New Irish music CDs
by Seth Rogovoy

(WILLIAMSTOWN, Mass., Mar 12, 1999) -- Irish music in its traditional and contemporary guises, as well as the closely-related musics that currently fall together under the marketing rubric "Celtic," continue to enjoy a creative and commercial renaissance. Given our proximity to St. Patrick's Day, it's as good a time as any to take a look at some of the recent offerings in this field.

There have been several compilations featuring Irish and Celtic artists released in the last few months, presumably to tap into the seemingly endless appetite for all things Irish. For fans of traditional Irish bar-room sing-alongs, "The Ultimate St. Patrick's Day Celebration" (Columbia/Legacy) more than lives up to its title. The lineup includes Paddy Noonan, Morton Downey and the Clancy Brothers. All the favorites are here, including the Irish Rovers doing "The Unicorn," Paddy Reilly's "Dirty Old Town," Frank Parker's "Danny Boy" and the Clancy Brothers' "Mountain Dew."

"Music of Dreams" (Shanachie) captures a 1993 concert in Dublin featuring well-known traditional Irish musicians Tony MacMahon, Noel Hill and Iarla O Lionaird and a troupe of set dancers whose tapping feet provide percussion, in a set of airs, reels, jigs and songs featuring O Lionaird's sean-nos, or "old style" vocals. The highlight is a three-plus minute concertina solo by Hill.

"Bringing It All Back Home: The Influence of Irish Music" (Valley Entertainment) is the first of a projected three-CD series which attempts no less than to tell the story of how traditional Irish music developed and influenced American and British rock, country and folk music, and in turn was influenced by those styles. The companion to a BBC-TV documentary of the same name, the CD reaps the bona fides that extend to its producer, Donal Lunny, a leader on the contemporary Irish music scene. This fascinating concept album includes tracks by Paul Brady, Richard Thompson, Hothouse Flowers, Sharon Shannon, and members of the Clancy Brothers and De Danann, as well as a vocal summit by Emmylou Harris, Dolores Keane and Mary Black, alone worth the price of the CD.

As its title indicates, "Celtic Woman" (Valley Entertainment) celebrates the leading edge of the Irish music explosion, which is the female vocal. Loreena McKennit is the biggest name here, but other singers, including Rita Connolly, Maighread Ni Dhomhnaill and Aine Furey, who delivers a moving, haunting tribute to Edith Piaf, are worth listening to on this eclectic if somewhat uneven collection.

A better choice to start might be "Celtic Voices" (Green Linnet), which, while not limited to women, is top-heavy with them, including Loreena McKennitt and the lead vocalists from Capercaillie, Altan and Nomos. This collection includes Scots and Breton music, and plenty of Gaelic vocals, in both traditional and contemporary arrangements. Among the highlights are the Scottish group Iron Horse, featuring the dual vocals of Lynn Morrison and Annie Grace floating atop an electro-acoustic rhythm track. This is state-of-the-art stuff.

You never know what the group Reeltime might throw your way -- a bluesy harmonica break or a funky keyboard lick might peek out of a traditional reel or jig, or a fiddle tune might go into country-swing territory. On "Live It Up" (Green Linnet), the sextet, three of whose members were part of the touring cast of "Riverdance," flaunts its versatility and virtuosity on a wide range of contemporary arrangements.

Scotsman Johnny Cunningham (of Silly Wizard), Irishman Kevin Burke (of the Bothy Band and Patrick Street) and Breton Christian Lemaitre (of Kornog) join forces once again as Celtic Fiddle Festival on "Encore" (Green Linnet), featuring a dozen tracks recorded live at various locations in the United Kingdom. Cunningham walks away with top honors for his work on track seven, a medley which they were smart enough to call "Johnny's Big Set." The disk also features accompaniment by Breton guitarist Soig Siberil.

"Spellbound: The Best of Sharon Shannon" (Green Linnet) provides all the evidence possibly needed to affirm that accordionist Sharon Shannon boasts one of the most creative and inventive sensibilities in contemporary Irish music. Wedding traditional folk to other styles is almost a cliché these days, but in Shannon's hands, Irish-Cajun, Irish-bluegrass, Irish-French Canadian, Irish-funk and Irish-Fleetwood Mac fusions sound effortlessly made for each other. This best-of package, featuring 21 cuts and a superstar lineup -- including Mike Scott, Natalie MacMaster, Donal Lunny and Adam Clayton of a certain monster Irish rock band -- offers a great introduction to Shannon's rich body of work.

In contrast, acoustic Irish quintet Moving Cloud plays it down the straight and narrow on "Foxglove" (Green Linnet), a collection of mostly traditional dance tunes from the Irish as well as French-Canadian, Scottish, Shetland and Cape Breton traditions featuring dizzying fiddles.

As the lead singer of Irish group Clannad, Maire[ cq ] Brennan boasts one of the most recognizable voices of the "Celtic revival." Angelic and otherworldly, Brennan's vocals float over the new-agey arrangements on "Perfect Time" (Epic), her third solo album and her first to feature all Christian-themed original compositions.

Female harp duo Sileas is Scottish, not Irish, but that's nothing to hold against them. On "Play on Light" (Green Linnet), the duo's timeless style -- some of this music dates back centuries -- sounds remarkably modern, with delicate, shimmering ostinatos right out of Philip Glass.

The legendary duo of Aly Bain and Phil Cunningham follows up its previous collaboration, "The Pearl," with "The Ruby" (Green Linnet), another gem which just confirms what fans of Boys of the Lough (Bain) and Silly Wizard (Cunningham) already know -- these two are masters of music from the Scottish highlands. Bain's Shetland-style fiddling merges seamlessly with Cunningham's accordion, keyboards, whistles, cittern and talking drum, but the beauty is found in the simplicity.

Paul Winter is known for his world-beat excursions, which in the past have taken him to Russia and Brazil among other places. If Winter's musical travels tend to have a new-agey patina, it's one that suits "Celtic Solstice" (Living Music), a dreamy exploration of the acoustic possibilities of the Cathedral of St. John the Divine in New York, where much of the music was recorded. Winter assembled an all-star cast of contemporary Irish musicians including fiddler Eileen Ivers, vocalist Karan Casey of Solas, flutist Joanie Madden of Cherish the Ladies, piper Jerry O'Sullivan and Davy Spillane, whose Uilleann pipes paint a gorgeous tapestry with Winter's sax and Paul Halley's pipe organ on the opening track, "Triumph."

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[This column originally appeared in the Berkshire Eagle on March 12, 1999. Copyright Seth Rogovoy 1999. All rights reserved.]