Any Irish or Celtic Music fans here?

[Deathstroke]

I know most Irish music begins and ends with U2, The Committments and The Irish Rovers but I've always had a place in my heart for the Celtic/Irish musical sound.

I've just started listening to The Irish and Celtic Music Podcast (http://www.celticmusicpodcast.com) and I'm really quite hooked. I started right from the first show posted back in 2005 and plan to work my way through all the shows.

I've been enjoying almost every song, whether lyrical or instrumental, that's been played on the shows.

So anyone else?

[howyadoin]

So anyone else?Definitely. I skew towards the more punk-influenced stuff like Dropkick Murphys and the Pogues, but all of it stirs my soul.

[jdwrocks]

I liked Clannad's first couple albums, although they went sour after that. Agood Irish punk influence band is Flogging Molly. Great songs alot about growing up over there. The main songwriter/singer was actually the singer for a 80's hard rock band called Fastway. But good stuff nowadays.

[Deathstroke]

Definitely. I skew towards the more punk-influenced stuff like Dropkick Murphys and the Pogues, but all of it stirs my soul.

Maria McKee, Warren Zevon, Irish music...are we brothers and don't know it? :D

[howyadoin]

A good Irish punk influence band is Flogging Molly... The main songwriter/singer was actually the singer for a 80's hard rock band called Fastway.I would never have guessed that in a million years.

[berk]

I like a lot of that stuff but haven't really kept up with it over the years. Especially since I left Nfld, where you could always be sure of a few radio shows devoted to Nfld/Irish/Celtic music. Thanks for the link, might be a good way to get back into it.

[howyadoin]

Someone else to check out:

http://www.realmckenzies.com

http://www.myspace.com/therealmckenziess

[mattx110]

Tony McManus is pretty good. Guitar player. El McMeen (I hope that's his name), is sort of the sensitive side of celtic guitar music (which is a recent thing, guitars are taking over a bit, but they used to be non-existent or at most be an accompaniment instrument).

There was a good group I used to listen to. Recently moved and will have to move again, so my stuff is a bit spread out or just plain lost. I'll try to find more. Flogging Molly is good, a bit country, a bit rock too.

Pogues and Dubliners are good. And good together. Like Chocolate and Bailey's Irish Cream. (not girly drinks, smooth drinks for sophisticated tastes, or a really damn good ice-cream topping)

[Deathstroke]

I'm finishing up Ep. 4 and there's a lot of stuff that I'm enjoying. I haven't found one group yet that I'm totally mad about beyond The Bedlam Bards but I already knew about them.

But I'm looking.

Liked:

The Rogues
Avalon Rising
Emerald Rose
Cluan
The Barley Boys
Michael Murphy and the Shannon River Band
Amadan
StoneRing
Susan Hamlin
The BorderCollies
Tara's Fire
Paul McKenna
Mac'Talla Mor
Lenahan
The Bloody Irish Boys

[Paul McEnery]

Swinging over to the British side of the water, The Oyster Band (or Oysterband, or the Oyster Ceilidh Band or...) were always better live, so try Little Rock to Leipzig.

Also most of Eliza Carthy's records (though not so much the new one). Red/Rice is the place to start.

And has anyone listened to Horslips in a while? I remember them as being dodgily prog, but I'm getting the urge to go back and give it another go.

[DubipR]

I like some Celtic bands and singers. Even though she's Canadian, I really like Loreena McKennitt. Peatbog Faries are entertaining. I've been a Chieftans fans for years, as well as Clannad.

I recommend Putamayo's site for a taste of their wonderful CDs worth picking up:
http://www.putumayo.com/en/shop_catalog.php?category=7&submenu=S6

[howyadoin]

And has anyone listened to Horslips in a while? I remember them as being dodgily prog, but I'm getting the urge to go back and give it another go.Huh. There's a name I haven't heard in years.

[Deathstroke]

I'm listening to Episode 5 and I really liked the song "The Gallows" by Rise.

