Crazy Dreams - Paul Brady reflects on his career as a Celtic trad pioneer and pop songwriter - by Danny Carnahan

Crazy Dreams by Danny Carnahan
Paul Brady reflects on his career as a Celtic trad pioneer and pop songwriter - This Article appears as featured in Acoustic Guitar Magazine. All rights reserved by the author and posted under permission.
No musical tradition has enjoyed a bigger explosion of popularity or a wider spread of style and invention during the past 30 years than Irish music. And no musician personifies Irish music’s arc of popularity better than northern Irish guitarist and singer Paul Brady. Brady started performing in Dublin pubs in the 1960s, at a time when all Ireland seemed consumed with a rediscovered passion for its music and heritage. He dove into the music, and by 1967 he and his band the Johnstons were top draws everywhere in the British Isles.
After seven very traditional albums with the Johnstons, Brady joined Planxty, a band of astonishing innovators and eclectic musicians that included Andy Irvine, Christy Moore, and Donal Lunny. Planxty was, in every sense, the Beatles of modern Irish music. Through the 1970s, they propelled the tradition in a dozen new directions at once, infusing their sets with rock energy and Balkan exoticism while allowing all the essential Irishness to shine ever more brightly.
After a stint with Planxty, Brady went on to perform and record both solo and in harness with various combinations of Planxty members, including notable work with mandolinist Andy Irvine. Irvine and Brady’s eponymous duo album is still on nearly every Irish music fan’s Desert Island Disc shortlist. Brady’s "Arthur McBride" from that album is a riveting story so passionately sung and so tastily accompanied on guitar that it became an instant classic and remains a favorite in sessions around the world.
Brady’s career took another surprising leap in 1981. He shocked his fans by hitting the stage with a full rock band and singing original songs as powerful and catchy as anything since early Van Morrison. He followed his breakthrough album, Hard Station, with nine more and is now one of today’s most-covered Irish pop balladeers, with songs recorded by the likes of Phil Collins, David Crosby, Bonnie Raitt, Santana, Cher, and Tina Turner.
Last year, Rykodisc released Nobody Knows: The Best of Paul Brady, which focused on Brady’s long career as a genre-jumping songwriter. But two songs from Brady’s earlier Irish trad incarnation made it onto Nobody Knows--"The Lakes of Pontchartrain" and "Arthur McBride."
I was particularly intrigued by the inclusion of "Arthur McBride" and by Brady’s decision to record a new version 25 years later, rather than simply include the familiar original. I caught him in Dublin on his way to master his next solo album, due for release this year. Brady chatted about the different hats he’s worn in his long career and about why he decided to revisit a 200-year-old Irish traditional song from his early days in the folk clubs.
For the past 20 years, every aspiring Celtic guitarist seems to have felt compelled to learn your version of "Arthur McBride." What do you suppose it is about this particular song that speaks so strongly to people?
BRADY It’s a very interesting story, I suppose, and as a ballad goes it’s full of drama. It’s full of antiquity, which attracts a lot of people. The style of language is quite archaic. I brought some of the dynamism I’d learned through playing blues and rock music into the presentation of that song, and I think that might have captured people, too. I’ve always tended to do that--even when I was working within the forms of traditional music--to attack songs in a way that wasn’t customary at the time. People tend to have this reverence toward songs and treat them as museum pieces. But I wanted to grab them by the scruff of the neck and turn them into something that had a lifeblood of their own.

CELTIC TREE LORE - ANCIENT POEMS 4 - Suibhne, The Woodland Wanderer (excerpts)

