T With the Maggies CD release concert at City Halls in Glasgow. Photo courtesy Kerry Dexter - All Rights Reserved

A collection featuring the music of Northern Ireland, the debut recording of a New England based Celtic band, and a collaboration of four superstar musicians from Donegal: three more Irish and Celtic recordings to know.

Sound Neighbours

Is the music of Northern Ireland different from the music in the counties to the south which make up the republic? I’ll give a resounding yes and no on that one. As you’ll know if you’ve spent time on the island of Ireland, there are different accents and phrases and rhythms to the way people speak, in Irish and in English, all through the counties, north and south. The same is true of tune and song, which well may vary from one townland to the next, never mind county, in accent and emphasis.

That said, the twenty track collection Sound Neighbours, produced by Smithsonian Folkways and with liner notes by Northern Ireland musician Colum Sands, is good introduction to both music and musicians of the six counties. Sands himself has a song, The Donegall Road, which speaks of history and the promise of a new day.

Colum’s brother Tommy is there too, with There Were Roses, which puts a human and next door neighbor face on the sadness of the Troubles. It’s not all about politics by any means, though. Northern Man, performed by Different Drums, talks of love across borders, while Briege Murphy offers a traditional love song with a different ending in The Verdant Braes of Screen. Brothers Niall and Cillian Vallely join up for the tune The Singing Stream, while Roisin White offers the lively and funny praise of place in Omagh Town, and piper Jarlath Henderson gives a taste of the best of contemporary piping with The Old Bush Set.

Alternate Routes

Sarah Blair, Ariel Friedman, Liz Simmons, and Shannon Heaton each have careers as professional musicians, teaching, touring and performing in a variety of ways. None of them was exactly looking for another band to join. Still, the four friends found that the music they made together and the ways they thought about presenting music kept calling them to do just that — and so they did. The result is the band Long Time Courting. Their first album is called Alternate Routes.

It’s an engaging gathering of songs and tunes, which kicks off with Maggie Dean, which takes a twist on the story of a woman disguising herself as a sailor. Shannon Heaton wrote the words which she set to a traditional melody, and sings the lead. Polska Efter Elias Tallari is a set of tunes which takes things in a bit of a quieter direction for a moment, as does the band’s take on the song Barbara Allen, which they treat almost as a lament. In the Dog House is a set of tunes that kicks things up into high gear, pairing the set’s namesake tune, an original by Shannon Heaton, with two tunes from the tradition. Liz Simmons gives the right touch of storytelling to the lead on the tale My Johnny Was a Shoemaker. The York Street Stepper is another lively set of tunes, started off by the namesake piece, penned by fiddler Ellery Klein, founding member of Long Time Courting. Sarah Blair handles fiddling with the group these days. Friedman plays the cello, Simmons guitar, and Heaton flutes and whistles.

T With the Maggies

Moya Brennan, Mairéad Ní Mhaonaigh, Tríona Ní Dhomhnaill and Maighréad Ní Dhomhnaill each spent part of their growing up years Donegal, in the far northwest of Ireland. Each of them also went on to make a career in music, gaining acclaim as members of bands including Clannad, Nightnoise, and Altan, and as solo artists as well. As the years drew on, the women would cross paths, and they’d remember how much they ahd enjoyed singing with each other when they were growing up. Several years ago Maighréad’s daughter invited them to perform together at the the Temple Bar Trad Festival in Dublin, and the seed of an album was planted

That seed has come to flowering on the album T With the Maggies, which is also what the four women call the group they’ve formed together. It’s a thoughtful and graceful collection, including songs from the tradition and several that the women wrote themselves. In them you can hear and feel the salt sea of of the Donegal coast as well as its haunting mountains and glens, and the humor and sorrow of the people.

Many of the songs are in Irish, but they start of with the lively and perhaps a bit enigmatic song Wedding Dress, which gives a taste of the fine harmony and stellar playing which carry through the project. Ceol an Phíobaire, A Stór A Stór A Ghrá and Bíod Orm Anocht are among the songs in Irish. Mother Song, which the four wrote together is a spare song inspired by the fact that people are emigrating from Ireland again these days. Domhnach na Fola, the most haunting song of on the album, is a response to the recent release of the findings of the Bloody Sunday enquiry in Derry.

Kerry Dexter writes about music, the arts,Ireland, and Scotland at Music Road. Strings, Perceptive Travel, and other places. More Irish Fireside posts from Kerry.

The first weekend in August marks Ireland’s changing-of-the-season festival of Lughnasa. You may recognize the name from the title of the Meryl Streep film “Dancing at Lughnasa” based on the play by Brian Friel.

Felicity Hayes-McCoy delves into the festival’s tradition in Corca Dhuibhne, Ireland’s Dingle Peninsula.

Read The Festival Of Lughnasa >>

Felicity also recommends Máire MacNeill book The Festival of Lughnasa.

And a bit more from Bridget Haggerty from Irish Culture and Customs:

Read Lughnasa: Celebrating the Harvest >>

Looks like a fun time in the Irish-speaking Connemara region of Ireland.

More videos celebrating the Irish language at http://lurgan.biz/ and http://vimeo.com/lurgan.

Photo by savagecabage

Happy Summer Solstice! Thinking about the sun (and I’m not currently seeing it where I am!) made me think about the ancient Celtic tradition of turning sunwise or deisol, as P. W. Joyce puts it in his A Social History of Ancient Ireland. To be fair, Joyce points out that this tradition was not only practiced by the Celts, but by other ancient people as well (Latins and Greeks.) He says it was just as common among the Christians as it was with pagans.

What Is Sunwise Walking?

