Celtic Music CD Store, in conjunction with the Irish & Celtic Music Podcast, is proud to release a brand new CD of Irish Celtic Music.

The CD is released under the name Marc Gunn’s Irish & Celtic Music Podcast. It is a new compilation to promote the award-winning, hit podcast, plus the incredible music of two of the podcast’s most-amazing bands: Poitin and FIMM.

I can’t say enough great things about these two bands. They have some absolutely brilliant music! Neither is signed to a record label. Neither are from the U.S.. Poitin is an awesome, award-winning group from the Czech Republic. FIMM is an incredible, all-female group from Rome, Italy.

Who are these indie Celtic musicians?

If you’ve never heard of these two amazing and obscure Celtic group, I won’t hold it against you. Neither has a big budget to promote their music. Poitin is fairly active online. I’ve followed their career for many years now. FIMM is currently on hiatus. I’m hoping we can change that.

But you won’t see them on PBS, like Celtic Thunder or Celtic Woman. You won’t hear them playing for a smash hit show like Riverdance.  In fact, you can’t even buy FIMM’s album at all…right now.

YOU can change that with the power of social networking!

I love these bands and I want you to fall in love with them too. So I want you to buy this CD… but NOT YET.

I need your help to Top The Celtic Top 10

On Wednesday, May 23, we are going to rocket this album up the charts on iTunes and Amazon.

Here’s how it works. On May 23rd, I will ask you to buy the song , “Memories of Ireland” on either iTunes or Amazon. You will tell all your friends to do the same. Then we will watch as Irish Celtic Music gets the attention it deserves.

It will skyrocket up the charts. That will offer it more visibility, which will in turn equal more sales, which will ultimately offer more visibility for the podcast, Poitin, FIMM, and all of the other amazing indie Celtic music groups online that we promote.

But to make that happen. I need your help.  Here’s how:

1. Go to http://www.celticmusicpodcast.com/topthecharts/ and sign up to the mailing list so I can send you a few notices on the 23rd. Yes. I will be sending several emails that day and as we approach that day. So be ready.
2. Share this post with your friends. Start talking about the compilation, this initiative and your plan to help.

Thank you so much for all your help! I look forward to seeing a smashing successful Top the Celtic Charts initiative.

Oh! Wanna listen to some of the album? I featured it in show Pub Songs Podcast #101 – Irish Celtic Music.

 Marc Gunn “The Celtfather” is an award-winning acoustic Celtic folk musician.  He riotously combines Irish drinking songs and Sci Fi fanaticism into a satirical jam session between Weird Al and The Clancy Brothers.  It’s Celtic music, the Traditional and the Twisted.  Gunn hosts the Irish & Celtic Music Podcast, the most-popular Celtic podcast online.  He is also Chief Editor of the Celtic Music Magazine.  Find out more at www.celticmp3s.com.

If you like traditional music played in a nontraditional manner than you need to take a look at Sgian Dubh, a rocking band based out of Georgia.  With a wide range of musical backgrounds stretching from rock, country, bluegrass, Celtic, punk and folk, Sgian Dubh delivers a unique interpretation of some of the traditional songs we’ve come to know and love.  On their latest album, “Frightening All the Dogs,” they focus on many pub favorites as well as capturing some of their enormous energy on two additional cuts recorded from one of their live shows. 

 Two of my favorite songs on the album are Leaving of Liverpool and Rocky Road to Dublin.  In both cases, these songs do not stray too far from many of the traditional versions one can hear, but instead are given slight alterations in tempo and instrumentations that give the songs an incredibly fresh sound.  For example, many times Leaving of Liverpool is played slowly to highlight the sadness of leaving a loved one, but here Sgian Dubh ups the tempo just slightly – giving it more of a feel of hopefulness that the lovers will in truth be reunited.  Likewise, Rocky Road to Dublin is simply arranged in more of a rock manner that is sure to please.  Other traditional songs on the album are Wild Rover, Johnny Jump Up, Whiskey You’re the Devil, and a medley of John Ryans Polka/ Hills of Connemara/I’ll Tell Me Ma.

Additionally, on the album is an original of there’s written by Bruce Roberts, their percussionist and whistle player, entitled Mariner’s Lament; a folk-rock fusion tune highlighting the dangers of the sea and the sailors’ vulnerability on the open water.  While the mix is a little muddy at points, it is still a pleasant song to listen to with a driving rhythmic beat and the energetic vocals of Susan Cates.