Oak leafy, large bowl, you rise above the trees, Hazel, the small bouquets, cabinet hazelnut. Fern, you're not spiteful, is your lovely scent, you're not sharp when those in the hollow Blackthorn, a small thorny, small dark blackthorn. Berro, little green dots on the edge of the source of the blackbird. Saxifraga of the way, you are the sweeter of the herbs. Lepidio, a very green plant where strawberries are growing. Apple, small apple, all you shake violently. Alder, small or full of berries, is your lovely flowering. Yew, yew or small, are conspicuous in the cemeteries. Ivy, small ivy, you are familiar in the thick forest. Ash, a small guard, who stop portal to the wind. Fern, pernicious, you are a weapon in the hands of a warrior. Birch, soft, blessed, proud, melodic, charming each branch is intertwined at the top of your cup.Aspen, while shaking, I hear from time to time your leaves murmur, And I think it resembles a run.
Little antlered one, little belling one,melodious little bleater,sweet I think the lowing you make in the glen.Home sickness for my little dwelling has come upon my mind,the calves in the plain, the deer on the moor.Oak, bushy, leafy, you are high above trees;Hazel, little branchy one, wisdom of hazel nuts.Alder, you are not spiteful, lovely is your colour,you are not prickly where you are in the gap.Blackthorn, little thorny one, black little sloe bush,Apple tree, little apple tree, violently everyone shakes you.Bramble, little humped vine, you do not grant fair terms;tearing me till you are sated with blood.Yew, you are conspicuous among tombs;Rowan, little berried one, sacred is your lovely white blooms.Holly, little protector, door against storms;Ash tree weapon in the hand of the warrior, baneful are you.Birch, smooth, blessed, proud, melodious,how lovely is each entangled branch at the top of your crest.Aspen, as it trembles from time to time I hear its leaves rustle and think it is the foray;Ivy, you are familiar in the dark woods.

In his book, "The White Godess" R.Graves comments about the preservation of genuine interest in ancient Ireland. Irish triads in the seventh century earlier demanded the death penalty for the illegal felling of two chief trees, the hazelnut and apple Three things that do not breathe should be payed with only things they breathe, An apple, a hazelnut and a sacred wood.He also says that in the Medieval Ireland were running several classification systems of trees. He cites a poem of the seventeenth century which gives list of the seven heads trees, but with alder, the willow and birch, instead of ash, yew and pine, and the fine for his illegal logging was a cow, or three for the whole woodland. For the Brehon Law trees were divided into four categories, Seven Headed Trees, Rustic Seven Trees, Seven Shrubs, Eight Thorny bushes, with a scale of fines for illegal logging which severely diminished by category. It is noteworthy that in this case the trees prized for their noble heads or sacrosanct, were: 1. Oak, because of their size, beauty, and its acorns to pigs that fatten 2. Hazel, for their nuts and brambles 3. Holly, on his wooden lances used in car 4. Yew, for its wood, used for homemade dishes, shields, etc. 5. Fresno, for its timber, used to make the throne of the King, and horns for weapons. 6. Pine, for his wood used to make punches. 7. Appletree, for its fruit and bark suited to the tannery.

CELTIC TREE LORE - ANCIENT POEMS 3

Oak leafy, large bowl, you rise above the trees, Hazel, the small bouquets, cabinet hazelnut. Fern, you're not spiteful, is your lovely scent, you're not sharp when those in the hollow Blackthorn, a small thorny, small dark blackthorn. Hawthorn, little green dots on the edge of the source of the blackbird. Saxifraga of the way, you are the sweeter of the herbs. Lepidio, a very green plant where strawberries are growing. Apple, small apple, all you shake violently. Alder, small or full of berries, is your lovely flowering. Yew, yew or small, are conspicuous in the cemeteries. Ivy, small ivy, you are familiar in the thick forest. Ash, a small guard, who stop portal to the wind. Fern, pernicious, you are a weapon in the hands of a warrior. Birch, soft, blessed, proud, melodic, charming each branch is intertwined at the top of your cup.Aspen, while shaking, I hear from time to time your leaves murmur, And I think it resembles a run.
Little antlered one, little belling one,melodious little bleater,sweet I think the lowing you make in the glen.Home sickness for my little dwelling has come upon my mind,the calves in the plain, the deer on the moor.Oak, bushy, leafy, you are high above trees;Hazel, little branchy one, wisdom of hazel nuts.Alder, you are not spiteful, lovely is your colour,you are not prickly where you are in the gap.Blackthorn, little thorny one, black little sloe bush,Apple tree, little apple tree, violently everyone shakes you.Bramble, little humped vine, you do not grant fair terms;tearing me till you are sated with blood.Yew, you are conspicuous among tombs;Rowan, little berried one, sacred is your lovely white blooms.Holly, little protector, door against storms;Ash tree weapon in the hand of the warrior, baneful are you.Birch, smooth, blessed, proud, melodious,how lovely is each entangled branch at the top of your crest.Aspen, as it trembles from time to time I hear its leaves rustle and think it is the foray;Ivy, you are familiar in the dark woods.