One makes the deasil (yet another spelling for the word) by walking three times in the direction of the sun (turning to the right) around whatever it was the walker wanted to bless or heal or consecrate. Usually this was done three times. The Irish have an affinity for the number three. But it could be walked longer with no set ending. In Joyce’s day (late 1800’s to early 1900’s) the Irish still practiced this when burying their dead. Maybe some people still do this today.

St. Patrick Set the Example

St. Patrick's Cathedral in Armagh

Apparently St. Patrick walked sunwise around the site where the Armagh Cathedral was built, dedicating the entire area to the service of God. Other saints did the same when establishing their centers of worship. Legend even says warriors walked sunwise for protection before entering battle. Joyce says the Cathach or Battle Book “was always borne three times right-hand-wise round their army before battle, to assure victory.” He says this was done as late as the 15th century.

We can see possible evidence for the ritual in such writings as the Carmina Gadelica, a 19^th century collection of poems, prayers, blessings, and incantations gathered by Alexander Carmichael.

Put Thy salve to my sight,

Put Thy balm to my wounds,

Put Thy linen robe to my skin,

O Healing Hand, O Son of the God of Salvation.

There are many more examples, but can’t you envision one rotation for each  “Put Thy”?

Sunwise Walking For Today

This “sunwise walking” undoubtedly served a purpose. As a former preschool teacher, I understand how moving helps the body pay attention and movement, rhythm, and rhyme help with information retention. I’m thinking it might be time for me to start moving. And guess what? The sun has just come out again. Just one more lesson from the ancients!

Cindy Thomson is the author of Celtic Wisdom and Brigid of Ireland. She enjoys exploring Irish history, especially the Early Christian period. She has written numerous articles on Irish genealogy. Visit her blog Celtic Voices and her web site where you can sign up for her monthly newsletter.

Noel Hill

Every year, TG4, Ireland’s Irish language network, gives out awards honoring traditional musicians. These prestigious awards, known collectively as Gradam Ceoil, are a very big deal in Ireland and in the musical community world wide as well. This year, they were presented at a concert in the Wexford Opera House, and later broadcast nationwide in Ireland. Several of the musicians are well known outside the island of Ireland, other perhaps less so — and two of them are artists I’ve introduced to you in past articles here at Irish Fireside.

The top award, the Gradam Ceoil itself, this year went to Noel Hill. Hill was born in Clare and has lived for some time in Connemara, where he is a respected teacher as well as player of the concertina. What is the concertina? you could be thinking. You might think of it, for quick and rough description, as a mini sort of accordion, not the kind with keys but the button kind. Download Noel’s music on iTunes >>

Pádraic Keane from Galway won Ceoltóir Óg, the young musician award. Pádraic is from a family of pipers and other musically inclined folk — though in his acceptance speech he apologized to his sisters for making a racket practicing his pipes, they both played the fiddle for his set at the concert.

The Hall of Fame nod, Gradam Saoil, was given to Ben Lennon. He is the head of a respected family of musicians, and his wider influence has been felt as a player and a teacher. He lives in Leitrim.

Mícheál Ó Súilleabháin received the musicians award, the Gradam na gCeoltóirí. He is a top class educator at the University of Limerick, a writer, composer, and player. His instrument is the piano.

The award for composer, Cumadóir, went to Liz Carroll. You’ve met the Chicago native Carroll here at the Fireside in her collaboration with guitarist John Doyle and with the String Sisters (Three Irish and Celtic CDs You Should Experience and Three More Irish Celtic & Celtic CDs You Should Experience and Best Celtic Music). She has also worked with Cherish the Ladies, Trian, and Greenfields of America, but it is as a composer that she’s perhaps made her greatest contribution to date: musicians Irish and otherwise have recorded her tunes, and many of her tunes have become session standards wherever Irish music is played. Her instrument is the fiddle. Download Liz’s music on iTunes >>

Muireann Nic Amhlaoibh

You’ve met Muireann Nic Amhlaoibh from West Kerry here at the Fireside too, in her collaboration with Scotswoman Julie Fowlis, a recroding called Dual (Three More Irish Celtic & Celtic CDs You Should Experience). On it, they explored the connections between Irish and Scottish Gaelic song. Nic Amhlaoibh has a very fine solo album of her own out, and she’s perhaps best known as the flutist and lead singer with the top Irish traditional band Danu. Muireann won the award for singer, Amhránaí. Download Muireann’s Nic Amhlaoibh music on iTunes >>

Kerry Dexter writes about music and Ireland at Music Road, Wandering Educators, and other places.

Susan McKeown, Robin Spielberg, and Cathie Ryan each brought different experiences as mothers, daughters, and musicians to the project they ended up calling Mother: Songs Celebrating Mothers & Motherhood. From these varied lives they selected and created music and combined voices and instruments in ways that honor Celtic tradition and reach beyond it as well.

Inspired by Mothers and Motherhood

McKeown wrote Mother of Mine to honor her own mother, who was also a musician, and she sings lead on it. Pianist and composer Robin Spielberg wrote the instrumental Mothers’ Celebration inspired by a joyous dream she’d had of a festival in which a whole village was welcoming mothers and new babies. Seothin Seo h-O is a lullaby which McKeown learned as a child in school growing up in Dublin. Rock Me to Sleep Mother is a poem by Elizabeth Akers Allen for which Ryan composed music. She was looking for something to comfort her mother when she returned from Ireland after burying her own mother, and came upon the poem.

