“Celtic” compilations CDs.

[Caleb]

Last week I was at my local library and picked up a few of those “Celtic” CD compilations. I had high hopes for one in particular: the cover art was (as expected) dark forest green, with lots of Tolkien-ish designs and fonts, and it is a 3-CD set: but, man, what a disappointment. Some of the songs I recognized (like Skye Boat Song) were done in what I consider a pretty bad fashion. Rather than using traditional instruments there were keyboards and plastic sounds. And why bother doing a traditional song when you’re going to change the melody, making it almost unrecognizable?

What I was and am still looking for are some CDs of traditional “Celtic” folksongs, ballads and tunes, done in a pretty traditional way, using acoustic instruments. It’s even hard to find old American folk songs done in a traditional or “normal” way. Everyone likes to dress them up and put his own spin on them.

Any recommendations?

[Mike Anderson]

Last week I was at my local library and picked up a few of those “Celtic” CD compilations. I had high hopes for one in particular: the cover art was (as expected) dark forest green, with lots of Tolkien-ish designs and fonts, and it is a 3-CD set: but, man, what a disappointment. Some of the songs I recognized (like Skye Boat Song) were done in what I consider a pretty bad fashion. Rather than using traditional instruments there were keyboards and plastic sounds. And why bother doing a traditional song when you’re going to change the melody, making it almost unrecognizable?

What I was and am still looking for are some CDs of traditional “Celtic” folksongs, ballads and tunes, done in a pretty traditional way, using acoustic instruments. It’s even hard to find old American folk songs done in a traditional or “normal” way. Everyone likes to dress them up and put his own spin on them.

Any recommendations?

Oh man, don't get me started. That whole "Celtic" word to begin with is something you ought to avoid on a CD label. I was working in Vancouver's biggest record store when the marketing wave hit in the early 90s. It was (and is) used to encompass everything from the synthesizer dreck you're talking about to the real trad deal and many variations in between, plus Galician, Breton, and Asturian music, so it's guaranteed to confuse the buyer. It was great in one way, since many fantastic artists got heard, and sold their records and established lasting careers. A real mixed blessing.

I have been buying nothing but albums by individual artists/bands for the last several years, so I'm not the guy to really tell you what's out there right now in terms of compilations, but I can tell you a few of my favourites. Here's a great Scottish compilation: http://www.amazon.com/Celebration-Sc.../dp/B000002NO3. If you want to hear a lot of essential Irish songs, grab a multi-disc compilation by the Dubliners, or the Clancy Brothers. Plenty out there. You can't go wrong with the Chieftains, albums 1 through 9.

Anyway hopefully someone can do better than I have for recommendations - good luck in your search!

[Caleb]

Oh man, don't get me started. That whole "Celtic" word to begin with is something you ought to avoid on a CD label. I was working in Vancouver's biggest record store when the marketing wave hit in the early 90s. It was (and is) used to encompass everything from the synthesizer dreck you're talking about to the real trad deal and many variations in between, plus Galician, Breton, and Asturian music, so it's guaranteed to confuse the buyer. It was great in one way, since many fantastic artists got heard, and sold their records and established lasting careers. A real mixed blessing.

I have been buying nothing but albums by individual artists/bands for the last several years, so I'm not the guy to really tell you what's out there right now in terms of compilations, but I can tell you a few of my favourites. Here's a great Scottish compilation: http://www.amazon.com/Celebration-Sc.../dp/B000002NO3. If you want to hear a lot of essential Irish songs, grab a multi-disc compilation by the Dubliners, or the Clancy Brothers. Plenty out there. You can't go wrong with the Chieftains, albums 1 through 9.

Anyway hopefully someone can do better than I have for recommendations - good luck in your search!

Thanks for the suggestions. I realize "Celtic" is a term overused and abused, and I knew it was a longshot checking out these CDs from the library. I have found a couple of nice songs on one of them. And I was surprised at the quality of the Celtic Woman stuff (ducks to dodge flying objects). There's some nice fiddling and some excellent vocal work, and some of the arrangements are very good.

[Richard Eskite]

At Reavey's House by Jim Eagan has some wonderful fiddle renditions of traditional material, as do almost any of the Celtic Colours collections, although a few of the musicians they feature do indulge in electricity. Three Mile Stone is another good choice and very "mando-centric".