In his book, "The White Godess" R.Graves comments about the preservation of genuine interest in ancient Ireland. Irish triads in the seventh century earlier demanded the death penalty for the illegal felling of two chief trees, the hazelnut and apple Three things that do not breathe should be payed with only things they breathe, An apple, a hazelnut and a sacred wood.He also says that in the Medieval Ireland were running several classification systems of trees. He cites a poem of the seventeenth century which gives list of the seven heads trees, but with alder, the willow and birch, instead of ash, yew and pine, and the fine for his illegal logging was a cow, or three for the whole woodland. For the Brehon Law trees were divided into four categories, Seven Headed Trees, Rustic Seven Trees, Seven Shrubs, Eight Thorny bushes, with a scale of fines for illegal logging which severely diminished by category. It is noteworthy that in this case the trees prized for their noble heads or sacrosanct, were: 1. Oak, because of their size, beauty, and its acorns to pigs that fatten 2. Hazel, for their nuts and brambles 3. Holly, on his wooden lances used in car 4. Yew, for its wood, used for homemade dishes, petos, etc. 5. Fresno, for its timber, used to make the throne of the King, and horns for weapons. 6. Pine, for his wood used to make punches. 7. Appletree, for its fruit and bark suited to the tannery.

CELTIC TREE LORE - ANCIENT POEMS 2

Song of the Forest Trees
Anonymous Irish. Translated into English by the Irish-Standish O Grady (1832-1915) Source: Book of Poems of the Irish / EMMull.
According to Robert Graves in his book: "The White Goddess / Grammar A Poetic History of Myth" (highly recommended for those wishing to deepen on the subject tree),a charming, though emasculated version of the same poem is current on Dartmoor। It tells which trees to burn and which not to burn as follows:

Oak-logs will warm you well, That are old and dry;
Logs of pine will sweetly smell But the sparks will fly.
Birch-logs will burn too fast, Chestnut scarce at all;
Hawthorn-logs are good to last-- Cut them in the fall.
Holly-logs will burn like wax, You may burn them green;
Elm-logs like to smouldering flax, No flame to be seen.
Beech-logs for winter time,
Yew-logs as well;
Green elder-logs it is a crime For any man to sell.
Pear-logs and apple-logs, They will scent your room,
Cherry-logs across the dogs Smell like flower of broom.
Ash-logs, smooth and grey, Burn them green or old,
Buy up all that come your way-- Worth their weight in gold

It is also noteworthy that the Scottish poet and musician Robin Williamson has arrangement versioning this poem with themselves next to the Merry Band under the name "The Woodcutter's Song" on his album "A GLINT at The kindling" (Flying Fish Records USA, 1979.)Words traditional English, music RW with fugal ideas by Chris Caswell 1978
Oak logs will warm you well That are old and dry Logs of pine will sweetly smell But the sparks will fly Birchs long will burn too fast Chestnut scarce at all sir Hawthorn logs are good to last That are cut well in the fall sir
Surely you will find There´s no compare with the hard wood logs That´s cut in the winter time
Holly logs will burn like wax You could burn them green Elm logs burn like smouldering flax With no flame to be seen Beech logs for winter time Yew logs as well sir Green elder logs it is a crime For any man to sell sir
Surely you will find There´s no compare with the hard wood logs That´s cut in the winter time
Pear logs and apple logs They will scent your room and cherry logs across the dogs They smell like flowers of broom But ash logs smooth and grey Buy them green or old, sir and buy up all that come your way They’re worth their weight in gold

