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Celtic Lullabies - Songs & Harp Tunes from Ireland,
Scotland & Wales Margie Butler $28 |
Fifteen beautiful lullabies from Ireland,
Scotland, Wales and the Isle of Man. Margie Butler and her harp
are joined by guest musicians Paul Espinoza (guitar), Flavio
Cucchi (guitar), Enrique Ugarte (accordion), Florie
Brown (violin), Kálmán Balogh (cimbalom), Hossam Ramzy
(triangle) and Pablo Cárcamo (midi guitar). Complete lyric and guitar chords in the booklet. |
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Ashley MacIsaac Self-titled CD New $27 in jewel case, 13 tracks Also available by Ashley MacIsaac: Hi How Are You Today New $25 in jewel case |
Review from Amazon: Growing up, my father listened to Irish music on a local AM station. Many of the songs were dirges. Others seemed to talk only about mother (not that there is anything wrong with Irish mothers) or the merits of joining the Irish Republican Army. I decided that I hated Irish music, until the Riverdance craze and a visit to Ireland. Then I became an Irish music purist and only enjoyed true Celtic music. Ashley MacIsaac seems to be able to combine the Celtic music I would like with the catchiness of the Irish music my father would enjoy in a well balanced compilation of Celtic-American music. Ashley MacIsaac's self titled CD certainly puts new life in Celtic music. He plays a mean fiddle and is a good vocalist as well. His music is catchy and would be at home in an Irish pub or an American watering hole. The opening song "Cello Song" sets the gritty Celtic tone of the album. The Gaelic words of "To America We Go" show the authenticity of the music. Even his remake of the often tired "Mull of Kintyre" is refreshing. The lyrics of most of his songs seem more at home in North America than Ireland, but this is not a fault. If anything, it shows the ways in which Celtic music is a major influence the world over. (Tim Kearney) |
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Amarantine Watermark by Enya Please enquire about cost and availability of Enya CDs as stock varies from time to time. |
From the first blanket of choral voices awash
in reverb, Amarantine is instantly recognizable as a product of
Enya, the Irish chanteuse who has created a genre unto herself. Although
it's been five years since her last CD, on Amarantine it's as if
time stood still. The triumvirate of Enya, lyricist Roma Ryan, and
producer Nicky Ryan work the formula they perfected on Watermark,
layering her voice in lush choirs pushed along by pizzicato synth strings,
swooning orchestral pads, and harpsichord arpeggios. On tracks like
"Less Than a Pearl" and "Drifting," Enya flirts with a
timeless sound born in gothic chants and hymns. The former is one of three
songs that she sings in Roma Ryan's fictitious language of Loxian. It
seems to free her, especially on "The River Sings," a veritable
rave-up where she gets the tribal choir going in the style of Scottish
mouth music. But to get there you have to slog through slo-mo ballads that
manage to be dirge-like and singsong at the same time, like the Carpenters
on Quaaludes. The relatively restrained arrangement of "It's in the
Rain" almost attains a folk-like simplicity that Enya hasn't
experienced since she sang with her siblings in Clannad a quarter-century
ago. Amarantine sounds like it was born in cloistered solitude,
self-referentially echoing Enya albums past. |
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Live in Paris & Toronto by Loreena McKennitt 2CD set - new and sealed: $35 |
Loreena McKennitt
is in her element in front of an audience, telling interesting stories
about the songs and assembling a topnotch backing band. This is her
first live release available to the public, and uses material from three
concerts (one from Paris and two from Toronto) to put together a
complete show. As with The Book of Secrets tour, the first half is The
Book of Secrets in its entirety, arranged in the same order as the
studio CD. This material is covered on the first CD, and it has never
sounded better. The live performance seems to breathe new life into the
tracks and some songs, such as "Dante's Prayer" and "Skellig,"
sound better than the studio recordings. The second CD is more of an
overview of her career, featuring songs from her back catalog. Again,
the tracks seem to benefit when played in front of an audience; in
