Recommendations for good Irish music?

In My Humble Opinion
1

My grandmother is ordering me a CD-RW for Christmas. Being a poor college student, I really can’t afford to get her much more than a card. I want to do something for her, though, so I decided to burn her a CD of Irish music.

I started downloaded some, listened to it and realized that I liked it. Cool. A lot of the drinking songs are pretty funny. There are mellower tunes that are excellent as well. Awesome. My musical tastes have been sort of stagnant for a while. Unfortunately, a Napster search for the word “Irish” is pretty much a shot in the dark. Anyone have any recommendations?

2

There is an Irish folk singer by the name of Jack Beck who is on several CDs and one or two of his own. He is very good. One of his albums is called, “Oh Lassie, Lassie”, I believe. You should be able to find him by doing a search on his name.

3

The Chieftains–wide range from very traditional to modern interpretation, great guest performers
The Clancy Brothers–stuff you can sing along with
Altain–more instrumental, Gaelic language songs
Clannad–has done a lot of soundtracks so you may recognize the style
Loreena McKennitt–a beautiful voice
James Galway–a flautist, does many types of music, but has several Celtic themed works
Planxty–British/Irish/Scottish folk tunes, both traditional and updated, great use of pipes
The Boys of the Lough–also good with bagpipes and uliean pipes

You can’t really go wrong with the Chieftains, or Clannad. I know there are some newer groups out there, I’ve heard some great stuff that is less traditional but still very distinctly Irish/Celtic, but I’m spacing on any names. There are also some complilation CDs–with names like Celtic Legacy or Celtic Dreams. They may give you more artists/bands to check out, but I’ve found them to be kind of bland. You might check to see if your local NPR station carries a show called “the Shamrock and the Thistle”–it is a great Celtic music program.

4

Hoo-Mama,
There’s a lot…
Personal Fav’s:
The Pogues: Can’t go wrong with these guys. Punk/folk/rock n rollers. Their album If I Should Fall From Grace With God is a must have. I’m all for Napster, but this one is more than worthy of yer hard earned pennies.
A few key tracks to listen too: Fairytale of New York, If I Should Fall from Grace with God, Thousands Are Sailing, South Australia. They’re all wonderful. From other albums, I’d recomend Waltzing Matilda, I’m a Man You Don’t Meet Every Day, Dirty Old Town, Sunny Side of the Street, Yeah, Yeah, Yeah, Yeah, Yeah [“Long Version”], Turkish Song of the Damned, Fiesta, and so many more…
Sinead O’Connor has done a lot of more Celtic sounding stuff you might find interesting. IE: Petit Poulet, This Is a Rebel Song, You Made Me the Thief of Your Heart.

Some other good artists: Black 47(pop-folk-activists), The Chietains (classic old timers), Van Morrison(pop/folk), Clannad (new age-y), Levellers (pop/alternative/activists),and of course U2 (well duh).

I started my own thread many months ago about this very topic myself if your so inclined to go find it…

>b

5

Thinking about it, I’m pretty sure the NPR show is called “The Thistle and the Shamrock” and not the other way around. My station doesn’t carry it, so it’s been a while since I listened to it. (Thought I’d correct myself, and save someone else the bother).

The Pogues were one of the groups I was trying to think of. You might also check out Steeleye Span–they’re an English group that does folk music–great story songs. I mention them because you said you liked the funny Irish drinking songs, and these may be similar in feel.

6

Couple more you might try

Capercaillie Scttish folk but tremendous, they sing in both English and Gaelic.The CD to look out for is ‘Delerium’ especailly one track ‘Waiting for the wheel to turn’ which is about wealthy weekend visiting landowners emtying picturesque villages by buying up everything and leaving the locals out of it.

Moira Kerr CD ‘MacIain of Glencoe’. Truly this will send a shiver down your spine, it really is inspired. Its about the massacre of MacDonalds. If you are not moved by this you simply don’t have a heart.

For yourself then-

On the brighter side I’d suggest you look for material by the Saw Doctors. Not strictly folk music but it is what the Irish listen to.Look out for ‘Songs from Sun Street’ and ‘Same old town’ both are brilliant.

I’ve always liked Michelle Shocked you could easily do worse than try closer to home.

7

… and if it’s rebel music you’re after, the Wolfe Tones would be your best bet.

8

You beat me to it! I can just see Grandma listening to Rum, Sodomy & the Lash! :smiley: (Hey, they’re traditional tunes, most of them!)

Loreena McKinnett is a good choice. Beautiful voice! But I find her a bit melancholy-sounding.

Lots of good suggestions by other people in this thread.

9

::limbering up fingers::
Ahh a topic near and dear to my heart!!
OK here goes:
Moving Hearts-OMG are they great!!

Donal Lunny- esp. get his new album/group effort Coolfin

Christy Moore- ballads and humourous tunes along with some really biting social commentary

The Bothy Band- arguably one of the most influential “New” celtic/popular fusion bands ever- they laid the groundwork for almost everything you hear today. The self titled album is a great place to start

Altan The Red Crow is a good starting place.

