The Home of Indie Celtic Music Online
March 15, 2011 — 21,000+ subscribers
HIGHLIGHTS…
- St. Patrick’s Day Party in the Irish Channel
- Best Celtic Artists for St. Patrick’s Day
- More Updates to the Magazine
- Big Changes to the Celtic Playlists on iTunes that Could Affect You
- 17 Celtic Bands That You Need to Hear on March 17th for St. Patrick’s Day
- Irish Songs for St. Patrick’s Day
- New Facebook URL
- Attention Celtic Writers!
- Celtic Music CD Store Presents
- Unsubscribe at the bottom of the newsletter
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Greetings Celtic Music Lovers,
Happy St. Patrick’s Day!
I just got back from performing at a St. Patrick’s Day party in the Irish Channel of New Orleans. The floats were gliding by blasting music and filled with people tossing beads. The color green was everywhere. It was intoxicating fun… and not just from the alcohol fumes wafting through the streets.
Now I am finally starting to relax. I spend the two months prior to St. Patrick’s Day promoting indie Celtic music online non-stop. But yesterday, I finished recording, editing, and mixing the last of my Celtic podcasts for St. Patrick’s Day. I’m ready to take a break.
In the meantime, I posted the first of my St Patrick’s Day specials. The first special of my Irish & Celtic Music Podcast is the Best Celtic Artists for St Patrick’s Day. It came out a couple days ago. My latest Pub Songs Podcast highlights the Best Celtic Singers of 2010. I released that show yesterday.
Now we just have to wait until the 17th for the final episode of the St. Patrick’s Day Podcast and for my second St. Patrick’s Day special of the Irish & Celtic Music Podcast. That leaves me just a couple more projects tocomplete my 2011 St. Patrick’s day efforts.
I decided to take St. Patrick’s Day off this year. It is my birthday after all. Instead, I’m gonna celebrate it with great Celtic music and family. I hope you will do the same. I wish you a fantastic St. Patrick’s Day with lots of good food, good drink, and good company.
Slainte!
Marc Gunn
Top-Selling Celtic Compilation-”Victims of Irish Music”
RECENT UPDATES TO THE MAGAZINE & PODCAST
I think the last of the CD reviews that I wanted to get done for St. Patrick’s Day are now posted. My dedicated team of writers released nearly one new album review every other day. That’s an incredible feat for this wee magazine. I hope to keep that track record up in the months ahead as the flood of new Celtic albums continues to roll in.
Check out this review of “County Kerry To Kerry Park” by Boston Blackthorne and if you like it, use our new social networking services on the website and share it with your friends.
The one downside is that I haven’t been able to get the free Celtic MP3s back up and running on the site. But that’s okay, because I have a special gift for you like I do every St. Patrick’s Day– 17 FREE Celtic music downloads! (Keep reading!)
Photo by Ivan Walsh
17 CELTIC BANDS THAT YOU NEED TO HEAR ON MARCH 17TH FOR ST. PATRICK’S DAY
Don’t you think it’s time to reach into the cabinet, pull out your Guinness pint glass, wash it off and fill it with a cold beer? That’s what tens of thousands of people are doing right now in preparation for what is, in my humble opinion, the best holiday of the year… St. Patrick’s Day!
That said I bet you, like me, realize that St. Patrick’s Day is more than just green beer and drunkenness. The song “St. Patrick Never Drank” may not be historically accurate, but it reflects our understanding that St. Patrick’s Day is more about the celebration of our Celtic culture than of debauchery. One of the chief points that I like to celebrate is the music.
Photo by puamelia
MAJOR CHANGES TO THE CELTIC PLAYLISTS ON iTUNES
A few months ago, iTunes started the Ping social network. With this new system you can share your playlists, favorite songs and albums, and connect with other ping members. It’s a bulky system to use, but there is one change that has me smiling.
The most exciting change for me is that iTunes has done away with “iMixes” replacing them with “Playlists”. Unlike the iMix, the Playlist is now accessible by ALL iTunes users.