Ancient Mother finds McKeown bringing ancient Celtic and Native American musical elmentws togehter. Real Pretty Mama is a gently funny song about growing up from Spielberg. Ryan’s happy Grandma’s Song celebrates the joys of being a grandchild, and a grandparent, in a snapshot of her own grandmother’s life in Tipperary. When Ryan offers it in concert, she sometimes tells the story of visiting her grandmother, who did not recognize her as she had become far gone in Alzheimer’s disease. Ryan was sitting at her grandmother’s feet, and her aunt asked her to sing a song “more to make me feel better than anyhitng else,” Ryan says.. So Ryan started to sing one they’d known together when she was small. She saw her grandmother’s foot begin to tap, and looking up, as Ryan tells the story, “there she was, with all the love and laughter I’d known, all right there for the space of the song.” On the bus back to Dublin, Ryan wrote the song.

It’s a varied collection of song and tune, with the women adding harmonies and back up playing to each other’s leads in graceful and lively ways. Each of them has an active solo career — here’s a bit about two songs Ryan has recorded elsewhere that work well for Mothers’ Day — so it is rare for them to get together. It has been a few years since they recorded this album, but this gathering of talents is well worth seeking out.

Kerry Dexter writes about music and Ireland at Music Road, Wandering Educators, and other places.

Music is a big part of any Irish Christmas celebration. You’ll hear familiar carols, hymns, and popular seasonal songs such as White Christmas and Little Drummer Boy. There will be jigs, reels, and songs from the tradition as well, alongside, at times, new songs. Want to sit in on such a holiday music session? Listen to these albums and you feel as though you’ll be doing just that.

To Shorten the Winter

Tommy Sands is from County Down in Northern Ireland, right along the border between the Republic and the North. This background comes through his album To Shorten the Winter, sometimes in unexpected ways. There’s the song The Bushes of Jerusalem, with Sands seeing Jesus in the guise of a revolutionary, and the song Like the First Time It’s Christmas Time, a piece which connects with the hope for lasting peace in Ireland, north and south. There’s also the classic rock song Whiter Shade of Pale. Singing that is a memory that takes Sands back to the idea of connection as well. “At Christmas time all barriers, musical and others, melted in the wake of a few sods of turf, we threw back our heads and sang,” Sands says, remembering being part of such evenings of music at the holidays north and south of the border. Liam O’Flynn adds pipes to the song, a very Celtic touch that works well.

An Nollaig: An Irish Christmas

Eileen Ivers thinks of the holiday songs she loves as ornaments on the tree: some new, some old, all well loved. On her album An Nollaig: An Irish Christmas, Ivers kicks off things with a rousing version of Hark the Herald Angels Sing, infused with a bit of an Irish jig to go along. Ivers is a fiddle player — she handles banjo and mandolin on An Nollaig as well — so there is a good selection of tunes along with the songs. There’s a lively set that begins with the Christmas Eve Reel, and a fine set beginning with Apples in Winter. Susan McKeown comes along to sing One Night in Bethlehem, in English and Irish. There’s Christmas Time Is Here, too. “Being Irish American, I had to include one of my all time favorites from the classic A Charlie Brown Christmas,” Ivers says. She also offers Jesu Joy of Man’s Desiring, adding an Irish twist to the well known piece by Johann Sebastian Bach.

Fine Winter’s Night

Matt and Shannon Heaton have several fine original songs on their holiday album Fine Winter’s Night, along with carols and tunes you may know, as well. Of those latter, Matt sings lead on the Wexford Carol, which is thought to go back to Ireland in the twelfth century for its origin, and Shannon handles the lead on the nineteenth century carol O Little Town of Bethlehem, which the Heatons have arranged as a lullaby. Fisherman’s Lullaby is a song which has roots in African American spiritual tradition, changed, adapted, and added to through the Heatons’ Irish American musical focus. In First Snowfall of December, Matt creates a story of what might have happened one night in the Victorian era in the Heatons’ hometown of Medford, Massachusetts, while on the title track, Fine Winter’s Night, Shannon considers what gifts may be found in the sometime harsh sides of winter weather.

Narada Presents: The Best of Celtic Christmas

Narada Presents: The Best of Celtic Christmas is a two disc set. One disc is all music by the west of Ireland based group Dordan. It is called The Night Before, and comprises reels and jigs, songs and tunes, bringing in the atmosphere leading up to Christmas and the joy of holiday celebration itself. The Christmas Reel, the Mistletoe Waltz, and the Wayfarer’s Welcome are especially worth note.

The second disc comprises fifteen tracks, beginning with Cathie Ryan offering a quiet, understated take on It Came Upon a Midnight Clear, and going on to include tracks from Boys of the Lough, Frankie Gavin, Natalie MacMaster, Mairi MacInnes, and others. Well chosen, well sequenced, and a wide range of music that yet works well together to give a true flavor of Celtic Christmas.

Bonus Recording: Duan Nollaig- A Gaelic Christmas

Fiona J. Mackenzie lives in the highlands of Scotland, and the language she sings in is Scottish Gaelic rather than Irish. If you’re looking for a bit of a different Celtic flavor to your holiday, though, you’ll enjoy her recording Duan Nollaig- A Gaelic Christmas. She offers traditional carols, both ones you may know and lesser known ones, as well as songs such as The Twelve Days of Christmas and The Robin, all sung in Scottish Gaelic.

Kerry Dexter writes about music, travel, the arts, and Ireland for publications including Strings, Ireland and the Americas, Wandering Educators, Perceptive Travel and Music Road.

Christmas ‘Folk The Recession’ Festival at The Cherrytree, Dublin 12
Tickets may be reserved on line at a reduced price, no credit card and no forms to fill in. Reserved tickets will be held for you at the door. Details on tickets and more about the musicians available at www.musiclee.ie.

