Celtophilia

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Band: Gretchen Priest and PLAIDGRASS
CD: Gretchen Priest and PLAIDGRASS

Bonnie opines: Well, dear readers, it’s that time again. Time for what you ask? An instrumental album of course! This self titled c.d. is from Gretchen Priest and Plaidgrass. The band consists of a group of very talented musicians, joined by fiddler Gretchen Priest. I’m not quite sure if this is Celtic music influenced by Bluegrass, or if it’s Bluegrass influenced by Celtic music. Either way, the musicianship displayed here is impressive. If you like a little country in your Celtic, or if fancy fiddling makes your heart beat faster, you will love Gretchen Priest and Plaidgrass.

Here is my disclaimer paragraph where I have to say that this style just doesn’t do it for me. Hang me out to dry (okay please don’t) but I’m not that into Bluegrass and there is quite a bit of it going on here throughout the album. It’s well played, well produced, and I *know* in my head that it sounds great but it doesn’t light my fire. I imagine people that do enjoy Bluegrass are going to get wild over this c.d. Perhaps I need bagpipes and or drums in my instrumentals in order for them to give me a big happy. Oh well. Here endeth the disclaimer - on to the songs!

The first track, Waiting For the Federals/Elzic’s Farewell/Rakish Paddy strongly brings to mind The Allman Brothers, it has something of that flavor about it to me. In my book, er, blog, that’s an entirely good thing, mind you.

Cheyenne unsurprisingly has a very Western sound to it, expressed through ridiculously good fiddling and picking. Oddly I like it even though there is little to nothing Celtic happening here.

The somewhat puzzlingly named Rock-a-bye-Baby had me expecting square dancers to appear out of nowhere and raise a barn on my front lawn. (If you square dance you have to be able to also raise a barn, right? Yeah, I thought so.) I didn’t rush out and buy a short poofy dress and a couple of petticoats, but if you’re into that sort of thing, you might. And don’t do it Mike, that wouldn’t be a great look for you.

Gretchen Priest and Plaidgrass is a winner for people who enjoy Bluegrass music or adventurous folks who are looking to expand their musical horizons from pure Celtic into something different and new. Strict traditionalists and countrymusicphobes might want to let this one pass.

Mike says: I’ll bet you didn’t know it, but I’m a fiddle player too… just don’t ask me to perform. It’s not pretty, as Bonnie can attest to. Enough about me. You know who CAN perform with a fiddle? The extremely talented Gretchen Priest. This CD is a clinic for how to perform both Celtic and Bluegrass fiddle, and combine the styles. You’ll hear Gretchen do things that most Celtic fiddlers don’t do, like droning out double stops, plus things that most Bluegrass fiddlers avoid, like turns and other little ornaments. It’s really a lot of fun.

Like my esteemed co-writer, I’m really not a huge fan of Bluegrass, but I do recognize superior musicianship when I hear it. These guys are good at what they do. One of my favorite things is that each track is approached very uniquely, while maintaining the overall Celtic+Bluegrass theme. Whether it’s the very country style Cheyenne and Bluegrass in the Backwoods or the heavily Celtic Brumley Brae or the set that starts with The Star of Munster, each one sounds different and engaging.

If you happen to like both Celtic music and the American traditional styles, I don’t think you can possibly turn away from this fine production. If you love either one individually, I’m sure there is enough here to satisfy, and you’ll be exposed to a less familiar style, which is never a bad thing.

And for the record, I think I would look fabulous in a poofy dress and petticoats.

You can find out more about these guys at their website www.plaidgrass.com, and you can @ CD Baby. One of the things I found most interesting on their website is that they both apparently offer workshops to help new players. Very cool to see musicians giving their time back to the art, and certainly a worthy effort.

And, since it was easily available on their website, a video!

This entry was posted on Friday, May 23rd, 2008 at 12:08 pm and is filed under Contemporary Celtic Reviews, Featured. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.