 Overall, the album is well worth a listen and with two wonderful live tracks added on at the end you can’t go wrong.

 Artist:  Sgian Dubh

 Album: Frightening All the Dogs

Stephen Mc Sweeney is a High School English/Drama teacher.  Besides writing for the Celtic MP3s Music Magazine, he enjoys acting, writing and playing Celtic music.  He can be seen as one of the members of the band Terrible Musicians, where he plays percussion and mandolin. 

Multi-instrumentalist and singer, Jesse Ferguson, known as The Bard of Cornwall, certainly defies the sophomore slump with his second cd “The Parting Glass,” first released in November 2011.  This album is a wonderful collection of ballads, sea shanties and drinking songs, mostly of Irish, Scottish, Canadian, and American origin.  As the title suggests, each song deals with some type of parting which gives the album a nice sense of unity.

The album begins with Farewell to Nova Scotia followed up by Loch Lomond.  Both songs help to establish the tenor of the album and feature a blending of Ferguson’s musicianship, especially his mandolin playing.  In both songs he uses the mandolin to highlight parts of the melody and give the songs a nice full sound.  Other well known songs that are featured here are The Bonnie Ship the Diamond, The Rocky Road to Dublin, The Fields of Athenry, and of course the title track, The Parting Glass.  All of which maintain their roots but are flowered a new by Ferguson’s instrument choices and composition.

Furthermore, an original song of The Bard of Cornwall, The Sun Sets on My Love, is also recorded on this album.  The song itself is well written and is a heartfelt composition that appears to follow much in the tradition of his predecessors.  As the title implies, it is about the loss of a loved one but the endurance of the emotions even after the passing.

“The Parting Glass” is a beautiful collection of songs artfully put together by The Bard of Cornwall – from the old traditional songs to the new.

Artist: Jesse Ferguson

Buy Album: The Parting Glass

Stephen Mc Sweeney is a High School English/Drama teacher.  Besides writing for the Celtic MP3s Music Magazine, he enjoys acting, writing and playing Celtic music.  He can be seen as one of the members of the band Terrible Musicians, where he plays percussion and mandolin. 

Sylvia Platypus is Philadelphia’s (and possibly the world’s) only psycho-Celtic glam-blues band. Burn’s supper at the Avalon Ballroom would sound something like this. Take the vocal mannerisms reminiscent of Edith Piaf and John Lee Hooker and combine them with a stage presence that is equal parts James Brown and Judy Garland, and you have some idea of Janet Bressler’s lead-singer style . Add the soul-searing Waddy Wachtel-meets-Brian May guitar work of Bill Barone (formerly of the ’70′s era German symphonic rock band, “Wallenstein”) , the heart-stirring musical textures of award-winning composer and multi-instrumentalist Charlie Rutan on highland and uilleann pipes, tin whistles, English horn and Neopolitan zampogna, and the take-no-prisoners rhythm section of Michael Southerton on rhythm guitar, Ruchama Bilenky on bass, and Rosalba Gallo on drums and you get a six-piece outfit (three men, three women) that delivers a tough and tender genre-busting impact.

Artist: Sylvia Platypus
Facebook Fan Page: Sylvia Platypus
Buy CD: Sylvia Platypus

Download MP3: “Pass the Tankard, Wench (Gael’s Reel)”

Hometown: Philadelphia PA USA
Similiar: Jefferson Airplane, Tannahil Weavers, the Yardbirds, Steeleye Span, Nina Simone

The Celtic MP3s Music Magazine is the Voice of indie Celtic Music online. Every week, we bring you Celtic CD reviews, articles, and free Celtic MP3s since 2000. We’re changing the way you hear Celtic music. Subscribe to our free podcast and monthly newsletter at www.celticmp3s.com

Patrick M. Matherne works as an editor for the Celtic Music Magazine Podcast. He also is a member of the Renaissance Living History Center and can be seen at the Louisiana Renaissance Festival where he assumes the role of Harry Sodder, who is the garden and groundskeeper for you know who

