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| Author |
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jiffer
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Celtic Music
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Aug 14 21:42 UTC 1997 |
This is where all us fans of Celtic Music can say what they want and strum
about the good stuff of the Island!
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| 226 responses total. |
tpryan
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response 1 of 226:
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Aug 15 01:02 UTC 1997 |
Hope you enjoyed Celtic week at The Ark. Power-Celtics Tempest
play next wednesday.
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orinoco
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response 2 of 226:
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Aug 15 01:45 UTC 1997 |
Hmm...the only Celtic music I've had much exposure to is Ashley MacIsaac who
is A) not terribly representative and B) from Cape Breton anyway. I've heard
various bits and pieces of easy-listening-type Celtic, and been mostly
nauseated. You can't tell me *all* the music from the people who invented
the jig moves *that* slowly...
Perhaps just all the music that people will listen to, but that's another
story...
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krj
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response 3 of 226:
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Aug 15 04:13 UTC 1997 |
As an old fogie, I get a bit annoyed with the "Celtic" market niche;
when I was a strapping youth, it was all folk music. I even participated
in a futile attempt to block the creation of the usenet newsgroup
rec.music.celtic.
Ah well. Market reality being what it is, the Oyster Band -- who began
their careers as a distinctly English band, quite different from
Irish or Scottish -- have now covered themselves with
Celtic interlace tattoos. Anyway, I know when to get out of the
way of a steamroller....
FOLK ROOTS magazine has had a couple of recent rants on the subject
of Celtic Wallpaper Music, the sort of easy listening stuff orinoco
seems to have run into.
There's two main streams of Canadian Celtic music. The first, which
tends to be more traditional, comes from Newfoundland and Cape Breton,
Nova Scotia, areas which were settled by Scottish immigrants
and which have remained somewhat isolated until recently.
The second stream comes from Western Canada, and it's more
revivalist and heavily influenced by rock and country: Mad Pudding,
The Real MacKenzies, Captain Tractor, and other bands that no one
here except Twila has heard of.
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mcnally
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response 4 of 226:
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Aug 15 04:32 UTC 1997 |
Perhaps I'll bring shame upon the McNallys by admitting this but
I really don't like "celtic music" (or at least what currently
passes as celtic music..) very much. Of course there's some that's
very good but even at its best it's not something of which I am fond
enough to actively seek out performances, own the albums, or even
sit down and listen for an evening..
I will say one thing for it: as an adolescent I went through a
phase where I was very interested in my Irish ancestry. My complete
inability to develop a fondness for "celtic music" was no doubt
a strong contributor to my eventual realization that though my
ancestors were Irish I'm not -- my cultural identity is 100% American.
:-)
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krj
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response 5 of 226:
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Aug 15 20:14 UTC 1997 |
Orinoco: why did you say in response #2 that Ashley MacIsaac wasn't
"terribly representative"?
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maeve
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response 6 of 226:
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Aug 15 22:19 UTC 1997 |
I"ll trade you (re #4) I"m completely un-Celtic genetically, and steeped in
it to my eyebrows (which apparently resemble those of my grandmother who is
a tenuous Scots-Irish link at best).
I'm rather fond of Ashley MacIssac, but that's only because he wears a kilt
and flannel shirts and step-dances wildly..<smirk> but I haven't heard any
of the traditional stuff he does, just "Hi, How Are You Today"
(happy now Ken? I even responded in both)
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anderyn
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response 7 of 226:
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Aug 16 02:17 UTC 1997 |
Erm. well, I do have a collection of Wallpaper Celtic (Enya, Clannad,
that kind of thing) for when I just want to veg out. It's pretty,
but itdoesn't really seem all that Celtic to me, even though lyrics
are in Irish Gaelic and the artists were born in Ireland.
I tend to go wild for the fiddle/bagpipe/ballad end of Celtic music --
folks like the Tannahill Weavers, Battlefield Band, Tempest (well, the
SONGS are Celtic, even if the lead singer IS Norwegian! And the rest are
Amuricans), Silly Wizard, Relativity, um, lots more.
Oh, and I should point out that there are several places where
Celtic music is from: Scotland, Ireland, Wales, Cornwall, Brittany,
and Galicia. Ken turned me on to a band from Galicia called Celtas
Cortos -- made me laugh so hard, since the music is pure "Irish"
while the singing is in Spanish.
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maeve
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response 8 of 226:
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Aug 17 00:49 UTC 1997 |
the chieftans just came out with a cd of gallacian stuff..we did a piece that
looked a lot like stepdancing kinda-sorta in a jazz kind of way..it was nice
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jiffer
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response 9 of 226:
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Aug 17 01:42 UTC 1997 |
On NPR today one of the shows had the Chieftains and some other great bands
do their favorite covers. Totally awesome!
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orinoco
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response 10 of 226:
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Aug 17 02:15 UTC 1997 |
I call Ashley Macisaac 'not terribly representative' because electric guitar
was not, the last I checked, a traditional celtic instrument.
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maeve
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response 11 of 226:
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Aug 17 03:29 UTC 1997 |
details details.. I haven't heard the traditional stuff but "Hi..." isn't
suposed to be traditional at all and I'd assume he doesn't use electric guitar
on that...am I imagining it or is there also electric violin?
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senna
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response 12 of 226:
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Aug 17 05:09 UTC 1997 |
Ashley MacIsaac? Oh, yes, very flamboyant HIGHstepping style there :) Any
good Conan fan knows exactly what I'm talking about.