CELTIC TREE LORE - ANCIENT POEMS 1

Fergus man who for the feast of the back, light the fire,
Whether afloat or ashore, never burn the king of the forest.
Monarch of the forests of Innisfail is the honeysuckle, whom no one has to make it captive.
No effort is weak sovereign embrace all the trees in a vigorous hug.
If the docile honeysuckle to ignite fire has plenty cries of misfortune.
Horrible acuity in the tips of the weapons, or drowning under waves stoneware succeed him.
Do not burn the precious apple tree branch and widespread decline,
Always tree covered with white flowering toward which all the men cup beautiful stretch your hand.
The blackthorn is a sullen drifter, a timber that the architect will not start.
For all of his body although brief, Gorj birds in flocks.
Do not burn the noble sauce, is sacred tree in the poems.
In its flowering foraging bees, like all of that small cage.
Burn the slender tree berries, the tree of the sorcerer, ash,
Dispenses with the flexible shaft, not to burn slim hazel.
Black is the color of ash, wood, which makes the wheels move. Ornaments their rods rider's hands, it turns the battle into flight.
Disturbing the trees is the wonderful wild rose, quémalo it is so green and poignant,
Short, scourge feet, you inevitably back to who has to move on.
The more impetuous giver of heat among all the woods, that the green oak,
No one can escape from the not damaged.
For your pleasure the head is subjected to pain, and his eye is the embers acres resentful.
Alder, the sorcerer battles all over the woods, tree in the most spirited battle,
Undoubtedly burn at your discretion so as alder thorns.
Ash, burn it green, holly, burn it dry.
Regardless of all the trees decidedly holly is the best.
Sauco which has strong bark, tree that really hurts with pain.
Here the decks cabalgaduras of hosts feéricos, quémalo so that it becomes charcoal.
So too birch, who will be torn down, promises lasting fortune.
Fired with security and indeed the stems of perennial pods.
Make suffer, both where it complacerte, to tremble to russet fall whole body,
Fired sooner or later, the tree branch that holds inert.
Patriarch of forests is the eternal yew, sacred to the holidays, as is well known.
Building of the now-dim red vats of good size.
Your Ferdedh the Faithful, but do not meet my requirements,
For your soul and your body, Oh man, it will be because of profit.

The Ogham Encryption - Part 2 by Eliseo Mauas Pinto

The Ogham Encryption - Part 2 by Eliseo Mauas Pinto
The Alphabet Basics was divided into five groups of five letters. The groups were probably assigned to the North, South, East and West, with five-letter dates (Forfeda) associated with these mystical fifth Central Point. The whole oghmic system is in Irish Gaelic (ERSE), and its sub-systems depend on nominal tie in that language. Dozens of categories make up the correspondences (birds, colors, animals, lakes, water wells, battles, hills, rivers, etc.). Yet the correspondence was not met specifically mnemonic (eg-for ‘Fearn' Irish alder tree, it is the letter F, being it’s correspondence, the bird 'Faelinn' (gull), while in Celtic mythology is associated with the ' Raven, we can relate how many variants could be added to the secret encryption).

The Tree Alphabet is associated wiht the Beth Luis Nion a divination system from the first three sacred trees: the birch, rowan and ash. This system was compiled by Roderick O'Flaherty and is considered a relic of ancient druidism. As you may have noticed the thirteen original consonants in the ogmic alphabet are related to the thirteen months of the lunar and tree druidic calendar, these lunar calendars are similar to those of other cultures such as Mayan. The annual cycle was beginning in November since on the night of October 31 began the Celtic new year, Samhain, or End of Summer. It was joined by other eight trees and shrubs, namely: aspen, honeysuckle, apple, beech, white currant, Rose, and elm

The Celtic Tree Alphabet : Part 1 - The Ogham Encryption by Eliseo Mauas Pinto

The Ogham Encryption by Eliseo Mauas Pinto

The druidic schools were known as' Cor 'or' Grove ', when the Romans arrived in the British Isles. At that time there were about forty Tuitions (with100 students each), there were also dozens of smaller educating groups . This system of training was the generator of spiritual and cultural stratum of society. The students during their training, 8, 12 and 20 years learned the one hundred and fifty characters of encrypted Celtic writiong known as Ogham.
The Welsh historian D. Rhys says that the “ogmic” term can be translated as "skill in the words" explanation intimately linked to the Druids secrecy regarding this type of encryption. While Rhys confers to the “Ogham writing” a totally Irish origin, there are other lecturers like D. Diringer in his book "The Alphabet, A Key to the History of Humanity", who claims that the inventors of this writing handled the rune alphabet, saying that both systems are related by a magical and common source. Some have suggested it comes from the Greek system used in Northern Italy and that in this area also would have resulted runes then associated with the Etruscan civilization.
One of the most fascinating variants for this kind of writing is the Tree Ogham , where each notch or group of incisions was related to a specific tree, whose name in Irish Gaelic related to a letter (eg: Duir ( 'oak') = D). This alphabet was only taught in such schools, making it into an enrypted secret way. For example, when the Druids wanted to communicate over long distances resorted to containers or bags which retained collected
leaves, then came to its alphabeticall correspondence according interspersed along a thread casing (intermediate nodes that could be made to facilitate decryption) finally the court would hand wrapped in a leather inside a box or a messenger. Even when the message is intercepted, only an educated person could interpret the message.
Similar to the Ogham tree leaves, there were the Ogham Tree Rods, where each rod was recorded (and sometimes painted in red) brands. Each rod was called 'promise' or 'knot', were known collectively as
coelbreni '. The word means coel prophet, seer and therefore were also used in adivinitaroy practice, during which they were ritually thrown on a white cloth and then be 'read'.
There were also Coel Fain, the Stones Omen, which can bring us closer to our previous reference of association with runes.
The Alphabet Basics was divided into five groups of five letters. The groups were probably assigned to the North, South, East and West, with five-letter dates (Forfeda) associated with these mystical fifth Central Point.
The whole oghmic system is in Irish Gaelic (ERSE), and its sub-systems depend on nominal tie in that language. Dozens of categories make up the correspondences (birds, colors, animals, lakes, water wells, battles, hills, rivers, etc.). Yet the correspondence was not met specifically mnemonic (eg-for ‘Fearn' Irish alder tree, it is the letter F, being it’s correspondence, the bird 'Faelinn' (gull), while in Celtic mythology is associated with the ' Raven, we can relate how many variants could be added to the secret encryption).