That’s right; it doesn’t matter where in the world you live. If you have iTunes, you should be able to access my new Celtic Playlists.
As a result, I have created a new series of Playlists called “This Week in Celtic Music”. Each playlist features songs from my latest Irish & Celtic Music Podcast and Pub Songs Podcast, a few tracks from my Celtic compilation CDs… and music that YOU pick.
Yup! You can help me make these playlists by adding your own suggestions.
My latest is This Week in Celtic Music #101. I want to invite you to <LIKE> the playlist. But also <RATE> it. You can rate it at the bottom of the page and even post comments about it.
I also updated all the Celtic Playlists. So help support indie Celtic music and rate some playlists.
If you’re on Ping, please follow me at http://c.itunes.apple.com/us/profile/id100414240
Photo by Croila
IRISH SONGS FOR ST. PATRICK’S DAY
St. Patrick’s Day is fast approaching. It is time for you to start warming up your vocal chords with some great Irish songs! But where do you go to find such songs? Yes, you COULD google “Irish songs” but you’d come up with a bunch of duplicate websites. And most of them got their start thanks to the success of the Irish Song Lyrics website.
The website was started nearly a decade ago by Marc Gunn of the Texas Celtic internet superduo, Brobdingnagian Bards. The duo got their start playing Renaissance festivals but soon became a force to be reckoned with through their online popularity. Their music and popularity shot them up the MP3 charts on MP3.com and they became one of the top 20 most-downloaded groups of all time with several million downloads of their music. However, it was, in part, their Celtic Lyrics directory that set them apart and established their name online.
NEW FACEBOOK URL FOR THE IRISH & CELTIC MUSIC PODCAST
Recent changes on Facebook allowed me to set up a new URL for the facebook page. Visit the new URL and access all the content of the Irish & Celtic Music Podcast and the Celtic MP3s Music Magazine quickly and easily.
http://www.facebook.com/celticpodcast
ATTENTION CELTIC WRITERS
Our team of Celtic reviewers and writers is growing every month. We have a LOT of new CD reviews done and more coming. However, I still have over sixty albums that need reviewing. We need YOUR help!
We are looking for CD reviewers. You don’t have to be a professional writer. You just need to be a self-starter who loves to write.
So please support your Celtic community and get involved.
Contact your editor@celticmp3s.com for more details.
CELTIC MUSIC CD STORE PRESENTS
Once a month, I highlight Celtic music artists who were reviewed by my Celtic MP3s Music Magazine. It’s a nice way to promote great indie Celtic musicians.
All purchases through Amazon via the links below also help support the magazine as well.
You can see a full list of featured bands and find all of my CDs in my Celtic Music CD Store at www.celticmusic.org.
Once again the Celtic Music CD Store is pleased to bring you more of the Best Celtic CDs for March. All of these albums are by indie Celtic music groups from around the globe and were recently reviewed in the Celtic MP3s Music Magazine. Together, we are changing the way you hear Celtic music!
“Celtic Squall” by Celtic Squall
In this, their first album, Celtic Squall gives an impressive performance. Formed by Heather Greene, and her husband Stu Venable, whose other bands’ (The Merry Wives of Windsor and The Poxy Boggards, respectively) styles didn’t leave them much room to perform small-group traditional Celtic music. Greene [read review...]
“Far and Away” by New Minstrel Revue
New Minstrel Revue has been playing the festival circuit for years. Far and Away is their ‘debut’ album offering. You will find 13 tracks mostly filled with classic songs like “Blackleg Miner”, “Bedlam Boys”, and “The Minguelay Boat Song”. The ubiquitous guitar and harmony of the male [read review...]
“Lonestar Banjos” by Jed Marum
Lonestar Banjo, strictly speaking, is not what we are conditioned to think of as Celtic music. The album is a banjo themed compilation of music described by CDbaby as “a variety of live and studio recording, Film and TV projects”. Where is the classic Celtic connection? The answer to that [read review...]