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krj
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response 13 of 226:
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Aug 17 05:33 UTC 1997 |
Oh dear, has Ashley been flashing TV audiences again?
orinoco in #10: part of the point of the idea of the "celtic"
marketing niche is that it wasn't to be restricted to pure
traditional forms. Electric guitars aren't traditional in Ireland
and Scotland; neither are acoustic guitars, or bouzoukis.
And ensemble acoustic playing is hardly traditional: it only goes
back to the late 1950's, with Sean O'Riada and the Chieftains.
(Undoubtedly my perceptions are warped, I've been collecting
folk and folk-inspired music from England, Scotland and Ireland,
with electric guitars, for well over 20 years.)
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omni
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response 14 of 226:
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Aug 17 05:33 UTC 1997 |
I'm still getting used to hearing Mick Jagger singing "The Long Black Veil"
on my newest Chieftains album. But I would have to say that "The Celtic Harp"
is my favorite.
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lumen
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response 15 of 226:
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Aug 17 07:54 UTC 1997 |
My father enjoys Celtic flavored music, so his small collection makes up for
the lack of mine. I have only Enya, and I consider her more New Age than I
do Celtic. (Please don't get me started on what the definition of New Age
should be-- I realize it originally had to do more with the New Age religion,
with Indian ragas, etc. I had a friend that suggested the genre be dubbed
'New Classical' because of the nature of current offerings categorized as New
Age.)
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orinoco
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response 16 of 226:
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Aug 17 17:23 UTC 1997 |
Re:Ashely MacIsaac:
Okay, maybe the 'celtic' category is wider than I had thought. All I'd ever
heard it applied to is what someone a while back called "wallpaper celtic".
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maeve
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response 17 of 226:
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Aug 17 19:12 UTC 1997 |
Celtic Harp is good...I don't mind semi-New-Age-ish stuff...electric guitars
are alright in moderation, I tend to draw the line at saxaphones (Clannad),
but even those can be ignored if necessary...
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anderyn
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response 18 of 226:
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Aug 17 20:56 UTC 1997 |
Well, let's see -- I forgot the Isle of Man in my list of Celtic
places. I *always* seem to forget the Isle of Man. Rats!
I can't say that I like the Cheiftans album with Jagger et al. on it.
I prefer their older offerings, when they weren't so, um, widely
scattered in focus. :-)
And one of my current favorite Celtic albums is MacUmba's "Don't
Hold Your Breath". It mixes bagpipes and Carribean rhythms to
stunning effect, particularly on the treaditional silkie ballad.
(Which I love, but which is susually played for way too much
pathos.)
Also (probably not wisely) picked up the Alan Stivell collection
<Zoom>.
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maeve
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response 19 of 226:
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Aug 17 21:02 UTC 1997 |
I"ve been avoiding the Afro and Carribean Celtic stuff because of a fairly
nothern prejudice...and I can't afford to buy any music anyways..
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scott
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response 20 of 226:
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Aug 17 22:31 UTC 1997 |
(Is "Celtic-flavored" sort of like saying "butter-flavored"?) ;)
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krj
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response 21 of 226:
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Aug 17 23:28 UTC 1997 |
maeve in #17: when did Clannad start using saxophones? I have not
paid close attention to them since about 1981... Hmmm, I can
(re)tell my story about when I saw Clannad live and make some of
you jealous...
Twila, I will have to come over to listen a bit to the Stivell
collection, and pet the new kitten as well... :) I can't
remember, have you had a chance to hear the two Tri Yann anthologies
I have? (Tri Yann (which I think is The Three Johns, literally)
is from Brittany, as is Alan Stivell, and they go back into the
late 1960s I think.)
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jiffer
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response 22 of 226:
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Aug 17 23:36 UTC 1997 |
only if you like butter on your popcorn. I think music now a days are has
become rather mixed together adn merged. So, sometimes you have a flavor,
sometimes a mix, and sometimes its whipped and sauted and baked (but hopefully
not fried) into something "new". There are the tradition songs that some
people do.
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anderyn
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response 23 of 226:
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Aug 18 01:26 UTC 1997 |
Yeah, that would be nice. (in re: listening to Stivell and kitten-petting).
Nope, I don't recall hearing Tri Yann.
Well, I *prefer* my Celtic music rather pure, if possible, but a lot
of the newer bands don't do "pure". Though Altan is pretty darn close.
And so is Archie Fisher, his family, and a whole bunch of early Tannahill
Weavers. I also prefer ballads to newer music, and I have a record for you
if you like 'em too -- Voices, on Topic or Fellside (Ken, I didn't order
that one, did I?), available oat Skids....All a cappellla. Jut gorgeous.
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krj
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response 24 of 226:
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Aug 18 02:22 UTC 1997 |
Darn. And all this time I've been sending folk-rock stuff your way,
Twila. The disc I ordered for you from ADA is "Ballads," Fellside
FECD 110. I think I saw the disc you got at Schoolkids, and I think
it was from the Topic label. There is another collection of
unaccompanied singing, called "Voices," on Fellside, from about five
years back. "Voices" has got to be one of the most overused
album titles.
NP: Arty McGlynn, "McGlynn's Fancy," Irish fiddle tunes arranged
for solo guitar.
Earlier tonight the "Celtic Connections" radio show played something
very nice, and very rock-influenced, from Alan Stivell's "Brian Boru"
album.
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