Seamus Ennis * The Bonny Bunch Of Roses*

DeDannan

Matt Molloy Molloy,Brady, Peoples(GreenLinnet#3018)
pretty much anything else he touches is magic- James Galway called him “the greatest flute player in the world”

Patrick Street

Cherish The Ladies An American group amazing tunes and Joanie Madden is amazing on the whistle

Some Scots stuff:
Phil Cunningham; part of Silly Wizard both solo and group stuff is fantastic!

Kornog a wonderful Breton/scots mix that I personally love - I can listen to it over and over.

Dougie MacLean great ballads

Tannahill Weavers Land of Light sends shivers down my spine
But if I was just getting into Irish music, I’d go for the compilations, they are wonderful if you stay away from the “Irish tranquilty” stuff;)

I’d recommend Green Linnet’s ( a record co.) The Twentieth Anniversary Collection, and Her Infinite Variety; Celtic Women in Sound and Music

Putumayo has some good collections too

Laurence Nugent is a flute/ whistle player that should not be missed.

For straight fiddle freebasing, try: The Boston College Irish Fiddle Festival My Love is in America , whew!

Green Linnet is a great website to start on …WOOHOO!!! Kornog has a new Album!!! I just ordered it, the first in twenty years -allright!!

There’s lots more, but this should keep you busy for a while!

I’d also recommend going to see live music. Irish music is a living breathing thing that really has to be experienced firsthand to be truly appreciated. A lot of what I have picked has had this “live” feeling in it- it’s what I look for in recordings. I don’t just mean it was recorded in front of an audience- its more of a feeling that the musicians let show through their music.

Tell me where you are- I probably can steer you towards some local live stuff if you’re in the US.

I’ve avoided the Enya/Loreena/Celtic Dream/Phil Coulter/Clancy Bros. (ok they can be fun at times)/“New Age” “celtic” music. I have a few of these and they are at best hackneyed reprises of much better traditional musicians and at worst horrid synthesized abominations that are better suited for a small room in the bowels of the Lubyanka than in your homes.

10

There is the stuff on the second Titanic soundtrack. Irish dance music type stuff.

11

That would be Gaelic Storm. I was looking at these lists wondering if I were the only one who liked Gaelic Storm. Sure they were in Titanic, but you really can’t hold it against them.

For something similiar to Irish music, are you familiar with String Cheese Incident or Bela Fleck? Both have huge Celtic influences (and SCI does wicked things with a violin), and mix it up with other sounds. Check out SCI’s “Rivertrance” and Fleck’s “A Celtic Medley” for a taste.

12

I’d start with The Chieftains.

There’s an AMAZING fiddle player named James Kelly (Kelley?) who plays in South Florida with some friends of mine who has a couple of records out.

Then there’s some Nova Scotians, like Ashley MacIsaac (maybe not for grandma) and Natalie MacMaster.

The Battlefield Band for Scottish music. Gaelic storm is good.

Donal Lugan.

Some guy named Cunningham on Green Linnet.

There’s a compilation called “Masters of the Scottish Fiddle.” Most Celtic compilations suck, but that one’s really good.

I don’t like Clannad much. Some Celtic music tends to get a little “new agey” for me…meaning it’s frigging mindless.

For a different sound, try “The Irish Tenors.” Clancy Brothers, of course. Wolfe Tones.

13

Yeah I forget Gaelic Storm. Even more so since Kathleen Keane is a friend of mine! Sorry Kathleen!

14

There’s also The Dubliners ala “Dublin in the rare auld time”, whose singer was Luke Kelly who also has a some great records of his own. His version of On Raglan Road is mighty powerful.

There’s also a trad band called Kila (my friend was the bass player) who are very good and I think a few of there tracks are out there in cyberspace :wink:

15

The Clancy Brothers with Tommy Makem (especially their later stuff)
The Wolfe Tones

The Pogues

and get a Best of the Cheiftains album and some good Black Bush (the drink) and you got yourself a party!

16

To EXACTLY echo diamud…

My 30-year-old nephew has gotten interested in Irish music over the past few weeks, so my Xmas gift to him was

The Clancy Bros & Tommy Makem; SONGS OF DRINKING AND BLACKGUARDING

and

The Wolfe Tones; THE RIFLES OF THE IRA.

This first is a great boozy vocal-heavy album, the second is cuttingly poitical, still has great vocals, but adds a variety of flutes and fiddles and fingerpicking and percussion.

17

Van Morrison.

18

Check out the great tenor Frank Patterson. Also, the soundtrack to the movie “The Secret of Roan Inish” has some haunting traditional stuff, and all sung in Gaelic.

19

This is my all time favorite cd. Hubby picked it out for me. I’d still be scratching my head in the music section.

20

For Irish music the two that I’d recommend are Archie Fisher and an obscure group called Planxty.