Celtic Music
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- “Song and Recitation in Early Ireland”
- This is an interesting article in Celtica 21 by Alan Bruford. It’s in postscript form and, thanks to Alan, now also in Adobe’s .pdf format. You can download the free Adobe Acrobat Reader here.
- Clár Cinn le hÁine Cooke
- Áine Cooke’s collection of song lyrics in Irish, and links to other sites.
- Ceolas Celtic Music Archive
- No longer updated as often as it once was, Ceolas is still a good place to look for tunes, or an overview of Celtic traditional music.
- The Green Man Review
- The Green Man Review: Roots & Branches of Music and Literature, formerly known as Folk Tales, was a traditional newsletter for more than twenty-five years, before turning digital. Their site is a consistently high quality source about good music (Celtic and English traditional, and related traditions) and really good books. (Thanks to Jasmin for passing the URL to me.)
- The Thistle and Shamrock Official Web Site
- This site dedicated to the traditional Celtic music radio program hosted by Fiona Ritchie includes background information, FAQs, and a section for listener feedback. There’s also a list of radio stations that carry Thistle and Shamrock (look for the button that says “On Your Radio.”
- The Unafilliated U2 Concert Transcript Websplice (SM)
- This is an amazing U2 site, with complete transcripts of every live concert the site creator, Michael Reiter, could present. It’s astonishing in its thoroughness and for its sly wit. The site is well organized and easy to navigate. It’s really a history of U2 that uses primary sources, the first site of its kind I’ve seen, though I hope others will follow Michael’s example.
- The Chieftains
- This is a well done site, with scads of information about Ireland’s most famous band, including a very complete discography (with samples!), reviews of concerts and albums, links to other sites, a history of the band, and information about the music of individual members.
- Gaelic Storm
- You may have heard and seen Gaelic Storm playing in the steerage of the ship in the movie Titanic. The first album, Gaelic Storm is a delight; you can hear it here if you have the free Real Audio player. Gaelic Storm play frequently in Santa Monica, California, and have Herding Catstheir second CD out. I quite like them, especially live and accompanied by a pint of pear cider.
- Green Linnet
- Green Linnet is one of the best labels for Celtic traditional music. They’ve even posted a few entire albums in Real Audio format here. There are a few tracks to download in MP3 format here. Real Audio requires the free Real Audio player; you can download it from the link at Green Linnet’s site in your favorite version, the Celtic Macintosh, or the inferior, albeit ubiquitous Windows flavor. MP3 files can be played by QuickTime 4, free for Maintosh or Windows from Apple, or a variety of other free and shareware players.
- Celtic Trader
- Since 1987, The Celtic Trader has been a source for Celtic and Appalachian music, music books and small instruments. They have a catalog, a toll free order number, service with a smile, and a great collection of books and albums (CD and cassettes).
- Hamilton Flutes
- Hamilton makes both keyed and keyless traditional flutes, as well as a moderately priced “practice” model for students and the curious.
- Lark In The Morning
- Musical instruments, music, and instructional materials.
- Irish Folk songs
- This is a site on folk music from all over the world, with lyrics, and in many cases, MIDI tunes. You can find the site’s collection of Welsh tunes here.