• 27 Dec – Mick Hanly & Arty McGlynn + Michele Ann Kelly
• 28 Dec – Juliet Turner & Brian Grace +: Elder Roche
• 29 Dec – John Spillane + Celine Carroll
• 30 Dec – Freddie White, Albert Niland, Trish Hickey
• 31 Dec – Eleanor Shanley, Frankie Lane & Paul Kelly
• Jan. 1st – Andy Irvine + Ger Wolfe
• Jan. 2nd – Kevin Doherty, Paul Moore, Conor Brady + The Quicks! and Band (Concert 4pm – 6pm)
• Jan. 2nd – Ben Sands & Thom Moore, Nuala Curran, Ryanne Sands (Concert – 9pm)

“Folk The Recession”
The Cherrytree Pub, Walkinstown, Dublin 12. Ph: 01- 4503983
Serviced by the following bus routes : 50 | 56A | 77 | 77A |
Excellent Taxi service.
Nearest Luas: Kylemore Road. (20min walk/5mins taxi)

Eileen Ivers and band members Buddy Connolly, Leo Traversa, Tommy McDonnell, and Greg Anderson by Luke Ratray

“With Irish music, you’re cryin’ one minute and then you’re whoopin’ it up and bein’ joyful the next minute. We’ll be playing some really heart wrenching immigration songs, songs of leaving family and loved ones behind, and we’ll be playing a lot of the dance tunes from the tradition that are just upbeat and full of life and festive energy,” says fiddler Eileen Ivers. She’s talking about her current concert tour, which she’s named Beyond the Bog Road.

One day when she was back in her father’s town in County Mayo, a place where she’s often played her fiddle, Ivers heard an older man say he found it hard to think about the people who had left Ireland during the Great Hunger of the 1840s, and what lives they must have led. That sparked an idea in Ivers to start researching music, and later, composing tunes that traced parts of that journey, and often through unexpected moments.

She’s created an evening that moves emotionally and musically — and visually, there are scenes of Ireland historic images which weave in and out with the music projected behind the band — from that bog road to the uncertainties of crossing the oceans and the hard conditions on arrival in North America, to contact with other cultures, to an ending which celebrates the vibrancy of the Irish American community today.

That’s a fairly tall order for an evening’s worth of music: make a program that’s musical and entertaining and at the same time present a lot of context about music and history to people who may bring all sorts of ideas and backgrounds to hearing it. It’s an idea Ivers is well qualified to carry out: To her research, she brought a background including winning nine All Ireland fiddle championships, working with jazz and classical fiddlers, being a founding member of Cherish the Ladies and part of the original company of Riverdance, performances with artists ranging from the Boston Pops to the Afro Celts, Grammy awards, and worldwide touring.

Ivers and her band bring their varied talents together to focus on moments which connect to tell the story, and while Ivers’ fiddling and her vibrant personality are the center of things, she does not hesitate to collaborate and at times step aside for others to take over the telling of the stories.

She shares some of her own story as a first generation Irish American to connect things, and there’s recorded narrative spoken by Dermot Henry [himself a fine songwriter whom you’ve met before over at Music Road] which also sets things in context between songs. The result is a journey at times fast paced and at times in thoughtful reflection, that moves from exploring the heartfelt sorrow of famine times to the hope and hardships and persistence of next stages of the immigrant’s journey.

At the start. “We have some slow airs, songs, about love lost to famine, about heartbreak, kinda — there’s a classic immigration song called The Greenfields of America. Niamh Parsons sings it, and she’s incredible, one of Ireland’s truly great singers, I think,” Ivers says. A somber view of the vast and rolling ocean, such as Irish people might have seen on their voyages, unfolds behind Parsons as she sings.

The band and the narration follow the story of Irish people arriving in Grosse Ile, in Quebec, still a hard time, but lightened by encounters with kind people and with the music of French Canada. Traditional tunes, original tunes Ivers has written, and the skills of the dancers who join in on stage combine to show the connections between Acadian and Cajun music and the music of Ireland.

The band then traces the music’s journey southward. Ivers tells of trading tunes with Appalachian fiddler Ralph Blizzard and in a few bars illustrates the way a tune sounds in Irish tradition and how it moves over to bluegrass. The band extends that idea, playing the Irish tunes Kitty’s Wedding, and its Appalachian cousin, Smith’s Reel, and invites the audience to sing along as they head in to The Rocky Road Blues, a song by Bill Monroe, the father of bluegrass.

Through the second half of the concert Ivers, the band, and the dancers trace the meeting up of Irish people and African Americans, through working on building railroads to the west, and it later years through tap dancing competitions in New York city, There’s even a bit of Louis Armstrong brought in, as well as the remembrance and looking back toward Ireland, and the new waves of Irish immigration to America.

The evening comes to a close with an extended set of reels incorporating world beat and other influences, with video backdrop reflecting the energy of the city and twenty first century life, and with Ivers playing her fiddle all across the stage, up on to the drum kit platform, exchanging jams with Buddy Connolly on accordion, and bringing her fiddle out for a quick trip around the room before jumping back onstage to join the band, audience and dancers in singing Will the Circle Be Unbroken — a gospel song which crosses American traditions American traditions and whose title neatly sums up the emotions and music Eileen Ivers and friends share Beyond the Bog Road.

The Beyond the Bog Road tour continues through late March. Information about that and other tour dates may be found at Eileen Ivers’ web site. Ivers is also working on a recording of the music from Beyond the Bog Road.

Kerry Dexter writes about the arts and creative practice at Music Road, and is music editor at Wandering Educators, long time contributor to world music magazine Dirty Linen, and former folk music editor at Barnes & Noble Online. Her work has appeared in Symphony, Ireland and the Americas, and The Encyclopedia of Counterculture, among other publications.

