CD REVIEWS FOR NOVEMBER 2006
By CATHOLINE BUTLER
CELTIC WOMAN
A Christmas Celebration
Ever since Celtic Woman made their North American debut on PBS, there has been no stopping these five beautiful Celtic women. With the release of their first album Celtic Woman they solidified their place in the history books. Their self-titled debut album has clocked its eighty-first week at number one on the Billboard World Music Chart, surpassing Andrea Bocelli's Sogno for the all-time record at that position.
With the release of their Christmas album, A Christmas Celebration, nobody is surprised it has entered the Billboard World Music charts at number one, knocking their first album off the record breaking spot. They now hold number one and number two spot. Perhaps when Celtic Woman releases A New Journey at the end of January, they will clinch number three spot.
The Celtic women are: Chloe Agnew, Orla Fallon, Lisa Kelly, Mairead Nesbitt, and Meav Ni Mhaolchatha. They are always beautifully dressed and with the voices of angels, their presentation is flawless. Watch for their new show on PBS at the beginning of December.
A Christmas Celebration has all your favourite Christmas music, including White Christmas; Carol Of The Bells; Silent Night; Panis Angelicus; O Come All Ye Faithful; O Holy Night; The Christmas Song; Let It Snow; and many more. It's a CD that you will be playing a lot over the holidays, as well as giving as gifts.
DONAL CLANCY
Close To Home
Close To Home is a collection of Irish tunes played on acoustic guitar which is unusual, since there is no history of guitar in the Celtic tradition as there is with the fiddle and accordion.
This is Donal Clancy's first solo album and the title is no accident either. "These are songs I grew up with. Songs I can't truly remember learning," he recalls.
The tunes include the slow air An Buacchaill Caol Dubh; the hornpipe Kitty's Wedding; and the jig Ask My Father. Donal did indeed ask his father, Liam Clancy of Clancy Brothers fame, to show him a few chords on the guitar when he took up the instrument as a young boy after starting out on the tin whistle and trying out the mandolin. He said, "Something about the sound of the guitar, the plucked strings, just appealed to me."
Donal Clancy has been involved with some of the best bands in Irish music, starting out with Clancy, O'Connell and Clancy. He has played with his father Liam and his cousin Robbie O'Connell, he helped to establish the band Danú, then moving on to become part of Eileen Ivers Band, then with Solas. But he always comes back to Danú, it's still one of his main gigs. "It's like coming home again, bringing it all back home," he says, laughing.
Though the tunes are all traditional, Donal has brought the tunes over to the guitar with his own arrangements. He said, "This is a record I have always wanted to make."
On the liner notes, Donal gives the background to each track of music, just as the Clancy Brothers did at their concerts. It was like an Irish history lesson and was so much more meaningful for each piece of music.
WHAT THE SHITE
Shite 'n' Onions: Volume 2
Shite 'n' Onions is a compilation album of Celtic punk. From the success of Volume 1, John Murphy has compiled a new set of tunes from bands that breathe Guinness and thrash potatoes.
Actually all the music is frantic and full throttle and all the singers have that raw whisky gravelly voice, kind of Luke Kelly, Shane MacGowan or Black 47 sound. I couldn't stop laughing at some of the lyrics but really the music is great. You wouldn't be bored at this party! Even the names of the bands are laughable...it's refreshing.
However, I don't believe this CD would be the traditional music aficionados cup of tea. John Murphy describes Celtic punk as rough, tough and raw...the sound of Irish working men letting loose after hard day's laboring on the building sites of London and Birmingham.
The bands and tracks are as follows: Blaggards, Drunken Sailor; Jackdaw, Hogjaw; The Goset, Sing Me A Song; The Kissers, Kicked In The Head; Three Day Threshold, Pub With No Beer; The Peelers, Plastic Paddy; Jug O Punch, Blackheart; Larkin, My Day Of Reckoning; Mutiny, Struggle Town & Digging Gold; The Gobshites, Cheers; The Town Pants, The Weight of Words; Icewagonflu, Trinity; McGillicuddys, On The Rocks; Sharky Doyles, King Of The One Eleven; Warblefly, The Ballad of Ali Abbas; The Pubcrawlers, My Brother Sylveste; The Porters, Weila Weila; and Barney Murray, Troublesome Girl.
Many readers will recognize The Town Pants group on the compilation They are a well-known Celtic rock group from Vancouver. For more information about What The Shite, visit: www.shitenonions.com.
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