Tori Amos

Feeling It’s Really A Winter Gathering by Shauna Burns

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A Winter Gathering by Shauna Burns ~ now available at www.shaunaburns.com  ~
Winter Star
Carol of the Bells
White Christmas
O Come, O Come, Emmanuel
Luma
The First Noel
Silent Night
God Rest Ye Merry, Gentlemen
The Gathering
What a Wonderful World
Carol of the Bells (Instrumental)
God Rest Ye Merry, Gentlemen (Instrumental)
I’ve always been picky when it comes to holiday albums. The holiday or Christmas albums I like should contain the following:
1. It has to possess a haunting element that makes your hair stand.
2. It if isn’t haunting , at least it has to sound jazzy,  traditional or classical to show that the musician is really into deep stuff.
3. It must contain at least one track that has a long history that goes back to the Medieval times(Gabriel’s Message for example) so I can say that the artist has done his or her research and is not making a Christmas album just to hand out something to the consumerist culture that makes Christmas music dull. It has to have SOUL.

Priestess of the Piano: Shauna Burns

Priestess of the Piano: Shauna Burns

A Winter Gathering by Shauna Burns made it to my list must listen to albums because of the three things I noted above. If she’s not singing in any track I really admire her talent with the piano. I know comparison to artists like Tori Amos might be common. But what makes her stand out as an artist in her own right is where she bends musically in terms of style and origin. I hear uilleann pipes and Celtic harps in some of her tracks. I think she is schooled well in the tradition of mystical sounds as she incorporates this imagery in her music. She even goes further as ‘wearing’ this style in her album artwork.
Ms Burns is also keen on layering her voice and doing experiments with her vocals so fans of ambient music can relate to this. I will take Luma as an example. She only sang few words and left  the rest to the piano to communicate the emotions. O Come, O Come Emmanuel is another stirring track. I love this tune. I  heard this version in And Winter Came by Enya. Loreena McKennitt also covered this in her A Midwinter’s Night Dream album. I am pleased that the version of Burns version is unique as it incorporates the use of uilleann pipes and the piano takes center stage again.
There are two instrumental tracks like Carol of the Bells and God rest Ye Merry Gentlemen. They make me travel through the mind when I listen to them.

Looking for something really seasonal-sounding and unique this Christmas? Try A Winter Gathering by Shauna Burns and it will be a good introduction to her other recordings.

Things Cornish Part II

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Dalla: All Geared Up To Play!

Dalla: All Geared Up To Play!

We are in our second part of the our Cornish coverage.  It is amazing how youtube has made the world so small. A lot of things to see and hear and all we need to do is look for them.

Musician Tori Amos is one for those captivated by the beauty of Cornwall that she relocated there: http://www.yessaid.com/timeline10.html .

In this article I will paste informational videos I have compiled through research that will shed light to the Cornish identity and its music.  Now is the time to make way for something totally wonderful and unique.

Now for those of you who may be wondering what’s going on with the famous Cornish Celtic band Dalla, then check tis one I grabbed from their website:

Public events:

Saturday 5th November   Proper Job Cornish Evening
Fowey Town Hall, 7.30pm,
Dalla Trio (Neil, Hilary and Jen) in informal concert,
plus live sketches and supper.
Tickets £10 – including supper,
(from Bookends of Fowey, or call 01726 832595)

Wednesday 16th November   The Truro City of Lights Party
Lemon Street Market, Truro, time tbc,
Party on after the parade with Dalla,  The Hornets,  and more!
(For tickets and further information call Event Cornwall: 01872 888089)

Friday 25th November   Double Bill Dance Night
Grampound Community Hall, 7.30pm,
Dalla and The Gumbo Flyers
Mix some “hot ‘n’ sweaty Cajun & Zydeco fever” with those infectious
Cornish nos lowen grooves!
(Tickets – £8/ £7 conc./ £5 children, call 01726 883874)

http://www.dalla.co.uk/

Also you might want to check:

Cornish traditional music jam sessions

Every Tuesday at Seiners, Perranporth, 8.00pm:
Join some of Cornish music’s finest musicians for an exuberant jam session and usually a bit of a shout too,  in an informal and relaxed setting.
(www.seiners.co.uk,  01872 573118)

Now for online radio that has been trying to spread the language and music, check out RanG which has a lot to say about Cornwall. And this is also a show by Matthew Clarke whom I had that I had an honor to interview in our previous episode. Click the icon to go to the site 🙂

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Now going into bits and pieces of Cornish history, I got something pasted for you here. I admit they are not my own but I really appreciate the efforts of the people who put them up.

So our intro  is this video:

Who are the Cornish people? This next video will further explain that:

And this one video of The Simpsons you might find amusing:

Now this is every surfer’s dream:

I will have more about Cornwall so stay tuned. I love doing this!