ATLANTIC STANDARDS
This is a wonderful collection of Atlantic Canada’s best known and loved highest profile artists. It includes all the songs and music you will need for a good old down-home kitchen party or ceilidh. Everything from sea shanties, fiddle tunes, ballads and recent popular selections is on this CD.
Artists on Atlantic Standards are Great Big Sea with General Taylor; J.P. Cormier with Kelly’s Mountain; Celtic Connection with Last Shanty; Barra MacNeils with Misty Moisty Morning; The Rankin Family with North Country; Rawlins Cross with MacPherson’s Lament; Rita MacNeil with Working Man; Ashley MacIsaac with Sleepy Maggie; The Irish Descendants with Barrett’s Privateers; Ron Hynes with Sonny’s Dream; Natalie MacMaster with Drunken Piper; Shanneyganock with Whiskey In The Jar; The Fables with Heave Away; Lennie Gallant with Which Way Does The River Run; and The Cottars with The Briar & The Rose.
This is just a great album and you have all these top Celtic Maritime artists on one CD and at an incredibly low price. The only thing you need to supply is the beer and seafood! Released on the Warner Music Canada label and available in all fine records stores. For more information, visit: www.warnermusic.ca.
SOLAS
Reunion: A Decade of Solas
It’s finally out! Solas the Irish supergroup of traditional Irish music have released their tenth anniversary album entitled Reunion: A Decade of Solas. The album has been released on the Compass label.
Solas stepped out onto the world stage in 1996 when Irish music was poised at the brink of a new era of innovation and popularity. The five young musicians who made up the band at the time had no idea that they were to be a galvanizing element in the Irish music scene.
“We thought we were doing a one-off project,” says multi-instrumentalist Seamus Egan. It was an offhand remark heard on their tour last year that prompted the discussions that lead to the original group getting together to record, Reunion: A Decade of Solas.
“Oh, by the way, next year it will be 10 years,” Egan remembers. “That set the wheels in motion and by the end of the tour we decided to put on a concert to celebrate. But then we asked ourselves, why stop there? We decided to see if the past members were interested in coming back...”
Much to the band’s delight, past Solas members were all interested. “From then,” Egan says, “the hardest thing was to get everyone together at the one place to record the album. It took four months to nail it all down and it was logistically difficult to corral, but it was worth it.”
“But,” Egan added “there are differences between then and now. Back then we were so young...just starting out. Over the years everyone has been involved in their own things, everyone has come into their own as solo performers. Having that dynamic in the group was fantastic – everyone coming back with an earned sense of confidence.”
Solas will be headlining the Edmonton Folk Festival at Gallagher Park, River Valley on August 12 and 13. To purchase Reunion: A Decade of Solas visit: compassrecords.com.
SHOOGLENIFTY
Radical Mestiz
Shooglenifty are one of Scotland’s most unique musical exports. This six-man band is credited being the originators of “acid-croft,” a fiery and infectious blend of Celtic traditional music and dance grooves that band members describe as “hypno-folkadelic ambient trad.”
A supremely dexterous and witty live band, their energetic and live performances have kept them in constant demand around the world. One minute they are playing a well-known traditional piece of music and suddenly they take off in another direction and then just as suddenly they are back into the traditional.
Their music is a sort of trippy blend of Celtic favourites with everything from jazz to Latin shuffles thrown in for good measure. The more you listen to their music, the more you become addicted to their unique sound.
Radical Mestizo is the band’s third release on the Compass label and features fan favourites, She’s in the Attic, Arms Dealer’s Daughter and A Fistful of Euro.
Shooglenifty will be in this neck of the woods on tour in August. On August 5-7, at the Edmonton Folk Festival; August 9, at Banff Centre for the Arts; August 11, at Civic Centre in Golden and August 12-14, at the Roots and Blues Festival in Salmon Arm. To purchase Shooglenifty - Radical Mestizo visit: www.compassrecords.com.
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