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Essential Irish, Scottish, Welsh,
Galician, Breton, and Cape Breton recordings for your home library.
During the last decade, interest in Celtic music and dance has grown dramatically
in the wake of such hugely successful stage spectaculars as Riverdance and Lord
of the Dance. Also, to the aural delight of moviegoers everywhere, Celtic melodies
on authentic instruments have coursed through such blockbuster motion pictures
as Braveheart and The Last of the Mohicans. These immensely popular shows and
films have helped fuel a worldwide fascination with a culture that has moved from
the margins to the mainstream of media.
Need more proof? Recall “The
Theme from Harry’s Game” by the Donegal band Clannad that graced a Volkswagen
TV commercial some years back.
Consider that pop superstar Sarah McLachlan
won a Grammy this year for “I Will Remember You,” a song whose melody
is drawn directly from a tune Seamus Egan wrote and recorded in 1990 for a deceased
Irish fiddler. Or think of actor John Lithgow’s hilarious impersonation of
stepdancer Michael Flatley on the TV sitcom Third Rock From the Sun. Celtic culture
has arrived, but from where? The 10 CD’s listed alphabetically below will
give you a sense of the music’s ancient roots and innovative branches. Dating
from 1921 to 1997, the tracks on these recordings provide a quick, brisk immersion
in the best this highly diverse music has to offer. But be forewarned: once you
dive in, you may never come up for air again.
AS FADAS DE ESTRAÑO
NOME, by Milladoiro (Green Linnet GLCD 3118): The 14 tracks on this album,
whose title means “The Fairies With Strange Names,” are taken from two
concerts given in 1995 by Milladoiro. Founded at the University of Santiago de
Compostela, they are one of the premier bands performing the traditional music
of Galicia, a region in northwest Spain that is a Celtic music hotbed. The septet
play no fewer than 25 instruments on music that brings a distinct Spanish rhythm
to Celtic-flavored melodies further laced with medieval art music. This skillfully
crafted coalition of sounds can be heard to exciting effect on the rousing traditional
Galician dance tune “Danza de Albarellos.” THE
BOTHY BAND (Mulligan LUN CD 002; Green Linnet GLCD 3011): From 1974 to 1979,
this sextet blazed a musical trail few other Irish bands have come close to duplicating.
A quarter century old now yet as fresh as ever, this album debut from 1975 had
a seismic impact on younger players of Irish traditional music, who recognized
the rock-and-roll rhythmic sensibility of Dónal Lunny playing bouzouki.
Flutist Matt Molloy, fiddler Tommy Peoples, and uilleann piper Paddy Keenan were
simply unsurpassed on such reels as “Martin Wynne’s/The Longford Tinker.”
The crystalline voice of Tríona Ní Dhomhnaill on “Do You Love
an Apple?” and other songs could melt stone, while her brother Mícheál’s
breathy vocals offered an ideal balance. Neil Young was right: better to burn
out than fade away. The Bothy Band burned out, all right, but the heat and light
they gave off have never faded away.
MICHAEL COLEMAN, 1891-1945 (Gael-Linn/Viva Voce CEFCD 161): This Sligo-born
fiddler is, without question, the single most important figure in Irish traditional
music during the 20th century. His recordings from 1921 to 1936 on this two-CD
set showcased phrasing, ornamentation, and tone that raised the standard for all
Irish fiddlers, then and now. It is impossible to gauge the musical influence
of Coleman, so pervasive and ingrained are his technique and style in the tradition
today. These 48 tracks of Coleman’s fiddling, including a classic pair of
reels from his November 1934 recording session for Decca, “Bonnie Kate/Jennie’s
Chickens,” make clear what Irish music aficionados mean by the terms “pre-Coleman”
and “post-Coleman.”
HANDFUL
OF EARTH, by Dick Gaughan (Topic TSCD419; Green Linnet GLCD
3062): Of
mixed Scottish-Irish blood (his paternal grandfather was from Ballina, County
Mayo), Scotland’s Dick Gaughan has a uniquely expressive, grit-ladened voice
and a political temperament perfectly suited to songs of conscience and social
activism. Falling solidly in the musical mold of his fellow Scotsman Ewan MacColl,
America’s Pete Seeger, and, more recently, England’s Billy Bragg, Gaughan
invests songs with every fiber in his being. There’s nothing halfhearted
about him or his music, and this flawless album, recorded in 1981, captures Gaughan
at the peak of his ability as a singer and guitarist. Many other vocalists, including
Mary Black, have recorded Phil Colclough’s moving
“Song for Ireland,”
but Dick Gaughan’s rendition towers above all. The nine songs and one instrumental
on this recording are shattering performances.
JUDIQUE ON THE FLOOR, by Buddy MacMaster (Sea-Cape Music Ltd. ACD-9020):
They say Cape Breton Island in eastern Nova Scotia has more fiddlers per
square foot than any other area in the world. Within that high
concentration
of fiddlers, Hugh Allan “Buddy” MacMaster is a living legend. Wrist-snapped
saw strokes in a propulsive style of bowing are a
hallmark of Scots-rooted,
Cape Breton-style fiddling, and MacMaster is, well, a master at it. This is Buddy’s
first full-length album, recorded
in April 1989, and it conveys all the energy
and excitement he brings to his regular playing for dances in and around his hometown
of Judique in
Cape Breton. Piano accompaniment is provided by John Morris
Rankin, who tragically died in a car accident this past January. Their collaboration
reaches a zenith on the momentum-building medley of “King George the Fourth
Strathspey/Old King George Strathspey/Old King’s Reel/King’s Reel/Old
Traditional Reel.”
