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Internet
Radio - a boon to musicians and Celtic music fans! On June
30th, 2003, a new Celtic music channel was launched: RadioCelt!
The music we love so much here at the Celtic Cafe occupies a fairly tiny niche
in the music world, and it's rare to be able to tune in a local radio station
and hear our favorite artists -- but Internet Radio saves the day! Anyone
with a computer (Macintosh version coming soon) can now hear some really great
sounds simply by going to RadioCelt.com,
thanks to the music director there, Michael
Londra. Michael knows good music... he was lead singer with Riverdance
on Broadway, and happens to have been our April Featured Artist of
the Month. Click here to
see that and find out more about Michael and his own wonderful CD, which you can
happily hear on RadioCelt as well. And by the way, RadioCelt's "parent,"
AccuRadio, is one of the Top
Ten Internet sites! Only in its infancy, RadioCelt has already garnered
rave reviews, and indeed, there has been a more enthusiastic response in the Celtic
Cafe community for this Internet channel than any other online music source we
know of. Michael and his team have plans to make RadioCelt even better, with the
inclusion of much more information there about the music and the artists, including
features, reviews, etc. Until then, we at the Celtic Cafe will gladly help out
by providing a weekly feature on the latest additions to the playlist. Please
give Michael and AccuRadio feedback and suggestions for what you'd like to hear
by contacting them through RadioCelt.com.
Kudos to the folks behind this wonderful new venture! •
• • RadioCelt Playlist Additions
- July 18 AOIFE
The Turning of the Tide Aoife
Ni Fhearraigh's new CD, The Turning of
the Tide, features fifteen songs ranging from the traditional to the contemporary.
She comes from Gweedore, County Donegal, Ireland, where she took singing lessons
from Enya and Moya
Brennan's mother, "Baba" Brennan. Phil
Coulter not only produced Aoife's latest, he provides piano as well! See
an older Celtic Cafe feature we have on her and that gorgeous voice by clicking
here, and tune in to listen to her latest CD at RadioCelt.com!
Aoife's official site: Aoife.ie •
• • ANNE BUCKLEY
Celtic Goddess Known to most in the Celtic Cafe community
as the beautiful singer who toured for years with Michael Flatley's "Lord
of the Dance" and "Feet of Flames," Anne
Buckley is indeed a "Celtic Goddess." Her new solo CD "Celtic
Goddess" has been long-awaited by her fans, who can as of today hear
it at RadioCelt.com! "Celtic Goddess"
features twelve tracks, and special musician guests include fiddler Máiréad
Nesbitt, also formerly with Lord
of the Dance, and currently touring with Afro
Celts (see our Cafe Buzz item on that by clicking
here), Juan Martin, the noted Flamenco guitarist from Spain, and
Oboe King David Agnew!
Anne
is our July Featured Artist of the Month,
and the Celtic Cafe interview is coming soon. Anne Buckley's official
site: AnneBuckley.com •
• • KATHY MATTEA
Roses From Kathy
Mattea's website: Roses, her Narada
debut, includes songs, instruments, and musicians that Kathy's been yearning to
bring together for years. She describes the music of Roses as "contemporary
folk with a Celtic twist," and it features Kathy's powerfully tender voice
alongside cajones, accordion, whistle, fiddles, mandolin, and even a pie pan.
Many of the songs on the album, like the upbeat 'I'm Alright,' are favorite treasures
that Kathy has wanted to record for some time. Others, like 'They Are The Roses,'
are stunning new finds. But in each case, the songs speak directly from Kathy's
heart, resonating with her and out to her audience... When
all is said and done, the themes of life's victories, large and small, and the
spiritual struggles they portray, are the threads that run through Kathy's music.