[Dagger Gordon]

In my local town of Invergordon in Scotland we get a lot of cruise ships coming in. The guy who has a wee tourist shop beside the pier tells me that all of the tourists want only CDs which have Amazing Grace on them.
Why? To play at their funerals!!!!!!!!!!!

Well at least they're thinking ahead I suppose.

[Colin Lindsay]

Oh man, don't get me started. That whole "Celtic" word to begin with is something you ought to avoid on a CD label.

Yes, to me it’s the equivalent of going to, say, Greece and buying CDs called “Greek bouzouki music” or “Memories of Greece”.… Pap for the tourists and a quick money spinner for the mediocre… all this ‘Celtic’ crap of swirls and dark forests and standing stones, usually some long-haired female staring wistfully into the distance and wearing someone’s cast-off blanket…. she’s probably wishing she could get to a real session of good music…
BUT: don’t knock the electronic additions - look at Stivell, especially in concert, with electric organ - it made the A L’Olympia album. As for the rock element, well Runrig were sublime with a guitar and drums version of Loch Lomond…
Different versions of songs can make or break them - I hated The Galway Shawl for years, as a singalong dance-song by the ould fogies and country crooners, until I heard Patrick Street’s version from the album “On The Fly”… superbly done. I performed it once during a concert against the wishes of fellow band members, but once they heard THAT version they wanted to play it all the time.

[Caleb]

In my local town of Invergordon in Scotland we get a lot of cruise ships coming in. The guy who has a wee tourist shop beside the pier tells me that all of the tourists want only CDs which have Amazing Grace on them.
Why? To play at their funerals!!!!!!!!!!!

Well at least they're thinking ahead I suppose.

I have a close friend who plays the bagpipes. First thing everyone wants to hear is Amazing Grace.

[Mike Anderson]

Anyone remember that anti-nuclear weapons documentary "If You Love This Planet"? I'd like to make one called "If You Love This Music" - sort of a plea to stop the flood of New Age "Celtic" and various other bastardizations. That said, vis-a-vis your comment about Stivell, Footerin' - I love the way Altan uses keyboards: sparingly, only occasionally, and subtly. And nobody is going to deny their trad chops and accomplishments. I still have a strong preference for all-acoustic ensembles though.

"Amazing Grace"...why do people have to be so dull and predictable? Give me a full pipe and drum band playing "Flashing Light Syndrome" any day! Go out with a flourish.

[montana]

Check out compilations by famous IT bands. The comp by Solas comes to mind it comes with a DVD and is a live set with all their alumni. I'm sure there are others.

[gortnamona]

avoid anything that says celtic on it !

[Randi Gormley]

Well, I'll put in a plug for "The Celts Play Connecticut" which is a 2 CD compilation of the first 10 years of the concerts my group has put on. It's all trad, all acoustic, all real ITM players and going cheap these days. Find it at shamrockirishmusic.org. You can also pick up Loretta Egan Murphy's CD, come to think of it.
Then there's the new Liz Carroll CD, On the Off Beat (I think), anything by Brian Conway (First Through the Gate is one), anything by Patrick Street or The Teatotallers, Pat Egan's band (the name of which escapes me right this sec) and a couple more if you start looking up individual musicians. that ought to get you started.

[Gelsenbury]

All those interpretations and spins on traditional material or the "Celtic mood" have their place, as much as they are stereotyped. It's just a natural consequence of how folk music develops. Music is played with new rhythmic variations, new melodies, new instruments (whether these are mandolins or synthesisers), and so on - depending on what people like, forget, imitate, or elaborate.

Having said that, there is nothing wrong with preferring acoustic arrangements. My wife gave me these compilation CDs as a gift. Perhaps they are more along the lines you want.

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Irish-Jigs-A...jigs+and+reels

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Celtic-Airs-...rs+and+ballads

[mandocrucian]

There's tourist garbage from no-name bands, but then again, there are also budget repackagings of older tracks by legit players that can be quite good. If you have a familiarity with artist/band names or of labels which specialized in that type of music, you can find the better material. Read the fine print.....if you see something like "all tracks previously released on Topic Records", it'll be the real stuff and not some no-name Irish Rovers knock-offs.