particular, "The Lady of Shalott" and "All Souls
Night" are brilliant. The musicianship on this live CD is
excellent, and her band is very tight, as though they had been playing
together for years. The sound of the CD is amazing; while maintaining
the warmth of a live performance, McKennitt is still able to present a
crisp, clean recording -- a remarkable feat. Also worth noting is the
packaging, which includes notes by McKennitt, wonderful photos, and
details of how the whole package was put together. This CD is ideal for
fans and is actually a good place for newcomers to start. ~ Aaron
Badgley, All Music Guide |
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Hibernia: The Story of
Ireland by Dagda New copies, still sealed $26 ALSO AVAILABLE by DAGDA: Sleeping with the Gods of Love - $26 Underworld - $26 All Dagda CDs come in really nice digipaks as shown. |
Searching musically for Ireland's roots, songwriter and musical visionary Reg Keating fashions a unique new age outing steeped in the realm where myth and reality cross in murky shadows. The title promises a Celtic-themed journey and there are definitely elements here that will appeal to fans of the genre -- native language performances by the Enya-like ethereal voices of Sharon Murphy and Karen Tracey, a festive jig-type flavor on "Winds of Change," and a whimsical flute and haunting tribal voices winding through the ambient contours of "Tuath de Danaan." Despite these threads, however, and some unique scene-setting track descriptions (which read like a largely mythologized history), this recording is more geared toward the fan of cool, soulful ambient music in general than hardcore Irish music fans. "The 9th Wave" has a hypnotic industrial groove with haunting synth sounds and a moody vibe. "Tri na nOg" is all synth wash ambience and distant synth patterns leading into a gently throbbing trance. "Genesis Hibernia" is a lush new age solo piano tune surrounded by a thunderstorm soundscape. Overall, the story is slightly more interesting than the music. ~ Jonathan Widran, All Music Guide |
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Senex Puer by La Lugh New copies $26 ONE ONLY LEFT |
The musical
traditions of Northern Ireland is the foundation for County Louth-based
band, La Lugh. With virtuosic fiddler Gerry O'Connor and vocalist/flute
player Eithne Ni Uallachain setting the pace, the group serves an
infectuous, dance-inspiring, mixture of jigs, reels and traditional
balladry. La Lugh was conceived after O'Connor and Ni Uallachain met in
1991. Natives of Dubdakk in County Louth, both musicians hail from
musical families. O'Connor's family has played the fiddle for many
generations and his mother, Rose, was an influential fiddle teacher.
After playing with Kinvara, in the mid-1980s, O'Connor helped to found
traditional irish band, Skylark, in 1987. Ni Uallachain, who sings in
both Gaelic and English, is one of the best traditional singers in
Ireland. Raised in a Gaelic-speaking family, she learned many songs from
her father and other relatives. La Lugh, which also features Gilles
Bigot (guitar), Siobhan Kennedy (flute, violin, step dancing) and Donal
O'Connor (keyboards), received a "best album of the year"
award from "Irish Music" magzine in 1996. ~ Craig Harris, All
Music Guide |
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Tierra De Nadie by Hevia ASTURIA - Spain New copies $25 |
The bagpipes are
a primary instrument in traditional Scottish/Celtic music, but José Ángel
Hevia (who simply goes by Hevia on this CD) is one bagpiper who cannot
be considered a traditionalist or a purist. Hevia isn't Scottish -- he's
from the Asturias region of Spain -- and Tierra de Nadie isn't a
traditional Celtic recording. Rather, the risk-taking Hevia combines
Scottish/Celtic elements with everything from pop, rock, hip-hop, and
new age to Spanish and Middle Eastern music. On the haunting "Busindre
Reel" (a major hit in Spain), Hevia even employs the didgeridoo, a
wind instrument that is associated with Australian aboriginals. And
Hevia doesn't confine the bagpipes to an acoustic environment: On this
CD, the instrumentalist often uses an electronic MIDI bagpipe that can
be made to sound like a violin, an accordion, and other instruments.
Tierra de Nadie won't appeal to Celtic purists, but world music lovers
who are open to experimentation will find it to be generally
interesting, if a bit uneven. ~ Alex Henderson, All Music Guide |