St. Patrick's Day 2009

Not the best ever. For one, those of you who have followed this blog from the beginning (there might be two of you), or those of you who actually know me (includes anyone who actually follows this blog regularly), Kate and I got married four years ago today. That makes today tough, especially for Kate, since we're spending this anniversary 2400 miles apart. Hopefully this is the only time that happens. The other thing is that I'm back in an area that really appreciates St. Patrick's Day, but there'll be no drinking for me! It's a good thing Kate keeps me on the right path, or eventually I'd let my curiosity get the better of me, and that would be no good. Curiosity killed the cat, but for awhile I was a suspect.

I did do something cool, though. Last week I was in Wheeling, West Virginia, an area with a lot of Irish heritage, and I went to a Celtic festival with a coworker (I got myself a Pepsi so I'd have something in my hands and not be tempted to wander toward the wine tasting table). I forgot my camera in the car, but there wasn't a whole lot to take pictures of anyway. I did pull out my phone to take some shots of the pipe band they had. They were pretty average as far as pipe bands go, but fun to hear, and they had a solo piper who was very good and only fifteen years old. Also, they played a medley of American tunes that included the Marine Hymn, which was very cool.

I also bought a ring and some ear-rings and a couple t-shirts to send to Kate since she couldn't be there. Not expensive stuff, just cool stuff that she likes. One of the shirts had a funny "toast" on it I hadn't heard before:

Here's to the WELSH, who pray on their knees and on their neighbors.

Here's to the SCOTS, who keep the Sabbath and everything else they can get their hands on.

Here's to the IRISH, who never seem to know quite what they want, but are always willing to fight for it. And....

Here's to the ENGLISH, who consider themselves a self-made nation, & thus relieve the Almighty of a dreadful responsibility.

I'm sure some of you have heard it before, but it was a new one for me and it made me laugh. So I bought it, of course.

How did I spend the actual holiday? I spent a lot of last night and today looking for good Irish and Scottish music on YouTube. Guess what? I'm going to share it with you. Only because I find you guys somewhat tolerable. I'm putting a lot of stuff in this post, don't be overwhelmed. It's a variety of different Celtic music, so there's more than likely at least something for everyone, and don't feel like you have to watch it all at once. I hope you all enjoy at least some of it, though.

First, I recommend you go to my blog playlist on the right side of the page, and listen to Anúna. Their name is an easier to pronounce version of their original name, An Uaithne, which is a term describing the three ancient types of Celtic music: Suantraí (lullaby), Geantraí (happy song), and Goltraí (lament). They are best known for their work with the show Riverdance, and are my favorite choral group. Their membership varies somewhat, but they usually perform with between twelve and fourteen singers, and have a very pure sound with tight, interesting harmonies. I have three of my favorites in the playlist: Eiri na Greine/The Rising of the Sun, Innisfree, and Siuil A Riun. Eiri na Greine has some very fun bagpipes near the end, and is a catchy tune. Innisfree is very interesting in that the lyrics are passed back and forth between the soloist and the choir, and the soloist is sometimes singing a melody and sometimes a counter melody. It's also a great example of Michael McGlynn's composition style, which blends traditional Irish melodies with contemporary dissonant, almost jazzy harmonies. Siuil A Riun has been recorded dozens of times at least, and this is by far my favorite version. The choral harmonies are great, the soloist is amazing, and I love the guitars and fiddle. It's just perfect.

A few of Anúna's soloists have recorded solo albums as well, but my favorite is Méav, who is also a member of the group Celtic Woman, which is pretty good. I found one of her solo pieces to put in the playlist as well, a sad song called You Brought Me Up. This is not to be confused with that irritating usurper of the Londonderry Air melody known as You Raise Me Up. Méav has an amazingly clear voice that I could listen to forever. Too bad there's not room in the playlist for more of her music.

I found some Anúna on YouTube, but just so you know, they can come off kind of... intense... live. Almost creepy in some cases. I don't blame you if you hit play and just listen without watching. I recommend listening, though.

This is the song Home and the Heartland from Riverdance, sung by Anúna with Katie McMahon as the soloist. I wanted to include Méav singing Lift the Wings, too, but her version isn't on YouTube, and other versions just don't do it for me.

This live version doesn't have the fiddle, but it has tight choral harmonies in its place, and the guitar is still there.

This is a song about the seaweed. This is how I first heard of Anúna, because we sang this song in choir in high school. The dude's intense stare creeps me out, though.

This song is about death.

Ignore their weirdness, and enjoy the music. My favorite part is right after the female solo, at the 2:47 mark.

I'm including this one mostly because it's so fun to hear him sing Gaelic so fast.

Now some other stuff:

Just Méav singing a nice melody.

The group Celtic Woman singing Harry's Game by Clannad.

Celtic Woman singing another great version of Siuil A Riun.

The Corrs are a modern Irish group, and they have several very good contemporary versions of traditional Irish tunes that I like:

The actual song starts 45 seconds in. This is fun, because you can see the Gaelic lyrics and hear them sung at the same time.

I couldn't resist posting this, an Irish interpretation of my favorite Jimi Hendrix song. Definitely not as good as Hendrix, but still cool for sure.

Another great group most people have heard of is The Chieftains. They've recorded with dozens of guest artists with some pretty cool results. You must hear this, it's too cool. Ziggy Marley, son of Bob Marley, singing my favorite Bob Marley song, Redemption Song, with traditional Irish instruments to back him up:

I also really like this collaboration between The Chieftains and Joni Mitchell about The Magdelene Laundries, which were asylums for "fallen" women, who had worked as prostitutes. It was found out that at some of these asylums the women had been abused, and this song was written in memory of that. It's a great song, and even though smoking has changed it a lot, I still love Joni Mitchell's voice:

The Chieftains also recorded my favorite version of The Foggy Dew with Sinéad O'Connor. The song is about the Easter Rising of 1916. Even if you don't like Sinéad O'Connor, I recommend this song. I'm not her biggest fan, but her voice is well suited to a traditional melody like this:

Speaking of Sinéad, she also recorded what is by far my favorite version of another traditional song, She Moved Through the Fair. This version is featured at the end of my favorite historical movie, Michael Collins, which I highly recommend. It's like Braveheart, but not overrated, and actually historically accurate for the most part. A better movie all around. I don't think it's a spoiler to tell the end of a movie about a real event, but if you don't want it spoiled just hit play and skip the rest of this paragraph. Michael Collins dies at the end. This version of the song leaves out some sad verses, making it a more hopeful song, which just adds to the tragedy of the end of the movie. Michael Collins was shot by some of his own men who were upset that his rebellion wasn't as thoroughly successful as they'd hoped. At the end of the movie, we see the woman Michael was to marry (played by Julia Roberts, the one unfortunate thing about the movie) preparing for the wedding, while at the same time we also watch Collins' motorcade ambushed and Collins himself dies. All the while this song is playing. It's a very well crafted scene. The soundtrack and this arrangement are by my favorite composer, Elliot Goldenthal:

That song is also in the blog playlist.

I looked for a long time for some good bagpipe stuff to put here, but it was a difficult search, surprisingly. Any good song I found I wasn't happy with the recording, or vice versa. I did finally find some fun stuff, though. This is worth watching, and about four minutes in they let a random little kid from the audience join in and play a drum:

Anyway, I need some sleep, and that's a lot of music. It's already not St. Patrick's Day anymore here in Pennsylvania; I'm just glad I'm finishing this post while it still is in Idaho!