmy Mo Mhile Stor, where Finnegan on flute and James O'Grady on Uilleann pipes more than�fill the spaces, Dillon's voice is given a chance to soar higher and sound even stronger.

Turn She Moved Through The Fair up loud, and Nicholl's heavy, slow bass line is almost a second voice to Dillon's, and the two whistles played by Dillon and O'Grady add another voice. There are no tricks here; real instruments and honest voices married with timeless songs make for acoustic music at it's absolute best.

Of course, there's one other thing that folk music does and that's make you want to get to your feet. And P Stands For Paddy, driven by massed guitars, bouzouki-guitar, racing bodhran and percussion, and topped by pipes and fiddle, does just that.

So from the very contemporary-sounding opener The Hill of Thieves to the final track�Gaelic Fil, Fil A Run O, this is an album that has everything. Traditional music-making has given us a modern masterpiece.

Hill of Thieves is available now on Charcoal Records

Cara Dillon is featured in the current issue of Properganda, available from Resident, Kensington gardens, Brighton; Borderline Records, Gardner Street, Brighton; The Music Room, Guildhall Street, Folkestone and other good independent stores.