On Roses, her message to all of us is to "treasure the moment and
enjoy the journey, wherever it may take us." Kathy Mattea's official
site: Mattea.com •
• • KÍLA
Luna Park On June 21 many of us here in the Celtic Cafe
community paid close attention to the radio and webcasts of the Special
Olympics Opening Ceremony at Croke Park in Dublin. Click
here for our coverage of the Riverdance
segment. Well, Kila got the festivities started off right, before an audience
of 75,000! Guests of Honor included Irish President Mary McAleese, Special
Olympics Founder Eunice Kennedy Shriver, and former South African President
Nelson Mandela. A host of celebrities from the worlds of international
sport and show business took part in the celebrations, including Bono, U2,
The Corrs, Samantha Mumba, Ronan Tynan, Colin Farrell, Jon Bon Jovi, Arnold Schwarzenegger,
Ashley Judd, Heather Locklear, and Eddie Irvine. No doubt they all
enjoyed Kíla! From their website: "Luna Park"
is the band's ninth recording to date and fifth in a series of five exceptional
studio albums -- of which all so far have gone Gold! Kíla have brought
their compositional and arrangement capabilities to a level of sophistication
on Luna Park that has not been heard on their previous recordings. Of the 11 newly
composed pieces on Luna Park there are 7 instrumental pieces and 4 songs, all
of which vary in mood, pace, and colour. They are each imbued with the same sense
of adventure and have an immeasurable depth that is the very mark of Kíla's
unique and exciting music.
Kíla's official site: Kila.ie •
• • MAURA O'CONNELL
Walls and Windows Maura
O'Connell has come to the attention of a lot of new fans due to her part
as a street singer in Martin Scorsese's film "Gangs of New York,"
but she's had a huge following for a very long time! From her website: "Once
destined to take over the family’s fish shop started by her grandmother in
the town of Ennis in County Clare, music was an integral part of Maura’s
childhood, growing up the third of four singing daughters, with a mother who also
sang... Maura O’Connell began her professional musical journey during
a six-week tour of America in 1980, as vocalist for the traditionally-based Celtic
group DeDanann. The following year, she was featured on the band’s
landmark album, The Star-Spangled Molly, which became something of a national
phenomenon in her homeland, not unlike the 1993 compilation, A Woman’s
Heart, (featuring Maura and several other popular Irish female artists), a
copy of which was estimated to be in every single home in Ireland." Read
much more at her site, especially about her musical journeys to Nashville, and
listen to Walls and Windows
at RadioCelt.com, about which Music Director
Michael Londra raves "one
of my fave CDs of late... LOVE HER!!!" Maura O'Connell's official
site: MauraOConnell.com •
• • MARY RAFFERTY
Hand Me Downs The following is from Paul
Carr's CD Reviews section at the Celtic Cafe (click
here) about Mary Rafferty's
CD Hand Me Downs: "In their other lives, Mary
Rafferty and Deirdre Connolly are members of Cherish
the Ladies, the talented Irish-American band of female musicians. Here
they step out on their own with two fine CDs brimming with the best and the beauty
of Irish tunes and songs. Mary Rafferty's CD is a treasure chest of jigs,
reels, hornpipes, and airs mostly learned from her father, Mike Rafferty, a native
of Ballinakill in east County Galway. Mary's CD also features tunes from other
East Galway musicians, as well as other luminaries in the Irish sky, including
New York uilleann piper Jerry O'Sullivan. Not just a keeper of the
flame and fame in the tunes department, Mary plays several instruments. Along
with her trademark accordion, she plays a concertina, whistle, and flute on her
CD. Adding to the blend of instruments are some of her fellow musicians
from Cherish the Ladies, including fiddler Marie Reilly (click
here for our Celtic Cafe feature about Marie and Martin Reilly), flute/whistle-player
Joanie Madden. Singer Deirdre Connolly even joins in to add some
understated vocals on one air. It's all together a beautiful thing. And
when you add the sean nós dancing of Seosamh Ó Neachtain to a couple
of the tunes, and the occasional bodhrán, you've got the kind of lift and
flow that marks the best of Irish traditional music. Mary Rafferty's CD
is indeed the real thing, with masters of the music at the height of their powers."
Mary
Rafferty's official site: RaffertyMusic.com •
• • Check back here each Friday for information about
the newest additions to the RadioCelt playlist until such time that it is available
at RadioCelt.com itself! Feature: Bernadette
Price
Original Web Design: Alexander
Servas
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