New Cara Promo just out today! Have a look, ye can see me getting my ass kicked in foosball.-Ryan Murphy
Hi friends. I am currently busy with a project but I have tons and tons of updates just waiting for the right time. Anyway please watch this nice video from the band Cara.
Liz Madden and Jenne Lennon…two women with distinctive strong voices performing songs form their debut album Elysian Dreams. You can check more of Shishonnah in this channel : http://www.youtube.com/user/SHISHONNAH
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Tell you what’s good about Sunday. Looking at paintings by Irish painter Martin Driscoll is what’s amazing. He captures the soul of Ireland in his artworks. More here:https://www.facebook.com/media/albums/?id=100000743890364
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Celtic music from Argentina!
Eliseo Mauas Pinto is a fellow blogger and musician from Argentina.
Sue Aston now out in Bandcamp
Hello Celtic Music Fans. Another week of musical discovery is here. Sue Aston is now available in Bandcamp. Those who don’t have her albums yet can listen to sample tracks. Let the healing melody wrap all over you. The title reminds one of Cornwall’s beautiful beaches.Soon it is summer. What a great time to go surfing over there.I was listening to this track again and again today. I am being reminded that there is truth that certain type of music has a calming effect on troubled hearts.
Interesting Article about Breton Musician Dom Duff:
Read the full artile here: http://whatson.brittanytourism.com/festive-brittany/breton-artists/dom-duff
Hamish Burgess with his latest piece 'Brigid' (www.mauiceltic.com/gallery.htm) during his talk on Celtic Mythology, based on his Celtic art, on the Irish Music Cruise to the Caribbean Jan 2012. http://www.irishmusiccruises.com
photo © Hamish Burgess 2012
The Celtic Art of Hamish Burgess
The latest addition to Celtic Music fan’s people that make the Celtic world go round. Hamish Burgess is a graphic artist based in the island of Maui Hawaii. His works are amazing and I can look at them for hours and feel totally relaxed and happy. Here’s a little blurb about his profile:
Hamish Douglas Burgess is an artist living on the island of Maui, in the Hawaiian Islands. He continues the ancient practice with his own Celtic art, traditional and modern. Coming from Celtic stock (Scottish), and living for many years in a Celtic area of Britain (Cornwall), he has a love of Celtic art and music instilled in him, producing Celtic artwork in different media, photography from the Celtic Lands, and playing the bagpipes – he also holds the Hawaii State tattoo artist license. He regularly spends time in the ancient Celtic areas of Britain, Ireland and Europe, studying ancient works of Celtic art, and visiting other artists. Recent works have included album covers, book illustrations, commissioned pieces, original celtic tattoos, temporary celtic tattoos and even an entire car!
To learn more, visit his works:
http://www.mauiceltic.com/-I bookmarked it!
http://www.manaoradio.com/ He is a weekly presenter
Gem from 2011: Michael Cooney Pat Egan Uilleann Pipes and Guitar 2011(Thanks to Beebee Simmons)
Two instruments that work together. The mellifluous sound of the uilleann pipes can work well with the acoustic guitar. It is great to see the two instruments make a perfect tandem. Blurb:
Two of our favorite musicians in the world. Pat Egan and Michael Cooney. Philly House Concert…. Foxhunters is the reel… Thanks so much to Bette and Bob for hosting this concert!!!!
A Dose of Irish Traditional Music: The Shannon Family(Thanks to Beebee Simmons).
Traditional Irish music is fun to be heard as to be seen. You can just see and hear the passion there…and makes you pasisonate to do something too..like in my case write!
The She Amigos
They’ve got the funk, the grit and the free spirited music.Linda Welby, Dee Brown and Regina McDermott, collectively known as “The She Amigos”. They are three awesome women from Ireland. Learn more about them here: www.irishcountrymusicradio.com
Justus and Law – LIVE at the Gumboot Cafe – Dec 22, 2011
They are based in based in British Columbia. There is something about Canadian Celtic musicians…they add a fresh touch to traditional sounds. I love the fine way these guys play the instruments. So much passion and beauty. Please check the project
Calan bring together the remarkable talents of 5 young musicians giving a fresh and vibrant sound to traditional Welsh music. With a contemporary and lively approach they breathe new life into the old traditions through their sparkling melodies, foot tapping tunes and spirited and energetic performances of Welsh step dancing. They blast their way through some of the old favourite reels, jigs and hornpipes with fast paced and uplifting arrangements before melting into some of the most beautiful and haunting songs. -The Calan Website.
