CD Review - the Ultimate Guide to Irish Folk

Have you ever thought about what tracks you would include on a compilation album?   No?   Me neither ... Oh, I've made cassettes in the old days for driving or for walking or for parties etc. But a collection that will stay out there for ever is another thing altogether.   And I must say that the compiler of this new collection John O'Regan, has done an exceptional job.

The Ultimate Guide to Irish Folk is not like any of the collections you'll come across in airport shops or even online - this is totally new and takes in both traditional and contemporary Irish music - folk, songwriter, pub and even rock - from around the world.   There are contributors here, well known and not so famous, from North and south of the border, as well as from England, Canada and America.
It is a very current picture of what Irish music looks like these days.   And there are copious sleeve notes compiled by John who has an encyclopaedic knowledge of the Irish music business.

Among the well known acts are Clannad, Dervish, the Dubliners, Christy Moore and Sinead O'Connor and Horslips ( the first band I ever saw live and the first ones to mix traditional tunes with rock music).
There's also songwriters - John Spillane, Paul Brady and Luka Bloom for example.  All very quirky and very Irish.

And a couple of Afro-Irish fusion bands - this is a very new development in Irish music and is very popular at summer rock festivals - Irish is an Indo European language and in places sounds almost Arabic - both the bands Kila and Afro Celt Sound System make use of that, using the sounds of North Africa fused with traditional Irish tunes and singing in Irish ... Quite brilliant.

The CD is produced by Arc Music and is available to buy at that link.

On any given day I would pick different tracks to highlight but for today here are a couple of samples:
Martin Hayes (fiddle) and Dennis Cahill (guitar) - Paddy Fahey's Reel



Clannad - Rhapsody na nGrann


There are a couple of strange tracks on this - from very talented acts - I'm just not sure what the Irish connection is - For example this American family - the Willis Clan - where all 12 siblings play, sing and dance ... amazing. All 12 of them have a name beginning with J - they're climbing up the ranks of America's Got Talent at the minute - you'll either love them or hate them.  Personally I think they're all very talented and who wouldn't love the little one dancing.

What are your favourite compilations?  Have you been listening to any new CDs lately?

CD Review - Colum Sands "Turn the Corner"

I like to share different music with you and what better than to let you hear samples of new recordings from some of my friends.

Let me introduce you to Colum Sands.   Colum is a great writer - one of my favourite songsmiths.   His songs are folk in the proper sense of the word - he writes about things that go on around him, things that happen to the folk he comes across.   And he has a knack of writing about sensitive subjects without offending anyone.
This is a very apt example - a song for these times we live in when children are being hurt all over the world.   "The Child Who Asks Why" is from the new CD Turn the Corner.


The title track, Turn the Corner, will become an anthem around these parts.   When you're driving home after being away for a while - you drive through the town of Warrenpoint and once your reach the end of the main street you see the water and the mountains in front of you and you must turn left to reach Rostrevor.   This song is about that turn in the road.

Another gem which will have audiences singing along is Annie I Owe You - a play on the vowels of English - and a song to make us think.

This CD is Colum's 9th, not counting the many recordings with his brothers and sister - as The Sands Family.    There's a song in praise of Rainy Days - not many people will make you think of the rain that way - and a beautiful song about the process of handblown glass.

The CD is available through Colum's website and folk music distributors world wide.


Colum can be heard every week on the airwaves as he presents the weekly BBC Radio Ulster Folk Programme - He tours regularly in the UK and in Germany as well as here at home playing folk clubs and festivals.

CD Review - Kevin Doherty - Seeing Things (2013)

This is one of my favourite albums of the last couple of years - a collection of beautifully written songs that evoke images left to the listeners' imagination.   Just like the bare cover of the CD (which in some shops is provided with a pencil attached for you to draw your own cover art), the recording is stripped down to the bare minimum - piano and acoustic guitar and once or twice strings join the ensemble and over it all floats Kevin's very expressive and sensual voice, sounding like he's talking to us from the 1960s or even earlier.  It reminds me a bit of Leonard Cohen, and then it's Tom Waits and then it's Duke Special and ultimately it's nobody but Kevin Doherty.

Kevin comes from Donegal and has been a member of the wonderful energetic traditional Irish band, Four Men and a Dog, since the early 90s.   Alongside that he's been developing his solo songwriting career and with this album being released on the British Proper Music label his star is set to start shining on a much wider audience than here at home.   The songs on this album are sheer poetry - they talk about travel and love and world events - as in "New York City" - he was in New York one 9th September and loving the city.

The title track "Seeing Things" is about fear of flying!  and yet he turns it into a wonderful song.  Have a listen here.

And another song loosely based on travel and my undoubted favourite on the album has to be Esplendido Corazon - ferry travel this time.   And aided by a lovely voice - Charlie Webb of the Webb sisters.



Rambling Irishman has to be mentioned too -
"I am a rambling Irishman from chaos I was born
When the glass falls from my hand to chaos I'll return"

Without doubt this is an album that will stay on my iPhone for a long while and will be revisited in years to come - I love the poetic style, the vagueness and the landscapes that the songs create in my mind.

Find out more about Kevin at his website.

More information about my tours etc at www.filcampbell.com