CELTIC TREE LORE - An Approach To The Druidic Vision by Eliseo Mauas Pinto

CELTIC TREE LORE
- An Approach To The Druidry
and it's Vision -

By Eliseo Mauas Pinto

Trees have always been sacred and precious items for the Celts, fully integrated within their own conception of world. Druids had already studied their energy fields, timber and medicinal virtues. Today it is benefical to learn more about the symbolism of the trees and their relationship with our spirituality.There are amongst thirty-six and forty-eight native important trees in the Celtic tradition. As an approach to celtic tree lore, I will divide the whole article in 4 chapters:

१-The Ogham Encryption
(enclosing ancient texts
of possible druidic
roots)

२-The Celtic Tree Alphabet
(the development of some components)

३-Tree Mythology / The sacred and the faerie ones

४-The poem 'The Battle of the Trees' by Taliesin
The God of the Ash &
The God of the Alder

DOWNLOAD 4 FREE THE "AWEN" REMASTERED EDITION FROM -TIME HAS TOLD ME-

Hi to all!... I have the pleasure to anounce that you may now download for free a sampler (first 8 full tracks) of Bran's "AWEN" remastered edition from the renowned Time Has Told Me blog. Hope the celtic spirit endowed in our music will spread further and further to unknown corners of the blogging world. Hit the logo and enjoy!

XANDRU REGUERA: STRUMMING “NA FIANNA” CHORDS

Once BRAN’s co-founder in the past, he presently lines-up NA FIANNA, a local irish traditional folk trio rendering the pulse of the celtic rush with his lead guitar up beats.

Xandru at Keem Bay Achill Island, Co. Mayo

His first approach to music began when he was 13 years old. It was the year 1973 when a bulk of music was composed by bands over the world, specially the launching of great english bands responsible of the Symphonic Rock movement, influenced me a lot. Since he couldn´t afford to purchase a Keyboard (which he loved most), began to study guitar. Rehearsing, composing, and improving techniques of rock, jazz, blues, and lately folk, specially after his first audition of the famous british band “Jethro Tull”. At that time he lined up some rock bands and also wrote some songs for Children music.

Aware of his asturian heritage it was not until 1989 when Xandru first had contact with Celtic music. By those those days he had a job at a local book store where chanced to look upon a tape of the scottish band “Ossian” which impressed him most. On 1990 he came across the album “Dulaman” of the Irish band “Clannad”, which finally led him into the world of celtic music, managing afterwards to get all their albums and of other celtic based bands too.

By the year 1995 he bought the book “Celtic Legacy” bardic contemporary poems which I published as co-author along with Manuel Castro, and months later had the chance to attend at a local show of my celtic folk band “Duir” where he could not only listen celtic music alive in Buenos Aires, but also meet the lad whose poems loved most... Since then a musical bondage began, and when I left “Duir” in October ’97, we both founded “Bran” weaving an everlasting musical experience, getting envolved day by day on my asturian legacy and composing over celtic musical moods and lore.