Jim O’Connor from the band Boston Blackthorne here again to relate our exploits over the Irish High Holidays, 2012.  Faced with a daunting schedule of 5 gigs in 3 days on either side of the great state of Massachusetts it was the best of years and the worst of years!  Heading out on the road, the disabled list for our 5 piece Celtic band read like the Boston Red Sox last September right down to the beer and chicken in the clubhouse.  This included a broken leg (mine), a recently repaired rotator cuff (bass), a thrown back (guitar) and our fiddler and drummer, Hear no Evil and Speak no Evil.  Now some would think that an acoustic Celtic band leaves the heavy metal at home but we pack upwards of 10,000 watts of power and 15 instruments to most gigs.  And the roadies left with the groupies years ago.  It was all on us and certainly no country for old Irishmen…

Our first gig was on Friday morning at the Lowell Chamber of Commerce Irish Breakfast- first call was at the ungodly hour of 4 A.M!  When the gentleman from the chamber first contacted me for the gig, he started to go through event program.  I told them to hold it right there- so long as the breakfast is decent and the jokes are fresh we’re your men.  I know about these things- for over 30 years my father was the Master of Ceremonies for the Irish Breakfast in Northampton MA.  I remember how he would start preparing a month in advance; taking down all of his accordion files filled with jokes and all the joke books friends gave him as presents over the years and spreading them out on the spare bed.  He would point to the books and shake his head, “There is not one decent joke between those covers but they keep giving them to me.”  Then after carefully perusing the bits of paper on which countless jokes were scribbled he would begin to put his show together, “This one’s funny, and I haven’t told it in 4 years…”

My father never missed a breakfast in over 30 years and performed in front of 500 each year well until he was nearly 90.  He almost missed his last year sidelined with a persistent bloody nose, one of the many indignities of age.  But my niece who was helping him get ready was quick with a solution.  She reached into her purse and grabbed a product guaranteed to stop the flow and packed it up his nose- it worked like a charm.  There was a picture that day of my father on the front page of the paper laughing hysterically at his own joke (his trademark).  Only if you get out the magnifying glass can you see the telltale string.

Well the Lowell breakfast was great fun, honestly the level of humor was very high- the Lowell pols really know how to tell a story.  The room was electrified by the presence of celebrity adversaries Scott Brown and Elizabeth Warren, both running for the Senate seat.  We played the Irish National Anthem and the crowd sang along to Danny Boy- it was like old times.

Then back in  the truck and the trip from the gritty mill city, home of the industrial revolution, to the tiny town of Westhampton MA, a place in many ways unchanged since those times.  We had a concert in the newly constructed library and it was beyond sold out.  This was partly due to my niece’s preschool-age son and daughter who each sent a personal invitation to every student in their school.  From toddlers seated at the foot of the stage to senior citizens in the Boston Blackthorne t-shirts it was a real celebration and a special night for the band.  Many of our families are from the area and the place was packed with old and new friends.

Despite admonishments to get an early start and a good night’s sleep since we had another 2 gigs the next day and after all had been working since 4 A.M. it was back to Jon’s house down the road where the sessuin began and continued on until the small hours of the morning.  We can’t help it- we love to play and it is a great time to try out new songs or ones we haven’t played in years but somehow remember like we last played them yesterday.

The next day was another study in contrasts.  First an elegant Irish wedding in the afternoon then a mad dash down Mount Tom to Holyoke MA, home of the oldest St. Patrick’s Day Parade in the nation.  Holyoke is a “sister city” to Lowell with mills and canals from the same era, and in many ways fallen on hard times.  But once a year thousands descend on the city to celebrate and the Mecca is my Cousin Pat Brennan’s pub on High Street.  We played Saturday night and Sunday right after the parade.  For an Irish band there is nothing like the St. Patrick’s Day crowd in a real Irish pub.  The place is full of local characters, not all of them related to me, and cops and firefighters from all over the region there to march and celebrate.  My brother Tom and his friend drove all the way from VA each having finished recent stints in Afghanistan.  Cousins came out of the woodwork after the house party ended and acquaintances we only know for this weekend each year celebrated and sang with us like long lost comrades.

And in a flash it was over for the year, the equipment packed away for the long ride home.  The following week a few of the lads played at a reading of Kevin O’Hara from his great book “The Last of the Donkey Pilgrims”, a must read about his trip around Ireland in a donkey cart in the 1970′s. Chetz played the jig based on the book that was featured on our last album, County Kerry to Kerry Park.