Visit www.calan-band.com and listen to streaming music.
Calan. I like the name. It possesses that pagan sound which calls to mind dragons, druids and the beauty of the Welsh mythology. It is also a term associated with Welsh feasts as in Calan Mai (1st day of May) which is the equivalent of Gaelic Beltane.
Patrick Rimes plays for this band. He has mastered the fiddle, bagpipes, pibgorn, whistle and trombone . Calan approach the Welsh traditional music scene with freshness, vigor and a fashion sense.
Like the power of the fire-breathing dragon, these guys swoop down to the scene with such intensity and hypnotic grace. I saw several videos of their performance and they always leave the audience with jaw dropping impression. Calan have joined the ranks of top Celtic players all over the world and Wales is once again at the center stage of the music scene. Like any knight haunting for the mythical dragon, I got help from their manager Huw Williams who helped me get in touch with Patrick Rimes. Now we will know Calan at this point and I am sure people who read this will want to know and listen more to this band.
Angharad Siân Jenkins – fiddle
Bethan Rhiannon – main vocal, accordion and step dancing
Alaw Ebrill Jones – harps
Llinos Eleri Jones – harp, triple harp
Sam Humphries – guitar
Alex Moller – percussion, drums
Promo band picture
What were the challenges faced in making a sophomore album?
It wasn’t exactly the usual affair of “2nd album syndrome” where you
have to cobble something together dead quick – Sain records were
obviously keen for us to release it sooner rather than later but we’d
had plenty of time since ‘bling’ so the majority of the tracks were a
part of the regular set.
Bling was highly successful and it received a lot of praises. Has this experience made you guys feel that it was a tough condition trying to live out to the debut’s success?
I don’t think we felt too much pressure from others – but for
ourselves we wanted to create something that demonstrated how much
we’ve developed since then. Bling came out when we were still surviving
on the cute factor to some extent, and I think it reflects that – quite
rough in places and full of fun. We’ve grown up a bit now (but not too
much!) and needed something that we could look back on in 20 years time
and hopefully not cringe too much!
The pibgorn in Wales
I describe your music as vibrant and stylishly appealing. Are you guys aware that you are contributing something fresh to the traditional scene?
It’s great to be able to take Welsh traditional music to English
festivals maybe 20 minutes drive from the border and play this stuff to
people who’ve never heard anything like it before. We’re always in
search of that ‘Welsh sound’, to which the harp contributes an awful
lot, but the tunes are really distinctive. Bizarrely, it seems that
Wales itself is the least keen appreciate its own music – people are
just so determined to listen to crap all the time.
You play different instruments with the band. One of them is the pibgorn which I find fascinating. How did you master this instrument.
The pibgorn was a 10th birthday present, which I nagged my mum into
getting for me after seeing acts like Crasdant and Pibau Bach – I
paraded it round school the next day and could only make a horrific
whining sound! As an enthusiastic member of the schools recorder
ensemble, it was only really the breath control that was a problem
(fingering patterns are almost identical), and that’s always a constant
battle. Trombone playing certainly helps, but I really wish I could
circular breathe like Crasdant’s Stephen Rees.
How smoothly did the recording of Jonah go and why the title?
Since we’d been playing most of the stuff live for about a year, some
tracks went down very easily indeed, however it wouldn’t be a proper
fortnight of recording without the panic meetings and hasty preparation
of extra numbers in the studio lounge! Me and Alex the drummer also
spent several nights sleeping in the studio, which was pretty rock ‘n
roll – comfiest place I’d recommend is Dafydd’s (the boss) office!
After we’d finished recording and listened back, the song Jonah stuck
out as one of the flagship tracks and seemed an obvious choice for an
album name. We still had a longwinded discussion over a pizza and came
up with some very naff alternatives, but I’m pleased we made the right
choice!
