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Artist - The Irish Experience
CD: Green Energy
Reviewed By: Bonnie

The Irish Experience is an Appalachian influenced Celtic band out of Seattle, Washington. Green Energy is their sophomore release, impressive in it’s diversity, depth, and scope. The sound on this album ranges from traditional Celtic fiddle and percussion pieces, to folky Appalachian tunes, to outright rock guitar. Green Energy could easily have been a train wreck of clashing styles, but somehow it’s the opposite, a harmonious musical concoction that borders on addictive.

I love the progression of songs, it’s clear that a lot of thought went into the order that the tracks were arranged on the CD. From the teasing rock beat underneath the very traditional fiddle on the first track, The Wicked Jig, to the twangy John Brown’s Dream, (reminiscent of the Allman Brothers) to the haunting and lovely final tune, The Fiddler’s Lament, this is an album that takes you on a well defined journey, and leaves you wishing you could have traveled a bit farther.

The somewhat cryptically named Brenden McGlinchey’s (Brenden McGlinchey’s what?)* guitar intro wouldn’t be a hair out of place preceding a rock ballad, then the addition of alluring fiddle and a melancholic bass line turns all of my expectations
upside down. At all of two minutes and ten seconds, this song is one of my favorites.

Anyone who reads here often knows that I am not a big fan of the twang. However, I have been known to make exceptions, and I’m making one for Within A Mile Of Dublin. It’s twangy, it’s out of my comfort zone, it’s the sort of song I usually whine
bitterly about. Well, I can’t do it. It fits so well with the rest of the album, and adds such a taste of je ne sais quoi that I like it in spite of myself.

Just to prove that I’m actually me and not a pod person, my least favorite track on the CD is Bunch of Keys. This song is not only overtaken by twanginess, it sounds absolutely frantic about it. There’s too much going on here and I don’t care for it.

Most of the tracks on Green Energy are relatively short, many less than three minutes long, only one over four minutes, and that by a mere second. The Irish Experience shows that when your music is good enough, there’s no need to muck about with it. Quality wins over quantity here, and I admire a band that leaves me wanting more. Check out this CD if you love instrumental music that is awesome enough to make you think vocals are simply extraneous.

If you want to grab a copy of Green Energy for yourself, you can always go over and at CD Baby. If you want to find out more about The Irish Experience, you can find them at www.myspace.com/irishexperience

*On a serious note, I’m guessing that this is a nod to Brenden McGlinchey, the Armagh City born fiddler and composer, most well known for his album Music of a Champion.

The forums, sadly, have gone the way of the dodo bird. They were a pretty ill-founded idea, and despite soldiering on gamely for quite a while, we’ve decided to just pull the plug. It turns out that neither Bonnie and I are really all that thrilled about running forums, from moderating all the way down the line. Now the forum has become nothing but a massive spam generator, filling my inbox with membership requests from users with names like “GetViagraInMiami.” If that was a legitimate user who though the name was funny, my sincerest apologies.

I know that there *are* a few of you out there who were legitimately interested in joining the forums. Okay, I know there was one person out there who took the time to email me about it, and I never responded because I kept meaning to make *this* announcement “any day now.” To that person, I’m very sorry.

Hopefully Celtophilia will be on an upswing again soon. I’m about finished building my first boat, and Bonnie has just about chopped all the digital tree stumps a person could be expected to chop without dropping from complete exhaustion. We’ve got the limerick contest coming up in a month or so, and that should be exciting and fun for everyone. Until then, Mike and Bonnie need to get their backsides in gear and do some writing. We’ve got a lot of great CDs to tell you about!

Slainte,

M

Album: Peace By Peace
Artist: Siochain

Bonnie Declarificates: Síocháin, (that’s Gaelic for peace, if you’re curious) is a Celtic Rock band from Indianapolis. This album is cleverly titled Peace By Peace, and it contains most everything you’d think of when you think about Celtic music. That is, bagpipes, a tin whistle, fiddling, and a touch of bodhran. Toss in some guitars and a drum set - it is Celtic ROCK, after all, and you have Síocháin. To be honest though, it’s a bit more like trad leaning towards soft rock, I never felt tempted to do the things I am prone to doing when I listen to rock music. (Like dance, have immoral liaisons, and play records backwards and worship Satan. Or Cthulhu.)*

On to the part of the review where I pick apart the songs and tell you which of them makes me squeeee! With happiness, and which of them makes me squirm with discomfort.