It will be quiet for a few weeks, time to woodshed on the fiddle, take in a sessuin, and maybe even write a song. Then it usually gets busy over the summer with outdoor town center concerts and festivals.  Here’s to the lads in the band, another fine year to look back on and another fine one to come.   Come out and join us just as soon as you can!

Judging from the song, we learn a few things about the guy in the story. First, it is safe to say this guy is a regular drunk. Whiskey, gin, tequila, and brandy are a few of his favorite drinks. He manages to down those in just the first verse. Next, he sucks at poker. Apparently he was in a game of poker, more than one in this song. Every time he plays, he’s left with nothing but the shirt on his back, minus his coat, which he also seemed to lose. Last, he likes to drink.

Boat Train, the first time I heard it, sounded almost like an Irish drinking song. It has an upbeat happy pitch and cadence that you would expect in most drinking songs. Of course, most Irish drinking songs don’t involve singing about flashlights being inserted in anal cavities.

MacGowan’s performance of the song actually goes along with the theme. You can barely make out what he is singing mos- of the time. Granted, MacGowan is well-known to have a few drinks, exhibited by the fact that many think it is an accomplishment when he goes through a set on stage sober.

If you are easily offended or are not a fan of drinking songs, then this song is not for you. If on the other hand you like the random drinking songs that could be made into a equally as random comedy, then Boat Train could be right on track.

James Guill enjoys a good round of poker and drinking songs.

Titanic Belfast – visitor centre

10th April, 2012

A new phenomenon in Belfast in recent years has been the development of ‘quarters.’  First we had what is now known as the Cathedral Quarter which, strangely enough, is near St. Anne’s Cathedral to the north of the city centre.

Like Dublin’s Temple Bar area, this is an area of narrow cobbled streets, restaurants, old pubs and new pubs in old buildings, with music and other entertainment.  Just opposite the cathedral is Writer’s Square, with the names of local writers inlaid in the pavement, where music and arts events are held.

On the other side of the city centre, bordering the Lower Ormeau area are a group of streets we’ve always referred to as the Holy Land – because it includes Jerusalem Street, Palestine Street, Damascus Street, Carmel Street and Cairo Street.

This used to be a mixed residential area of small two and three story terraced houses, but it has changed dramatically over the last few years.  Most of the original inhabitants have gone.  A small number of immigrant families still live there, but the area has been invaded by several thousand students – from both Queen’s University and the University of Ulster – as developers have converted and extended the small houses into student housing, leaving only the original facades unchanged.

The area is now officially part of what’s known as Queen’s Quarter, an area encompassing the buildings of Queen’s University, a proposed new site for the University of Ulster, (which is currently outside the city), student accommodation and lots of bars, clubs and nightspots.

The most recent quarter is in east Belfast and it’s been gettin’ kinda busy recently – because we’re about to celebrate the 100th anniversary of a great tragic event – the sinking of the RMS Titanic.  In the docks area, near the former Harland & Wolff shipyard, we now have a spectacular new building – the Titanic Belfast centre.  The building cost £77M to build and has four wings, each looking like the prow of the ship itself, joined by a central glass tower.  Inside you can learn everything there is to know about the Titanic – how it was built, the shipyard it was built in, fitting out the ship, her maiden voyage, the sinking.  You can even visit and explore the wreck underwater.

The Titanic was built in the Harland & Wolff shipyard in east Belfast – at that time the largest shipyard in the world.  In 1910 Belfast was a boom town, a strong leader in engineering and linen manufacture as well as shipbuilding.  At that time the Titanic was the largest and most luxurious liner in the world.  The shipyard employed over 35,000 people in the early 1900s – including my grandfather!

The yard was founded in 1862 and has the world’s largest dry dock and later the two huge yellow cranes, which dominate the Belfast skyline, manufactured by the German company, Kruup – Goliath (315 ft high) was the first, in 1969, followed by Sampson, in 1974 (348 ft high).  Each crane spans 259 feet, can lift a load of 840 tons, and run on rails, driven by their own huge diesel engines inside the top of the main leg of each crane – two engines in each, one for backup.

Filming the Titanic Quarter from top of Goliath crane

When the Titanic Quarter was first being planned a few years ago I was asked to film the site for their new website, from the top of the Goliath crane.  We had to get special permission to film from there and were taken up in the tiny lift inside the leg of the crane, to the engine platform at the top.  The lift tends to bounce up and down rather alarmingly as it travels!  At the top is the gantry, which looks like a large red shed, that travels on rails from one side of the crane to the other and houses the lifting gear.  The driver is suspended from this in a little downward projecting cabin, so that he can have all round vision.