In short, there is both garbage and first-rate stuff which is marketed (usually to the uninitiated audience) under the Celtic banner. Joe Six-Pack may have heard stuff called "Celtic" and liked it, so why shouldn't the specialist labels (or some company which has leased tracks from them) widen their potential market beyond the hard cores? Hey, if they buy a "Celtic compilation" and they get some tracks by The Bothy Band, Planxty, Chieftains, Altan, Liz Carroll, Capercaille, Patrick Street, DeDannan etc., they got themselves a bargain and a first-rate introduction to the genre.

At the library...a good place to start looking is the various Rough Guide compilations, which are usually fairly good, especially if you are a newbie to the genre. The library is free, check the stuff out, and the stuff that stinks, return it the next day or two and try some other discs.

The-Rough-Guide-to-Scottish-Folk-by-Various-Artists
The-Rough-Guide-to-the-Music-of-Wales-by-Various-Artists
The-Rough-Guide-to-Scottish-Music-Digipak-by-Various-Artists
The-Rough-Guide-to-Irish-Music-by-Various-Artists
The-Rough-Guide-to-English-Roots-Music-by-Various-Artists

Then there are compilations on the Celtophile label - which is really Green Linnet under another name, put out for the WalMart/Target/etc racks. So those are all artists and tracks that had been previously on Green Linnet releases. (I believe Green Linnet has been defunct for a number of years) Sometimes the titles may seem a bit iffy, but the tracks are all from legit artists/bands, so I would check out any stuff:
Celtic Love Songs
Masters of The Celtic Accordion
Legends of the Scottish Fiddle

Then are also the worthwhile compilations that were released on the Green Linnet label itself, such as
The 20th Anniversary Collection
The Heart of the Gaels
The Celts Rise Again

And for older more vintage recordings, Topic records had some classic releases:
Paddy-In-The-Smoke-Irish-Dance-Music-From-A-London-Pub-by-Various-Artists (Stuff from the 60's - I had this, great bar-room field recordings, the real deal!)
Celtic-Reflections-Topic-by-Various-Artists 3-Discs
Past-Masters-of-the-Irish-Fiddle-Music-by-Various-Artists-

Niles Hokkanen

[Randi Gormley]

Yeah, Green Linnet has been gone for a bit. They were neighbors, and they gave a lot of their backlog to one of the guys in our group. If you can find old Green Linnet CDs - they probably pop up at library book sales - they're definitely worth it to pick up.

[foldedpath]

The Celtic Fiddle Festival albums are another example of how you shouldn't ignore everything with "Celtic" in the title. This is a series of six albums recorded over the years by Kevin Burke, Christian Lemaître and others including Johnny Cunningham at the start. It's the trad music of Ireland, Brittany, and Québec (among other things), played by some extraordinary fiddlers.

[Paul Kotapish]

Most of the Green Linnet stuff, as well as some of the great Mulligan and Xenophile material, is available via Alison Brown and Garry West's Compass Record Group. They have a number of the compilations Niles cited above, for example, as well scads of essential discs from the revival flood of the '70, '80s, and '90s.

Check it out: http://www.greenlinnet.com/

[Beanzy]

And for older more vintage recordings, Topic records had some classic releases:
Paddy-In-The-Smoke-Irish-Dance-Music-From-A-London-Pub-by-Various-Artists (Stuff from the 60's - I had this, great bar-room field recordings, the real deal!)
Celtic-Reflections-Topic-by-Various-Artists 3-Discs
Past-Masters-of-the-Irish-Fiddle-Music-by-Various-Artists-

That "Past Masters" and "Paddy in the Smoke" are really where it's at for my ear. Thanks for the recommendations.

[Colin Lindsay]

'A Feast of Irish folk’ was a stalwart in my collection for many years, as was the compilation LP ’Scotland’s Story’. It used to be a great way of discovering new groups.
I know we’re tongue-in-cheek about many of the songs etc mentioned, but it’s easy to be caught out when you buy a CD called ‘Songs of Ireland’ and then find that no matter how wide a range of tunes and songs there is, and how well known they are, they’re played by Wee Paddy on an accordion and bin-lid in his garden shed, NOT the original artists… so it’s easy to get ripped off unless you’ve your specs with you.

[tomgorman]

Pick up a copy of David Surette's "Green Mandolin"