Matt and Shannon Heaton – Lovers’ Well – songs and tunes which invite you to reflect on love as both fleeting and eternal

Tommy Sands with Fionan and Moya Sands – Let the Circle Be Wide – justice, history, landscape, and family ties from top poet and singer from County Down, with his son and daughter

Liz Carroll and John Doyle – Double Play - fiddle and guitar in good conversation

Stephanie Makem and Tiarnan O Duinchinn - Ceol Is Píob – elegant uillean pipes from O Duinchinn, fine singing from Makem, who is, yes, part of that well known musical family from Armagh

The Unwanted – Music from the Atlantic Fringe - Ireland and America meet in music in well chosen set of tunes and songs

Bua – An Spealadoir – high energy and spot on playing from Irish American quintet from the US midwest

The Green Fields of America – The Green Fields of America – Athena Tergis, Mick Moloney, John Doyle — those are just three of the fine and unique talents who trade tunes and songs. melody lines and harmony, on this recording

Bonus Albums
You may have seen Hanneke Cassel or Sara Milonovich backing up top Irish musicians out on the road, or heard them on studio recordings by artists ranging from Cathie Ryan to Pete Seeger. Each has a new solo album out now, well worth your consideration. Milonovich’s recording, Daisycutter, tends toward Americana and showcases her strengths as a singer. Cassel’s latest disc features her always adventurous and fiery take on fiddle tunes, be they her own, ones from Scottish tradition, and on this album one she learned on her travels to China. The recording is called For Reasons Unseen.

Kerry Dexter writes about the arts at Music Road. and is an independent writer, editor, and photographer in the US and Ireland. She’s music editor at WanderingEducators.com, long time contributing writer to world music magazine Dirty Linen, and former folk music editor at VH1. Her work has appeared in Strings, Ireland and the Americas, Symphony, Songwriters Market, and The Dictionary of American History, among other publications.

Marc Gunn has offered up his Best of the Irish & Celtic Music Podcast compilation CD and  Happy Songs of Death CD. Marc is a musician, podcaster and all-round nice guy.

If you haven’t check out his websites, you really must do that. www.celticmusicpodcast.com, www.marcgunn.com, www.celticchristmaspodcast.com

These two CDs are on their way to Jeff Rowland from Brunswick,  GA.

Anne Roos has a copy of her Haste to the Wedding for a lucky Irish Firesider. Anne literally wrote the book on music for weddings, so her collection of Celtic Harp music combined with a beautiful book tell the story of everlasting love through the music. Trust me, this book and CD are gorgeous.

Visit Anne at www.celticharpmusic.com.

This CD is going to John Ongena from Orlando, FL.

Bridget and Russ Haggerty over at www.irishcultureandcustoms.com have offered an Irish Tenors Christmas CD and a Lucky Irish Coin.

Their website is basically an encyclopedia of great articles about all-things-Irish. No matter where you start on their site, you are sure to find a gem with every click. In Podcast #97, we highlighted our favorite Christmas-related articles.

These two items are going to Judy Arnold from Kingsville, TX.

More Special Irish and Celtic Music for Christmas

Kerry Dexter gives her list of Celtic Christmas favorites at www.wanderingeducators.com/books-film/music/celtic-christmas-music.html. We also included a few CDs in our Holiday Gift Guide. Here’s a peek at the highlights:

………………
..

And you’ll also find some wonderful Celtic Christmas music in the episodes featured in the brand new Celtic Christmas Podcast.

Episode Guide – Podcast #95 Ireland in the Off-Season and Prehistoric Irish Instruments

In this audio podcast episode, we talk about some of the unique aspects of traveling Ireland in the “shoulder season.” Then we chat with Simon and Maria O’Dywer about some of Ireland’s oldest musical instruments.

CLICK THE PLAY BUTTON below to listen.

Our Podcasts are availble on iTunes – here’s our link for Techies

Show Notes

00:00
Intro Song: St. John’s March by www.PrehistoricMusic.com from the CD “Old to New”

01:29
High Season, Shoulder Season and Low Season

02:00
Many sites and tourist offices may be operating on reduced hours or closed for the season starting in Oct

02:45
Fewer hours of daylight

03:12
Stick to the tourist routes or explore the lesser-visited areas

04:00
Get your information from the people around you

04:25
Avoid spending too much time on the road

04:45
Experince the pub culture or traditional music scene. Don’t drink and drive

5:24
Simon and Maria O’Dwyer from www.PrehistoricMusic.com

16:30
Closing song: Five Together by www.PrehistoricMusic.com from the CD “Old to New”

Click for More Info

Until about four hundred years ago, Gaelic speakers from the northern reaches of Scotland to the southern tip of Ireland would have understood each other clearly. At that time, the language began to diverge, becoming as they are today two separate but related tongues, Scots Gaelic and Irish. The connections and the divergences between songs in the two languages are what sparked Julie Fowlis, who is from North Uist in Scotland’s Outer Hebrides, and Muireann Nic Amhlaoibh, who grew up in Dun Chaoin at the tip of Ireland’s Dingle peninsula, to make the record, Dual. Both women grew up speaking two languages in daily life, which adds understanding and dimension to their work.

It’s a fine recording, through which you may hear history, humor, the sea, the land, and legend, even if you do not speak a word of either language. If you’re curious about the stories, there are liner notes in English to give a bit of background on that, but it’s a great first step just let the music unfold in your imagination as it will.