[Jonathan Bogart]

And has anyone listened to Horslips in a while? I remember them as being dodgily prog, but I'm getting the urge to go back and give it another go.
I have. You remember more or less right, but there was enough actual music fighting through the pretension in spots to make them worthwhile.

What else? Planxty could be called the Pogues of the 70s, and they were actually quite good.

As a wee evangelical Christian, I liked a couple of bands that took trad. Scots-Irish music to do gospel with: Iona and the Crossing. I haven't heard either in years, but the Crossing at least were terrific instrumentalists and did a pretty great version of Tommy Sands' ballad about the Troubles, "There Were Roses."

I also like Clannad's early work, no matter how Enyate they got later on.

[Paul McEnery]

There's a couple of young UK trad folkies who're worth a listen: Boden & Spiers. But the jump on point is their ludicrous big band project, Bellowhead. Which is unlike anything most of us have heard before. Again, way better live, but since most of yiz ain't ever going to see that, the first album is the way to go.

And this obscure gem, Rhythm of the Wold (http://www.webfeet.org/eceilidh/bands/stradling.html) by the terrifically named Rod Stradling, is worth fifteen bucks of anybody's money

[berk]

I still listen to Horslips quite a bit. My favourites are probably Drive the Cold Winter Away, which I think is the most traditional sounding one, and The Tain and Book of Invasions. I also like The Man Who Built America, which is more of a straight rock album. I always listen to each of those four all the way through. Lot's of good stuff on their other records too.

I think the Tain and Book of Invasions might be the ones Paul was thinking of as prog, but they don't sound that way to me. More rock/Celtic fusion sort of thing. Back then pretty much any mixture of non-rock elements into rock music ran the risk of being called prog, especially if there were keyboards involved. Plus they were "concept albums" based on Irish mythology, which probably strikes some people as pretty hokey, even though all it means is that the songs were all based around some kind of central theme. Musically I think those two are up there with the best they ever did.

[Doodle Bob]

I would highly recommend Boiled in Lead, a Minneapolis-based band that started as a Celtic folk rock band but soon morphed into Celtic/Balkan/otherwordly Madness. One of the most diverse and talented groups out there: plus they just re-grouped after a half-decade hiatus.

[berk]

I should mention Figgy Duff, since I'm not sure if they were ever at all well known outside Nfld. They don't really sound much like them, but I think they might have been inspired by the likes of Steeleye Span, in that they'd collect traditional songs, some of them only known from having been passed down through oral transmission, and would play them more or less straight, but with electric instruments. Good stuff. Maybe a bit dron-y and depressing for some people, although they had their up-tempo moments. Two very good female singers, Anita Best and Pamela Morgan, whose solo stuff I understand is well worth hunting down as well, although I've never managed to find anything myself.

[Mikl C]

Check out BellX1- they are fantastic chillout.

[movehalfaninch]

Have you heard of The Prodigals (http://tinyurl.com/67zde3)? They're a jig punk band that sound a lot like The Pogues. I think they're actually from New York, but they definitely sound Irish, and their music is just so much fun. I found out about them through the movie Pride and Glory, which features two of their songs, "The Opening Reel" and "Bunch of Red Roses." After seeing the movie, I had to have the song, so I just looked around everywhere I could think of on the internet and was able to find them, here (http://tinyurl.com/645nda) and here (http://tinyurl.com/6frmxn). Listen to them, if you like Irish rock, I promise you'll like them.

[Rabid Trekkie]

Gaelic Storm is actually one of my favorite bands of all time. Probably best known for their performance in the movie Titanic (their the band I think, never seen Titanic so I can't say for sure) they've just released their sixth cd of brand new music. They have seven cds out but one of them is a compilation cd but well worth the price for the two or three new songs on it. They started playing more traditional pub songs, but starting with Tree, their third album, they started doing more of their original songs.

If you want to sample their more traditional stuff get their first cd, "Gaelic Storm." For my favorite example of their contemporary stuff get "How Are We Getting Home?"

Now I have to find some more money to get their newest cd.