Firstly, the awesome. Keg of Brandy is my favorite song on the album by a mile. Claudia Campbell is Síocháin’s lead vocalist, and if she doesn’t *quite* tear the house down with this performance, it’s a close call. There’s some very enjoyable guitar work going on here as well. Not only do I love this song, but it’s worth noting that so do a whole lot of other people, it was voted #1 song of 2008 on Marc Gunn’s Celtic Music Podcast.**

King of the Fairies is an enchanting instrumental that showcases the band’s musical chops, which are considerable. This is a pleasure to listen to and made it onto the i-pod along with Keg of Brandy.

Secondly, the good. Wild Mountain Thyme has more great vocals, especially the harmony. This is an upbeat rendition that sells the story of the tune, which we all know is about cruising for lots of girls. I appreciate the decision not to change the lyrics from “lassie” to “laddie” just because a woman is singing them. Interpret away, and I get why it happens, but it’s a pet peeve of mine. So, props there. I could have done without the … two bridges? I haven’t had a music class in way too many years, but I reckon there’s something wonky along those lines going on here.

Thirdly, the not so good. Pretty much everything else. Hate me if you will, I had a hard time getting into much of the album. Rocky Road to Dublin in particular grated on my nerves, and several of the songs went on and on interminably for no good reason.

Peace by Peace as a whole didn’t really light my fire. When I find myself not feeling a CD I listen to it more, just in case it’s something that I need to get used to, perhaps stylistically out of my range, new to me, etc. Unfortunately I think here it was the opposite situation, I was a bit bored. There are moments of brilliance and almost brilliance, but I often found myself tuning out. Maybe what the band needs is a little less síocháin and a soupçon of fearg (rage.)

*Mom, I know you read this sometimes. I don’t actually worship Satan. We can, uh, talk about the Cthulhu thing later.

**Celtophilia loves you Marc, mwah!

Mike Rambles Aimlessly: If I had to describe this CD in three words, I would say, “It’s pretty average.” If I had to describe it in two words, I would say, “It’s pretty.” If someone asked me to describe a CD in only word, I’d say nothing and walk away, shaking my head at the stupid things people ask me to do sometimes. I do like Peace by Peace, but I’d be lying if I said I loved it. The singer has a voice that I can only really describe as different. Sometimes it’s quite pretty, and other times I kinda wondered if it was coming from a real person. Rocky Road To Dublin, a song I know well, was almost impossible to decipher. That being said, Keg of Brandy was beautiful. I can’t explain the discrepancy.

As for musicianship, there’s a lot of stuff going on here, and pretty much all of it is positive. Love the fiddle, and all the other instrumentation to be found. I think I would have liked Amazing Grace given a more simple arrangement, especially taking into account that there are more than 2 minutes of buildup before the song breaks out in earnest. The whole thing struck me as a bit overwrought, I guess.

Perhaps I’m being a bit of a traditionalist here, but I had a similar problem with Wild Mountain Thyme. The song was made very long by a break at about 3 minutes, picking up the next verse about a minute later, but the song could easily have ended at about five and a half minutes. However, there was a whopping extra 2 minutes of the singer murmuring “will you go, lassie, go” while the music continued on behind. I’m not sure there’s any reason to stretch a track seven minutes long just because you can, especially with a venerated tune like this one.

King of Fairies is the runaway winner of the Mike’s Favorite Song award on this CD. I was captivated from start to finish on it, from the simply, two instrument opening all the way through the massive crescendo and back to the solemn ending. I had a hard time believing it was more than six minutes long.

One of my surprise favorites was the track called Lady Maryanne, which is essentially a country-rock-ish version of the trad song The Trees They Grow High, mixed with some lyrics from the Robert Burns poem Lady Mary Ann. Maybe it’s the Burn poem mixed the song. Okay, it’s taking me a while to work out exactly what it is, but I like it.

The last thing I’ll say about Peace by Peace is that it did something no other CD has ever done, which was grind Celtophilia to a screeching halt. Overall I’d say it is a good, if not great CD, but neither Bonnie nor myself seemed to be able to come up with just the right words to form a proper review. Part of that could just be our inherent laziness, but I’m attributing it to the band anyway. The disc is different, and the band itself is inscrutable. I couldn’t find any real info about them, either on the CD cover or their website. Another mystery added to the many life already provides.

If you want to find out more about Siochain, check out their website at www.siochain.net If you want to give a listen to Peace by Peace, you can always at cdbaby.