Click for More Info

Tommy Sands is a musician with a message, a message which may be hinted at in the title of his most recent record. It is called Let the Circle Be Wide. Growing up in County Down along the border between Northern Ireland and the Republic, Sands has seen his share of divisions and pain brought by The Troubles, and he’s also seen, and made it a central part of his music, that healing does happen, and connections may be forged across what seem the most difficult of barriers. One song which addresses that on this collection is Fields of Daisies, in which Sands takes the idea of the broken token or lover returning from a journey not being recognized and applies that theme, in a subtle and poetic way, to the reuniting of lovers after one has been changed by his experiences in The Troubles. There are lively, upbeat songs on the record as well as questioning, thoughtful ones, music worth both tapping your toes to and pondering.

Click for More Info

If you follow Irish music, or indeed fiddle music at all, you will know the names of Liz Carroll and Mairéad Ni Mhaonaigh. It’s good fun to hear them step out in concert with fiddlers from Norway and Sweden, Shetland and America, on the album String Sisters: Live. It is, as you may suspect from the title, a recording made at a live concert, fitting as the project itself is a spin off of what was meant to be a one-off collaboration of six powerful fiddle players from related traditions at the Celtic Connections Festival one winter a few years back. The players liked it so well they decided to continue on, and this recording from a concert in Norway is one of the results. Emma Hardelin, Annbjorg Lien, Liz Knowles, and Catriona Macdonald round out the group. They offer fourteen sets of song and tune which range across the traditions of their home countries and include original music also.. It’s music that will have you listing and learning as well as, most likely, up on your feet dancing along.

If you enjoy Celtic Music, you should also read Kerry’s Three Irish & Celtic Albums You Should Experience!

Kerry Dexter writes about the arts at Music Road and is an independent writer, editor, and photographer in the US and Ireland. She’s music editor at WanderingEducators.com, long time contributing writer to world music magazine Dirty Linen, and former folk music editor at VH1. Her work has  appeared in Strings, Ireland and the Americas, CMT, Barnes & Noble Music, CBC, Symphony, The Music Hound Guides, and The Encyclopedia of Counterculture, among other publications.

	St Brigid’s Cros

by Kat Behling

The Irish are not only blessed with their unsurpassed gift of gab, but are highly regarded as the epitome of storytellers, spinning colorful tales and adventures from traditional legends dating back to 3^rd Century BC when the first Celts arrived and settled on the shores of Ireland.

These pre-Christian Celts devised magical tales that romanticized and honored their mighty legion of gods’ and deities’ superhuman powers. Entwined with common underlying themes such as heroism, spiritual journeys or supernatural love, the gods confronted faeries, spirits and monstrous beasts who not only represented the creative forces of nature – both good and evil – but also reflected early religious and cultural beliefs. Later, with the arrival of Christianity, stories juxtaposed both pagan legends and Christian saints within the same tale. The legend of St. Patrick, one of Ireland’s three patron saints, is said to have used his sacred wooden staff to banish evil serpents from the island; along with Brigid, the ancient earth goddess of fire and wisdom and the patron saint of farming and agriculture; and the story of Colm Cille, the founder of Christian monasteries are probably the most notable and celebrated of the Irish saints. Holy wells dedicated to each individual saint are still frequented on their respective feast days in many rural areas of Ireland where people come from miles around to pray for relief of physical ailments or spiritual distress.

Many Irish historians speculate that the faerie kings and queens who make frequent appearances in these century’s old tales are in fact the ancient pagan gods and goddesses themselves “in disguise.” After being buried under the guise of Catholicism and eventually replaced by Christian saints on the Irish calendar, their spirits live on through these mythical tales. Having been passed down from one generation to the next, continuing to evolve and surviving solely by word of mouth, it was not until the Middle Ages when they were finally collected and preserved for future generations by Christian monks and scribes did they begin to resemble the enchanting folktales familiar to young and old readers of Irish folklore today.

	St Brigid shown with a St Brigid’s Cross which is made of straw and a perpetual fire, representing wisdom, poetry, healing, therapy, metallurgy and the hearth.

The Legend of Brigid

Wearing white robes and sweeping the country on her ramshackle chariot, She swept across Ireland urging peace, freedom and good spirits. Her generosity was legendary, her political power unparalleled. This is Brigid  of Kildare, the goddess, the slave who became a saint – who was known as much for her homebrew as she was for her generosity. So powerful was she, that the Celtic festival of Imbolc on February 1^st marked not only the first day of spring on the Celtic calendar, but her feast day as well.

Legend has it she was born among flames of fire and angels near Dundalk around 453, daughter to a slave who had become pregnant by her master. The master’s wife was so enraged that both mother and daughter were banished to work for another master miles away where Brigid  became known as a great dairywoman, whose extraordinary spirit won her and her mother eventual freedom. Like many themes surrounding her folklore, she is said to have a magical cloak and a love for poetry and song.

She founded a community of women in Kildare and one of the first monasteries which became centers for craft and illuminated manuscripts, as well as her famed ale which is said to have kept the entire peoples of Kildare refreshed for the 10 days from Holy Thursday to Low Sunday. By the time of her death, she was leader of almost 13,000 sisters all over the country and a spiritual role model for men. Some believed her name alone was powerful enough to repel the huge sea monsters which threatened their journeys.

Brigid was known for her hospitality and abundance. Unlike most saints, she was extremely healthy. If she leaned on a wooden altar, the dead wood would begin to sprout. Butter churned from her hands, dry cows gave milk. No one went hungry.

Traces of Brigid persist in place names throughout Ireland. Her woven cross of reeds known as St. Brigid’s Cross, stands as an age-old symbol of sunshine and bounty. Families hang them in doorways as a sign of protection. But her status as an ancient feminist icon as well as a symbol of female spirituality remains her legacy – even in modern times when female spirituality are mostly ignored by Christian churches.

