Celtophilia

Welcome to Celtophilia!
If you're new here, you may want to subscribe to our RSS feed to get automatic updates of everything going on at Celtophilia.
Check out our articles, and make sure you leave a comment. Celtophilia is a "do follow" blog, so when you comment, you'll get a backlink.
Thanks for visiting!

Artist: Terry Griffith
CD: Songs From The Pub

This CD was presented to me as a collection of recordings for folks that wanted to hear something very akin to what Terry’s pub show is like. I’ll tell you a secret: I love this sort of live music, but don’t get to hear nearly enough of it, so this CD might as well have been created for me personally. While I do enjoy the complicated, multi-layered sounds of modern music from time to time, I can be perfectly happy to hear nothing but a guy and his guitar just doing what they do best. That’s exactly what Songs From The Pub is about, and it delivers in a massive way. Now, the big challenge is going to be getting over to Pittsburgh to see Terry perform live.

One of the things I love about getting to listen to traditional Celtic music is hearing how different people will take a trad song and make it their own. In Terry Griffith’s renditions of several Celtic standards, what I hear the most is a real passion and understanding for the music and the lyrics. Listening to Black Velvet Band on this CD is like hearing it for the first time, and actually feeling the bitterness and frustration of a man being transported halfway around the world. “The Town I Loved So Well” puts on an equally raw and passionate display, and this being one of my all-time favorite Irish songs, instantly becomes my favorite on this CD.

Sometimes I have a problem that I don’t like to talk about… no, not THAT. It has to do with reviewing CDs. While it’s all well and good for me to claim that “The Town I Loved So Well” is my favorite track on “Songs From The Pub,” the simple fact is that it ignores the fact that there are no less than a dozen tracks on this CD that could easily rank up with the best Irish tunes I’ve ever heard. Several of them I’m not entirely familiar with, but they’re rebellious, or lonely, or emotional, or various perfect combinations of those three.

Do yourself a favor, head over to CDBaby and buy this CD, look Terry up any and everywhere you can find him playing, and go see him live. If you want more information, you can find it at www.pittsburghirish.org/griffith

Slainte,

Mike

Re: Your Brains - Jonathan Coulton
(Performed by Stephen Torrence)

Happy Halloween, Merry All Hallows’ Eve, and a glorious Samhain to you from all of us at Celtophilia! in lieu of candy, we hope that you will accept this hilarious video, featuring American Sign Language, and a zombie.

Slainte,
Bonnie, Julie, and Mike

Artist: Marc Gunn
CD: Heart’s Ease
Reviewer: Julie

My very first review on Celtophilia and they gave me an instrumental CD? Pretty big challenge! At least the artist is Marc Gunn and I already have a lot of respect for him and his musical abillities. His CD, Heart’s Ease, is a compilation of fourteen songs played entirely on an autoharp. Never heard of an autoharp? Not surprising. Neither had many others before becoming acquainted with Marc’s work, both solo and when he was a member of the band, Brobdingnagian Bards. (For more information on autoharps, click here. If you’ve never listened to an autoharp, you should really give this CD a try. You would never imagine the extensive assortment of melodies achieved using only one instrument.

If you aren’t hooked by the first song, Stardust Serenade, don’t give up. The first song was a little long and monotonous, repeating the same lines over and over; however, Marc makes it work with his use of feeling through changing dynamics.

Heart’s Ease was by far my favorite. To me, it was light-hearted, lively, and cheerful using a wide variety of tones. It was one of the shorter songs and was over long before I tired of listening to it.

She Vanished in the Mist was a very lovely, yet melancholy song that put me in a solemn, thoughtful state of mind.

Desire…do I even have to go there? Out of the whole CD, this was the thorn in my side. I gave it chance after chance by listening many times, and I couldn’t learn to love it. I completely respect it for what it is and I’m sure Marc put his heart into it as all of his other songs, but it just wasn’t for me.

Wildflowers of Party Field literally made me want to run, skip, and jump over a hill covered in wildflowers. What a wonderfully happy tune! The next time I am feeling blue, I’ll be sure to pop in this CD and turn it up so I can flounce about my living room and turn my attitude around!

There were a multitude of very interesting notes and sounds in Return to Lonely Mountain. It was a very entertaining song and not nearly as sad and lonely as you might gather from the title.

I enjoyed this whole CD more than I would have imagined before listening to it. Marc has a brilliant selection of both the merry and the somber to suit whatever your current mood, whether you need some cheering up or had rather drown in your own sorrow. Go ahead and draw a tub of water, (don’t forget the bubbles), light a few candles, and prepare to relax and soak up some autoharp.

Disclaimer: I purposely saved this for the end of my review so I could warn you not to read it until you’ve listed to the CD on your own. I certainly wouldn’t want to ruin your opinion or cause you to hear something you wouldn’t have otherwise by sharing my insight of one of my favorite songs on the CD. Listened already? Okay, read on…Summer’s End had a different feel to it. Call me crazy, and Marc, please forgive me, but this song totally made me think of Lightning Crashes by Live. I’m not saying it sounds just like it or anything to that extreme, just reminiscent. Please don’t think it’s a bad thing because I thoroughly loved this tune! Please, Marc, pretty please…don’t hate me!

Well, now that I’ve completed my very first CD review, feel free to critique me. Disagree with me? Let me know! We at Celtophilia are starved for feedback, so any opinion at all is welcomed. Hopefully you’ve enjoyed a new perspective enough the guys will let me hang around and feel useful a little while longer.

Slainte!
Julie