(See
the Celtic Cafe's special feature on Buddy MacMaster by clicking here.) KERZH
BA’N’ DANS, by Skolvan (Keltia Musique KMCD 16): “Come to the
Dance” is how this album’s title loosely translates, and no group from
Brittany in the northwest corner of France performs the music of festou
noz--late-night
Breton dances that can last well into the morning hours--with more panache and
punch than this quartet. Bombarde (oboe-like instrument) and biniou (one-droned
bagpipe) combine with diatonic accordion, fiddle, piano, and guitar on gavottes,
polkas, and ronds displaying a truly impressive touch. Formed in 1984 by music
teachers from the Conservatoire Régional de Musique et de Danse
Traditionnelle
de Bretagne, Skolvan features top-flight members from other Breton bands, such
as Youenn Le Bihan from Gwerz and Gilles Le
Bigot from Kornog. Skolvan’s
creativity especially shines on “Trip to Skye,” a tune composed by Irish
button accordionist John
Whelan, in which the group quickens the tempo Breton-style and inserts a tantalizing
fiddle bridge.
PLANXTY
(Shanachie 79009): Returning to Ireland in 1971 from a five-year stay in England,
singer Christy Moore made Prosperous, a solo album named after the County Kildare
town in which it was recorded. Among the musicians joining him in the studio were
Dónal Lunny, Liam O’Flynn, and Andy Irvine, and those four formed
Planxty that same year. The quartet’s recording debut in 1972, affectionately
referred to ever after as “the black album,” shook the cobwebs from
conventional Irish ballad singing and rote instrumental playing, giving new life
to each through more traditional and accomplished settings. In the early 1970s,
this lineup put an indelible stamp on Ireland’s musical tradition. “Raggle
Taggle Gypsy/Tabhair Dom Do Lámh,” pairing a traditional song with
an old harp tune, illustrates how groundbreaking the musical efforts of this band
were.
SEAL SONG,
by Ossian (Iona IRCD002): Lead vocalist Billy Ross had departed, and his replacement,
Tony Cuffe, previously a member of Alba and Jock Tamson’s Bairns, made his
Ossian recording debut with this 1981 release. Glasgow-based Ossian had already
been together for five years before Cuffe joined, but with this album the quartet
embarked on a phase
of development that still reverberates in Scottish traditional
music today. The arrangements are stunning--not from a blaring energy some
Scots bands resort to, but from an intricate, incremental layering of instrumentation
that is absolutely breathtaking. Of all the great Scottish groups from the ’70s
and ’80s (Silly Wizard, Battlefield Band, Tannahill Weavers, Kentigern),
Ossian was arguably the most visionary and soulful. The lineup of Cuffe, Billy
and the late George Jackson, and John Martin left us with “A Fisherman’s
Song for Attracting Seals/Lieutenant McGuire/Walking the Floor” and other
performances whose luster is undimmed by time or fashion’s tide.
SEIDIR DDOE, by Plethyn (Sain SCD 2083): Large ensemble choral singing
is what Wales is best known for musically around the globe. But this principality
lying along Britain’s southwestern shore also has a proud Celtic tradition
of much smaller, tight-knit bands performing native
instrumentals and folk
songs. Among the finest is Plethyn. From Powys in mid-Wales, this trio have been
together for 25 years and are celebrated
for close vocal harmonies laid over
a spare instrumental mix of guitar, mandolin, tin whistle, and concertina. Linda
Healy and Roy Griffiths,
who are brother and sister, and their friend John
Gittins have pioneered a more intimate singing style based on the Plygain choral
tradition.
Nowhere is that more apparent than in Plethyn’s a cappella
rendition of the Welsh traditional song “Cainc Yr Aradwr” (“The
Ploughboy’s Song”)
from their outstanding 1994 album, Seidir Ddoe
(“Yesterday’s Cider”).
SO
MANY PARTINGS, by Silly Wizard (Shanachie 79016): Seatbelts fastened?
Good, because the uptempo music on this 1979 recording is the Scottish tradition
at its most potent and visceral. Portabello-born brothers
Johnny and Phil
Cunningham were perhaps the best fiddle-piano accordion tandem in Scotland at
the time, and the rhythm of bassist Martin Hadden and guitarist Gordon Jones was
solid yet supple enough to allow free-flowing exchanges between the Cunninghams.
Balancing the high-charging instrumentals and complementing the more tender tune
of “Miss Catherine Brosnan” is the riveting voice of Andy M. Stewart
on such poignant Scots traditional songs as “The Valley of Strathmore.”
Highlight of highlights, however, is “Donald McGillavry/O’Neill’s
Cavalry March,” a call-to-arms Jacobite song that the band linked to an equally
searing martial tune. Both are guaranteed to get your blood rising. |