“Happy Songs Of Death” by Marc Gunn
This CD appeals to my morbid sense of humor—plus it’s a good time, and just plain funny! “Happy Songs of Death” pokes fun at the seriousness of death through song, and if you want a real chuckle, you should check it out. Fortunately, Gunn is also skilled at arranging [read review...]
“The Bog Bodies and Other Stories: Music For the Guitar” by Gerry O’Beirne
As beautiful and as breathtaking as the Emerald Isle itself. Gerry O’Beirne is truly a master guitarist and in his album “The Bog Bodies and Other Stories: Music For the Guitar” we see him at the top of his game. While many people are put off or [read review...]
Review: “Saints & Sinners” by The Kreellers
If you are looking for something in the Celtic rock genre to add to your collection, you may want to check out The Kreellers latest effort. This five piece band hails from Detroit, Michigan and they pack a lot of energy into their CD, “Saints & Sinners”. Although the traditional sound is [read review...]
“After The Wake” by The John Byrne Band
This is really a very unique album. Fans of Celtic music may recognize the name John Byrne from his days with the band Patrick’s Head. Here he has gone out on his own and joined forces with another group of musicians to put together a CD that is both folk and Celtic in nature. I found it [read review...]
“So Far…” by Slip Jig
Based out of Huntsville, Alabama, Slip Jig is a band that plays Irish, Scottish and other Celtic music in the traditional style–even if–as they say, they admit to “bending it on occasion”. The band was actually born out of a group that got together to play session tunes, which gives you an idea of what you [read review...]
“Wolves In The Walls” by Ockham’s Razor
This Seattle-based Celtic band continues to blow me away with its talent. They really are something, and if you haven’t heard them, there is no time like the present to introduce yourself to one of the most talented groups out there these days. Very hard to pin down into just one particular [read review...]
“County Kerry To Kerry Park” by Boston Blackthorne
Hailing from New England, Boston Blackthorne has put out a winner with its CD, “County Kerry to Kerry Park”. Award-winning songwriters present original music for the lover of traditional Celtic music with a fresh set of eyes (or should I say ears?) and interesting perspective. The [read review...]
“Take Root” by The AM String Band
Lively, foot stomping, swinging and just plain fun. That’s what you’ll get from The AM String Band’s album Take Root. This energetic CD is filled with a wonderful collection of traditional and new tunes. Taking a cue from their experience at the Montana Artist Refuge, this trio takes some [read review...]
“Honey And Holy Water” by Oona McOuat
Oona McOuat’s music has been referred to as “Eco-Celtic”, which I really liked as a descriptor for her sound. Others might place her in the world music category. A dreamy, yearning sound runs as if an undercurrent throughout much of the CD. The subjects of the songs here seem to have been chosen [read review...]
“American Wake” by Patrick Clifford
Sometimes you just want a nice, easy album to listen to. One that is pleasant and enjoyable, not jarring. This CD by Patrick Clifford would be one that I would suggest for that type of occasion. While it isn’t the type of music you’ll go to sleep to, it is the type of sound that will wrap you up in [read review...]
“Elvis Murphy’s Green Suede Shoes” by Black 47
With a title like that, you’re probably expecting rock ‘n’ roll music. In a sense, that’s exactly what you get, but on the other hand, it isn’t. Black 47 deliver a great Irish rock album here, with catchy songs that wouldn’t feel out of place on a mainstream radio station. But [read review...]
Thanks again for subscribing to the Celtic MP3s Music Magazine. I hope you enjoy all the new music.
Slainte!
- Marc Gunn
Photo by Chuck Davis
ABOUT THE MAGAZINE
Celtic MP3s Music Magazine is a weekly publication by acoustic Celtic folk musician and podcaster Marc Gunn, The Celtfather. The magazine promotes Celtic musicians worldwide, and you can help these artists:
1. Visit the links provided
2. Download the music
3. Order a CD, write, or donate to the band
4. Forward this ezine to THREE friends
5. Ask them to subscribe and help Celtic music grow
Copyright 2000-2011 Marc Gunn