You may be familiar with the Clancy Brothers‘ hearty drinking songs, Sinead O’Connor’s gritty take on Irish tradition, Enya’s turning the sounds of her native Donegal into ethereal mist — and then there’s Riverdance. Here are three more ways into Irish music.

Click for More Info

Cathie Ryan: The Farthest Wave
In the title track of this recording, Ryan invites those who listen on a journey through grief and loss to the possibilities of hope, framed in images of the natural world and with a touch of Irish legend. It’s a song inspired while she was walking along the strand in Ireland, as is Be Like the Sea, a consideration of courage and healing.

She also offers Gabhaim Molta Brighid, an ancient hymn to Saint Brigid, and a lively set of songs in Irish that she calls the Dance the Baby, as it includes songs her grandfather used to sing to dance her and her brother and sister around the kitchen when they were small.

Follow the Heron is Scottish songwriter Karine Polwart’s celebration of the renewal of springtime, and Ryan makes Corkman John Spillane’s The Wild Flowers into a tribute to independence that’s all fire and gold. Rough and Rocky finds Ryan, who was born in Detroit to Irish parents and lives now in Ireland, giving a graceful nod to her Irish American heritage.

What’s Closest to the Heart is a swirling, inviting, enigmatic tale, another one which Ryan wrote, which raises more questions than it answers, in both English and Irish, and things come to a close with a gentle take on that song of the wanderer, Home Sweet Home. A journey well worth the taking. John McCusker, John Doyle, and Hanneke Cassel are among those who support Ryan on the album.

Click for More Info

Liz Carroll and John Doyle: Double Play
Liz Carroll plays the fiddle, and does that so well that she won an All-Ireland championship when she was still a teenager. In the years since, she’s composed many tunes which have been played and recorded by artists throughout the Celtic tradition. John Doyle is a guitarist, and producer, former member of Solas, who has worked with artists including Susan McKeown, Cathie Ryan, Alison Brown, Michael Black, and Joan Baez. When Carroll and Doyle get together, ideas fly and melodies cascade.

You can just imagine people up and dancing — and you may get up and join in yourself — to the Castle Kelly/Galway Rambler set. Doyle has a way of taking old songs and making them sound just as fresh as though they were written today, and that he does with Pound a Week Rise, a song about miners’ lives. Carroll’s Lament for Tommy Makem is a lovely slow air that moves into the fast paced Within a Hen’s Kick and The Slippery Slide in a way you know Tommy would have appreciated.

It’s an album of tunes — with a couple of songs included — at once engaging lively, and thoughtful, leaving no doubt as to why Carroll and Doyle were among those chosen to play for President Obama at the White House this past Saint Patrick’s Day.

Click for More Info

Matt and Shannon Heaton: Lovers’ Well
Husband and wife duo Matt and Shannon Heaton focus their latest alum on songs from the Irish tradition that deal with love and loss from different angles.

Both the Heatons sing; Matt plays guitar and bouzouki, Shannon plays flutes and whistles. They draw you in to the music here at once with Lily of the West, a fast-paced rover’s tale of love and murder, and follow with the quiet, enigmatic tale of a lovers’ meeting observed in Where the Moorcocks Crow. Shannon takes the lead voice on these two, singing in a clear and engaging soprano with phrasing that adds to the stories.

There’s a nice transition to the instrumental set Brad’s Honeybees, which combines traditional and newly composed reels, with Matt on guitar and Shannon on flute. Song and tune balance each other through the recording. In keeping with the idea of lovers and couples, the Heatons worked with Irish dancer Kieran Jordan, whose foot percussion may be heard on the track Mountain Rambler, to make sure all the sets were at proper tempo for dancing. A subtle touch, and a thoughtful one.

Matt sings lead on a traditional song Lady Fair, telling a story which follows the broken token idea, of lovers parted by time and distance each having half of a ring and only recognizing each other with certainty when the token is produced. There’s also Lao Dueng Duen, a song Shannon sings honoring time she spent in living in Thailand. There are fourteen varied and engaging songs and sets of tunes here, each standing well on its own and making a collection well worth the listening many times over.

Going to the Heart
Each of these three albums is worth the listening many times over, actually. As you do, you’ll find yourself going deeper into the heart of Ireland and its music.

Three More Irish and Celtic Albums You Should Experience

Kerry Dexter writes about the arts at Music Road and is an independent writer, editor, and photographer in the US and Ireland. She’s music editor at WanderingEducators.com, long time contributing writer to world music magazine Dirty Linen, and former folk music editor at VH1. Her work has appeared in Strings, Ireland and the Americas, CMT, Barnes & Noble Music, CBC, Symphony, The Music Hound Guides, and The Encyclopedia of Counterculture, among other publications.

Anne Roos Celtic Harp CD &
24-Page Hardcover Book
“Mermaids & Mariners”

Today’s prize features the beautiful Celtic Harp music of Anne Roos and her CD/Book “Mermaids & Mariners.”

Tunes about the mysterious draw that mermaids and the sea have on mariners. Traditional and original music arranged by Anne for both solo Celtic Harp and Celtic Harp within a small ensemble of instruments. This beautiful CD filled with sea ballads and shanties is packaged inside a 24-page, hardcover book containing a bounty of illustrations and tales about life at sea and the lost loves of those who sail on its waves and swim at its depths.

This recording also features Dorothy A. Hawkinson on fiddle, Alan Fuller on guitar, Michael Frost on viola, and Riggy Rackin on concertina.

It’s available at www.celticharpmusic.com for $17.95.

This prize goes to Maggie Hume from Clifton Park, NY! We’ll be seeing a few other gifts from Anne later in the month, so if you weren’t picked, there’s still another chance to win.

