Planxty

The Greatness that’s Judy Collins(August 20, 2006 )

/ mrbaxteria2008 / Leave a comment

This is from my old MySpace blog in August 20,2006.I am putting it here because I found my thoughts at that time so funny.

I remember as a child when my mom would put the radio by my side because she said I can’t take a nap without the music on. Yes I grew up in a family that likes music .I joined both the church and high school choir which enhanced my love for harmony. If only I had been motivated more I would have been the next Leonard Cohen mwahahahaha!

Anyway, I remember hearing a pure soprano voice singing “Send In The Clowns’ which turned out to be Judy Collins. There were strains of the 60’s when I listened to the radio as a child and I get to hear songs like ‘Both Sides Now’ and other folkie stuff from the late 60’s to the mid-70’s and I was not even in grade school yet.

I never knew the full caliber of Judy’s artistry until I got to watch her Christmas special on TV a few years back and then her 2000 concert at the wolf trap caught on film. It’s amazing. She can really play the guitar and the piano and has been a very influential person on the human rights movement as well as the folk scene. If I grew up in the 70’s I imagine I would still find my interest…

Judy Collins’s repertoire is wide…apart from original compositions; she also rendered traditional Irish music like Danny Boy and He Moved Through The Fair.

Well Enya would not have been there yet but Clannad was already making records, and I guess I would have ended collecting not only Judy Collins albums but bands like the Chieftains,Planxty and Renaissance; a band led by Anne Haslam.There were good bands then like the Fairport Convention led by Sandy Denny and other female singers.

Celtic Spirit was already alive and well in the 70’s. I would not mind being left there.

Holding on to Peace with Planxty

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How do you fight fire? Do you fight it with another fire? There are times when we are put in a hateful situation and we forget who we are. The situation bares our animal instinct.We are not free from the wear and tear of everyday life. There are times when the internal struggles we have are worse than what’s happening outside.

My take on this? Always take time for your self. Find that personal space. Being with the same people for so long can have its downside. As they say ,familiarity breeds contempt. So always be on the lookout. So how do you fight hate? I fight it with peaceful music. Here’s Planxty with Sweet Thames Flow Softly taken from their 1973 self-titled album also known as The Black Album. I hope that to those who are having a bad day, this song will give you a source of inspiration to go on living.Don’t forget to smile.

Artist credits on the album:

Discovering Planxty

/ mrbaxteria2008 / 2 Comments

  I wish I was born in the fifties .By the seventies I would have been financially independent that I could buy whatever records available. I heard Planxty a couple of times in the Internet radio and I have been impressed by their brand of traditional Irish music.I’m talking about this one track called “Raggle Taggle Gypsy“.Amazing vocals and the emphasis on vowel and consonant sound that is close to the Scottish musical tradition known as Mouth Music.That’s the same band where Christy Moore came from.I like my male singers to posess deep strong voice-manly , as opposed to adolescent boys.