CD-REVIEWS MAY 2009
By CATHOLINE BUTLER
BERNADETTE RUDDY
All Time Favourites
Bernadette Ruddy is the beautiful girl with the beautiful voice from County Mayo who has just released her new CD entitled All Time Favourites. This is a combination of country and Irish favourites and includes a song that she wrote entitled Forgive Me.
Some of the favourites on the album are Save The Last Dance; Fields Of Athenry; Your Cheatin Heart/Blue Eyes Crying In The Rain; Walk Right Back; She Moved Through The Fair; and Danny Boy. There are 12 tracks on the CD.
Bernadette Ruddy has just been invited to guest on the Brendan Grace Show until Easter 2010.
As well as being a talented singer, Bernadette is also well-known for her artwork, in which she particularly captures the beauty and feel of the Mayo landscape.
To order the Bernadette Ruddy CD and to check out some of her paintings, visit her website at: www.bernadetteruddy.com.
SORA
Heartwood
Sora writes all her own material and it is a combination of folk and Celtic/acoustic music. Her voice is poignant yet earthy and thought provoking as she shares an affinity for nature and the forest, much like the ancient Celts.
She says, "I am natural and enjoy organic design, music and writing. That is what inspires me, the feeling of fiery leaves falling around as you walk on an autumn day. My lyrics come from there.
"The ultimate goal in my music would be to create something that people could find themselves in that, they would want to listen to and get lost in. I want people to be touched by their environments as I am by mine."
Sora's voice sounds like a cross between Judy Collins or Loreena McKennit.
To purchase Heartwood and for more information about Sora, visit: www.soramusic.ca.
COMING HOME TO SCOTLAND
Jimmy Cassidy
In the year of Homecoming Scotland 2009, Coming Home To Scotland with one of Scotland's top accordionists Jimmy Cassidy, includes quality Scottish songs and music. It will certainly tug at the heartstrings of the exile and hasten their travel arrangements and for others it will be a great year and a great time to visit Scotland.
Never has such a collection of Scottish songs been written since the Song for Scotland contest in the Eighties. The talents of songwriter George Mack have been brought alive with the melody writing skills of Jimmy Cassidy.
There are 17 tracks on the album, which include: Coming Home To Scotland and To Scotland They'll Return; Angus Glens; Good Old Aberdeen; Morays Magnificent Men; Highland Highway; Perths Fair City; My Beautiful Scotland; The Trossachs; Edinburgh; Hogmanay in the Highlands; and Blair Atholl to name a few.
The album also includes a tribute monologue to the late and great Andy Stewart. A bonus song is Canada You've Called Me marking George Mack's recent visit to Canada.
For anyone not from Scotland, the words and music are like a history lesson. For instance, Morays Magnificent Men tells the story of Donald Alexander Smith and George Stephen, two men from that area in Scotland, who helped build Canada's rugged railway from the East to the West of this great country.
Actually, you would be hard pressed to find one bad track on this album. It's great value.
To order Coming Home To Scotland, visit: www.lyrics4u.co.uk.
|