Vojtěch Jindra Playing with Bran
The original music of the ancient Celts, which, paradoxically, with the “Celtic” music related only marginally, however, we know almost nothing … Vojtěch Jindra
The whole of Czech Republic is alive with folk music. Emerging from this place are the three folk bands, Taliesyn(more into folk and not really Celtic), Irish Dew( in which he left in 2006 due to musical differences)and Bran. They all have or had at one time one person in common- Vojtěch Jindra(pronounced as Woy-tesh Yin-dra) His current project Bran (also means raven in Breton) have been earning followers and positive reviews from all over festival as well as websites. My introduction to them was through a youtube post by a friend several months ago. From then on I keep hearing them through posts by Celtic music enthusiasts-mostly my network friends. This network ‘cloud’ of like-minded people also determines the kind of musical current that exists these days. It is good to have them around because they are responsible in tweeting, posting as well as blogging about the trend in the musical culture that I subscribe to. I know I am part of that cloud and it is good to be in this age where sharing is easy. I did a bit of researched and was finally able to find Vojtěch and made a schedule to include this interview between his tours.
A graduate from the Faculty of Arts at the Charles University (Czech Language), he joined Bran in 2006 and is also the composer of several songs for all the bands he is working with. He has a website www.keltskahudba.cz, where he links all of his musical connections. He also started his own label to promote independent folk music. He is with us today to talk about his work with the band Bran.
http://www.myspace.com/vojtechjindra
Bran brings Breton and Czech musicians together. If Bran means in Breton, the raven, which in Celtic legends is the messenger bird, then he has brought the music of Brittany to Central Europe and a little wind from the East to Brittany The musical instruments used and the diverse influences and origins of each musician create, give, put, bring together the particular colorfulness which makes Bran original. Oriented towards dance and songs of the sea Bran offers a rich and varied repertoire made up both of the compositions its members and traditional Breton tunes.
Current lineup
Robert Fischmann-vocals, flute;
Vojtěch Jindra-ak. guitar,
Tomáš Görtler-accordion, vocals;
Michal Wróblewski-saxophones, clarinet;
Petr Tichý-double bass;
Jan Chalupa-drums, percussion
Your album discography is available through your website and fans can listen to the tracks off the album In Concert(2010). I have to admit I find your band’s version of Tri Martolod quite refreshing. I hear elements of Jazz and also that distinctive Breton sound. I am confused…your band is based in Prague but in your concerts you speak in French. Are you aiming more in the French/Breton crowd rather than your native Czech?
Both I think. Our ex-leader Dewi Pajot came from Brittany, so he spoke in French. But yes – we are Czechs and we are based in Prague, Czech Republic.
You are the band guitarist and percussionist. You also manage the overall direction of the music. Do you find it at times exhausting to do a lot of creative and well as corporate stuff?
It can be a challenging as well as exhausting thing… there are so many things to do in terms of the overall direction of the music, how things are looking up or sounding like during tours, the business aspect … But I love it, it’s my life.
Five albums in a span of 12 years! What memorable things happened to the members in this span of time and also to you?
Many good and bad things in our personal as well as working life… One of the highlights of our career I think was when we played as supporting band for Alan Stivell during his concert. And we had to survive departure of our founder and friend Dewi Pajot. There were so many memorable moments, the jams and the beautiful melodies we created together…
It’s easier I think. A lot of people in the Czech Republic are open to this kind of music. But I am not enthusiastic about this label – Celtic music. Who knows really what ancient Celts played?
I noticed you have an eclectic taste and that includes listening to Depeche Mode and other music. I noticed that most musicians in this genre are more open minded and well exposed to different types of music compared to mainstream listener..Thoughts on this?
It’s true. For example, our bassist Petr Tichý began playing as a fan of metal, but now he’s a leading jazz musician in his generation in Prague. We are open- minded about music. An yes…eclectic.
Your schedule is picking up speed as this month is more about live performance. What are the things that remain constant when you and your band go on tour?
I am not really sure . When we’re on tour, exhaustion can happen but it is the music that drives us. When we play, we are not aware of how tired we are, we just know that we love what we are doing and also love the fact that the listeners respond to what we play. When we are home after touring, we don’t really indulge in vices.
To know about the band’s latest schedule check out http://www.branband.cz/ The website is in Czech but google can translate that for you but if you don’t have google, you can always use http://www.microsofttranslator.com/
Bran: Epic moments on stage
Celtic Music Fan 