In 2001 began his meetings with Alejandro Sganga a local violinist who had the chance to play with Bran too, surging later "Na Fianna." From that joint-venture. Their music is based on the folk rhythms of Ireland, and spans from air, hornpipes, Jigs, polkas, songs and sea shanties, to wild reels. In August 2004, toured for a month by the West Coast of Ireland visiting the Counties of Antrim, Mayo, Galway and Clare sharing "sessions" with musicians from the height of Frankie Gavin and Sharon Shannon with a great impact on the Irish media and being interviewed by RTE (Radio & Television Ireland), the tour brought the arrival in December of that same year of a team of the TG4 (Irish language TV in Ireland) who filmed a show of the band for the "Féilte" which was issued for all of Ireland in January 2005.

In March 2005, made the presentation of his 1st CD "Music and Songs from Ireland "published in a bilingual version for South America and Europe.

In February 2006 after the return from a new trip to Ireland recorded their second album "Flaming 'Tunes" which was issued in March 2006 while still appearing on stages
Buenos Aires and other places from Argentina।

In the meanwhile Xandru recorded along with Gabriel Irisarri (former member of Na Fianna) the lively "Within a Mile of Dublin" album. Presently Na Fianna is recording their third album.

SUGGESTED ALBUMS:ALAN STIVELL'S "BACK TO BREIZH" by Eliseo Mauas Pinto

SUGGESTED ALBUMS:ALAN STIVELL'S "BACK TO BREIZH" by Eliseo Mauas Pinto

"Back to Breizh" / "Return to Brittany" (Breizh: Breton for Brittany) We face in this case a very introspective album, we may discover an Alan "Stivell" Cochevelou diving in the spiritual essence of his breton roots , unlike his earlier "One Land / 1 Douar" from the '98 more ethnic, and universal. A Return to Brittany with good management of creative tension with acoustic sets, with the band, and the unforgettable Biniou (highland bagpipe), a high musical level, revealing, reactionary, accompanied by very good session musicians from Ireland, Scotland and Britain. Through the album he shares a journey undertaken both in music as in politics, an awakening of nationality as a rejection of globalization, with the hands of an Stivell flying high the Breton flag against the French advance. (Let us recall that Breton separatists are federated with other nationalities and are not recognized by France as independent). The message of this new work takes us back to earlier albums like "At Langonned / E Langonned" of the year '74 dedicated to the traditional Breton music, and perhaps even closer to the "The Mists of Avalon " an album full an Arthurian Spirit for Freedom. Ever since the graphic design, which is prevalent blue-green water, Stivell conveys his desire to reunite with the sea, an element that Celts have received from our Mother Nature, and which are inevitably linked to, the sense of the unknown, the open space to the conquest of freedom in new lands. The album opens with an Stivellean Journey of Initiation to "A Glass Island" - Breton conception of Paradise, emerging with the departure, memories of childhood, a return to roots, the womb of their identity, the legend of Ys the submerged city. "Day and night my thoughts lurking in Britain, was not my love for her desperate? All things submerged under the blue" Then occurred the "Dreams": "... sometimes dreams come true, the third Millennium, a hopeful humanity, hope for the children. As a child I dreamed I would be in a theater performing a new music .... I dreamed that Breton would return to themselves, their music, their language, that would truly love their country "And again the sea, with a poem in favor of the ecosystem," Sowing the death at sea "," are killing birds and fish, harming our work and footprints in the sand, human indecency so blind, deaf, and selfish, its oil is in our hands. " Then becomes "-Celtic-, land in the sea - the love," a term that encompasses all Celts, a geopolitical abstraction, another meaning of the Breton Keltia to which Stivell has sung all his life and dedicated to his art , creating "new music" that longed for a child (it is noteworthy that Stivell began implementing the harp at the age of 5 years old, and Scottish bagpipes at 9, among others), a music sharing power with the cultural patterns, the root that makes Breton tunes vibrate as if they like Irish or Scottish. "Here come the Celtic pipers .... The alliance strengthens the breath of life, the alliance of Celtic blood runs by our bodies." An alliance which expires at the centuries of oppression and revealed in the next track "Strike the ground with their feet": "... we are keepers of the sun, protect the treasure in the land and sea, inheritance without borders, before barbarian oppression that only knows of destruction, 1000 bodies united at the end of the night. " The tension decreases, and now we come to "Irwazh, the Gaelic Breton Sea", "from the Celtic Brittany to Ireland, for 200 or three hundred years our people have lived here with the gulls, fighting without election against French and English, and between old brothers, the borders remain. " Curiously Stivell drive us back then "At the center and all around," a piece that reveals like instrumental, but slips into the alleged insert a lyrical deliberately absent and with patriotic high-voltage"... continue, with anger in their hearts , Discoverers, pioneers, skippers, sailors, pipers, fishermen, adventurers, saviors, the true heroes, that the soul of Britain will never die, that the humble and the bold claim back our ancestral rights. In 2000 years never entirely defeated by French, British, or Normans. In 2000 years, unharmed, we will be here armed with harps and luggage. " We arrived well in the triumphant "Return to Britain": "... and young adults, browser forward, with winds from the north and west ,.... not resign because victory is coming .... We have earned our place of privilege, and tell them to those damned Parisians, we will not renounce our purposes, Britain is back and will stay here. " Almost a new anthem in which Stivell, under the clothes of a prophetic Merlin leaves the harp to intone the original melody with his martial Scottish bagpipe (noting that the Scottish bagpipe is used by Bagads or Breeton Piping Band) Perhaps motivated by current trends in marketing or for being remakes of old compositions, Stivell renders us for the first time in his vast discography two "Extra Tracks" One is "Brian Boru in French," new musical version with lyrics in French extended his original '95 included with the album "Brian Boru", the melody is a central settlement of the traditional composition so beloved by Celtic harpists. We find here a desire of Stivell to enhance the participation of this legendary king of Ireland as a leader in the fight against oppression (historically was the one who expelled the Vikings in S. XI)
It is followed by "Armoricain Suite," a curious version of a theme premiered in '72 as "Suite Sud-Armoricain." We note the clear intention of Stivell pentatonicism playing with the melody of the traditional Breton employed by inspiring others in the name of the piece ( 'South' for South America and 'Armoricain' for 'Armor' in France) and the use of the 'quena 'in the instrumentation. This is one of the most beloved melodies by Stivell (you can also find a live version on his album "In the Olympia / A l'Olympia" from '73, and other more modern "Again / Again" unusual album of remakes old songs of'94. Once again, verses in French enhance a direct message: "You think we are stupid because we speak in Breton language ... why this hatred? Like water and air, we love freedom" "Return to Britain" is an unforgettable album with three instrumentals and nine songs that reveal an artist too young in spirit and with a high quality creative level, which keeps Celtic solar spiral on -and-on for our pleasure । Constant movement, with the same freshness of his musical beginnings.
Author's note: Unfortunately I do ignore the Breton language, but it is noteworthy that the versions of the songs are edited in a trilingual version, and curiously the verses in French often differ from the verses in English and vice versa.