Seeing we had a once-in-a-lifetime chance to film from the top of the crane, we took guitars up with us and filmed each other performing on top of Goliath.  At first it was beautiful sunny spring weather and I got some great footage of ships moving and a plane landing at the nearby George Best City Airport.

Unfortunately, when I was being filmed performing, not only did my guitar strap come adrift, but a sudden wintry squall came in around us, with strong winds and snow hitting us horizontally.  We had to grab camera, tripod and guitars and scramble quickly for safety down the stairs to the engine platform at the top of the leg of the crane!

In 2007 the Goliath crane crashed into one of the smaller cranes – at 95 tonnes! – knocking it over in what could have been a lethal accident.  (Check it out on YouTube under Harland & Wolff Crane Accident).

The Titanic was built in this dock, although smaller cranes were used in her construction, along with sister White Star Line ships, Olympic and Britannic; the Royal Navy cruiser, HMS Belfast; P&O’s SS Canberra and dozens of other ships. Nowadays the yard deals more with refurbishing oil rigs and drilling ships and building wind farm components.

Titanic sinking

Titannic left Belfast on the evening of 2nd April, 1912; calling at Southampton in England; Cherbourg, France; and finally Cobh, near Cork City, in the Republic of Ireland; before setting off across the Atlantic for Manhattan, New York City.  She struck an iceberg at almost full speed on April 14th and sank two hours and forty minutes later, with the loss of more than 1,500 lives.

My great uncle, George Given, was booked to travel on the Titannic, but he was so eager to get to Canada that he travelled on an earlier ship instead.  What a providential move that turned out to be, eh?

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Celtic Roots Craic is taken from Raymond’s popular Celtic Roots Radio show on iTunes and is also available as a separate podcast, as a blog and now the first 25 episodes are available as a new book, A Wee Taste a’ Craic, (available from Amazon.com etc. in paperback, Kindle & Kindle, UK editions).

Precious Oil Publications also recently published (January 2012), The Seanachie: Tales of Old Seamus – by Gerry McCullough: 12 tales of love, intrigue and humour, set in the fictional Donegal village of Ardnakil.

“Trip McCool” is my slightly altered ego. He is the man I try to be, or would like to be. It all relates to a revelation I had.

I, Dennis Dougherty was standing on county lane in Donegal, Ireland staring at an old cottage. It was only two rooms separated by a wall with a fireplace in it. The roof was gone, the windows broken and the wood frames rotted away. Trees and bushes overgrew the little building…no longer needed. It had done it’s job. It had probably been home to generations of the same family. It was not my ancestral home, but it could have been. Here in these fields, the tenants worked, sweated and died all with the intention to make life for their children and grandchildren a bit easier. Here, dreams of America and prosperity were born while the weak and the young died.

It was then that it hit me…I was the living product of their dreams. I was the man that they suffered, scraped and bled for. I was the embodiment of their prayers for a better life.

It took several years for an idea to come to light. Write an album of songs that celebrate the Irish/ American experience.

So here is the product of that idea, “The Traveler”, songs written with the love of ‘The Clancy Brothers & Tommy Makem’ and ‘The Dubliners’, with modern sensibilities.

Trip allows me to bridge the gap between reality and fiction, pride and shyness, and America and Ireland. He allows me to say thank you to my past.

Slainte,

Dennis Dougherty

Artist: Trip McCool
Facebook Fan Page: Trip McCool
Buy CD: The Traveler

Download MP3: “Drill Ye Tarrier, Drill”

Hometown: Holly Springs
Similiar: Pogues, BarleyJuice, Luke, Clancy Bros.&Tommy Makem, Dubliners, Micho Russell

The Celtic MP3s Music Magazine is the Voice of indie Celtic Music online. Every week, we bring you Celtic CD reviews, articles, and free Celtic MP3s since 2000. We’re changing the way you hear Celtic music. Subscribe to our free podcast and monthly newsletter at www.celticmp3s.com

Patrick M. Matherne works as an editor for the Celtic Music Magazine Podcast. He also is a member of the Renaissance Living History Center and can be seen at the Louisiana Renaissance Festival where he assumes the role of Harry Sodder, who is the garden and groundskeeper for you know who