Tomorrow’s gift: somethings for you to wear. Not signed up? Visit http://irishfireside.wordpress.com/free-stuff/

Irish & Celtic Notecards www.CustomSilhouettes.com ©Sharman Armstrong

It’s been like Christmas around here at the Irish Fireside. Not only are we getting all kinds of nominations for the Irish Fireside Holiday Gift Guide from people like you, but loads of items have also been sent to us for the GIVEAWAY.

I’m very impressed with the samples that have showed up so far, and I’m looking forward to checking out the “promised” items that are on their way. We’ll be continuously updating the list on the FREE STUFF tab at the top of this page.

Here’s a partial list of FREEBIES that will be given away in Dec:

• Celtic Tiles from Earthen Craft Potter www.ecptile.com
• Mermaids & Mariners CD & Book from Celtic Harpist Anne Roos www.celticharpmusic.com
• Haste to the Wedding CD & Book from Celtic Harpist Anne Roos www.celticharpmusic.com
• A Light in the Forest CD & Book from Celtic Harpist Anne Roos www.celticharpmusic.com
• Irish Shard Jewelry from Lamplighter Studio www.LamplighterStudio.com
• Irish Stout T-Shirt from Boulevard Brewing Company www.blvdbeer.com
• Abramo’s Gift novel from Donald Greco www.bookpros.com
• Irish Turf Incense and Burner from The Gifted Hand www.turfpeat.com
• Black Coffee CD from Anne Davis www.annedavisjazz.com
• Irish and Celtic Notecards from Custom Silhouettes www.customsilhouettes.com
• Ultimate Ireland Vacation Kit from IrelandYes www.IrelandYes.com
• Burren Smokehouse Giftbox from County Clare’s Burren Smokehouse www.burrensmokehouse.ie
• Vintage Notre Dame “Fighting Irish” 2009 Calendar from Asgaard Press www.asgardpress.com/products/notredame
• Irish & Celtic Music CDs from Marc Gunn www.thebards.net
• Ireland of the Welcomes magazine subscription from Harmonia www.harmonia.ie
• Crocheted Angels from Sister of Grace Church-Ireland & Judy Arnold www.xanga.com/sistersofgraceofchrist
• A Journey Into Ireland’s Literary Revival by Todd Felton from www.roaringfortiespress.com
• Celtic Spirit Meditations CDs from Mara Freeman www.chalicecentre.net
• Celtic Cross by Derek Bryce from Weiser Books www.weiserbooks.com
• Celtic Totem Animals by John Matthews from Weiser Books www.weiserbooks.com
• Celtic Wisdom Sticks by Caitlin Matthews from Weiser Books www.weiserbooks.com
• 2008 Glimpse of Ireland Coupon Book from Enchanting Ireland www.enchantingireland.com

SIGN UP TO WIN FREE STUFF HERE

Don’t be afraid, click it to find out how more.

Send your suggestions to corey@irishfireside.com.

You’re also welcome to look at our previous gift guides…

2007 Holiday Gift Guide

2006 Holiday Gift Guide

Roche (with Liam) shares “Ned of the Hill” at a session in Grace’s in Cloughjordan, County Tipperary. CLICK THE PLAY BUTTON below to watch.

Our Podcasts are availble on iTunes

Show Notes

We share a moment from a session at Grace’s in Cloughjordan, County Tipperary.

Anyone who followed our blog this summer knows we enjoyed a lot of great music. One of our favorite sessions was held at Grace’s on Monday nights. We thought we’d share a moment when Roche, a Grace’s regular, sings Eamonn a’ Chnuic, which translates to Ned of the Hill.

The song tells the story of a Tipperary man named Edmond (Ned) Ryan, an Irish Earl displaced by Cromwell. His outlaw reputation began when he killed a tax collector over a confiscated cow belonging to an old woman. He was later killed by fellow Irishman for reward money.

This movie was shot on my digital camera, so I was surprised to discover that the footage and sound was decent enough to include on the podcast.

You’ll get to see Liam singing in Irish with Roche. Tony on Fiddle, Theresa on tin whistle and Kathleen on piano. Our friends Breda, Tilly and Liza are also there…and several other folks who stuck around for the end of the session. Here’s the TravelBlog entry from that evening.

Enjoy…here are the words of the song in Irish and English.

EAMONN A’ CHNUIC Ce-h-é sin amuigh Go bhfuil faor ar a ghuth A’ reaba mo dhorais dúnta?” “Mise Eamonn a’ Chnuic Tá báidhte fuar fluich O shior-shúil sléibhte is gleannta” “A lao ghil’s a chuid Cad do dhéannfainnse duit Mara gcuirfinn ort béinn dom ghúna? ‘S go mbeidh púdar dubh Is go mbeimis araon muchta” “Is fada mise amuigh Faoi sneachta is faoi shioc Is gan dánacht agam ar éinne Mo bhranar gan cur Mo sheisreach gar sgur Is gan iad agam ar aon chor Nil cairde agam (Is danaid liom san) Do ghlacfadh mé moch na déanach Is go gcaithear mé dul Thar farraige soir O’s ann na fúil mo ghaolta

NED OF THE HILL “Oh who is without That with passionate shout Keeps beating my bolted door?” “I am Ned of the Hill Forspent wet and chill From long trudging marsh and moor” “My love, fond and true What else could I do But shield you from wind and from weather? When the shots fall like hail They us both shall assail And mayhap we shall die together.” “Through forest and through snow Tired and hunted I go In fear both from friend and from neighbor My horses run wild My acres untilled And they all of them lost to my labor But it grieves me far more Than the loss of my store That there’s none who would shield me from danger So my fate it must be To fare eastward o’er sea And languish amid the stranger”