You’ll find here a commented listing of Irish and other Celtic music I own. It is neither authoritative, nor complete, nor interesting. Well, depending on how much you’re like me, it may or may not be interesting. I’ve provided a music review on each of them, and some of the songs have pages dedicated to their history and exposition as well.
Athena Records released this album on September 12th 2000, interestingly enough, (2000 being a leap year) exactly one year (366 days) before the attacks on the World Trade Center. As music goes, Irish Shores, and indeed, the entire Shorelines series is nothing special: just mass-produced Celtic music recorded by the house orchestra/band and quick-mixed by a twenty-something who knows computers and digital audio.
Deprecation aside, there’s something very nearly timeless about the selection of pieces included in Irish Shores, and they work very well with the Shorelines paradigm of barely-altered seaside recordings (seagulls and waves — lots of gulls) mixed with relaxing harps, lutes (well, probably just digitally-softened guitars) and pipes.
A didgeridoo. In Irish music. Did Celts even have didgeridoos? Well, no matter, because in some surreal way, it actually works. In 2002, Cracker Barrel Old Country Store released this fabulous recording by the distinctive vocalist Danny Doyle as part of their Heritage Music collection.