SUGGESTED ALBUMS: ALAN STIVELL’S “1 DOUAR” by Eliseo Mauas Pinto

SUGGESTED ALBUMS: ALAN STIVELL’S “1 DOUAR” by Eliseo Mauas Pinto

First of all I should confess that Stivell’s music had great influence on my decision to carry on the musical path into harpestry. He is one of my acknowledged “spiritual masters” along with Robin Williamson . Alan "Stivell" Cochevelou has always been a step forward on developing new musical based on a multi-instrumentation. Thanks to a development of his father who designed a so called Breton Harp in the mid-'30 and completed in April'53, Alan began to incorporate the Celtic harp in the Breton music with original arrangements and spread both the tradition of his people as that of other Celtic nations with the support of some record companies of the time, his example led to the formation of anthological bands as Malicorne, Gwendal, Try Yann, Lyonesse, among others. It should be noted that Alan Stivell was the first to experiment with harp contact microphones for early'70. Already in the'73 incorporates for the first time a Scottish Bagpipe to rock based band with bass, drums and guitar with the theme 'Ian Morrison's Reel' from the historical album "Chemins deTerre / Roads of the Earth" album of the Year as the famous mag 'Melody Maker', opening to a broad audience and fans of bands such as Steeleye Span and Fairport Convention, with a refined folk-rock sound. Let us remember his debut in'71 with the EP "Pop-plinn", the first composition Breton rock fusion on a pattern of traditional dance. Following in the footsteps of his father has designed an original electroacoustic harp with bronze strings built under his supervision by Michele Sangineto in Milan (in November'84) and electronic innovations by Lionel Gwirineg. As if this was not enough, also designed the first electric harp in transparent acrylic and Gothic design with pick-ups and magnetic crystals, finished by Tantra on September 84. Devotee of the technological developments he began to employ each one of them, synthesizers ,drum kits, sequencers, samplers, midi systems, and also has laid hands to new music trends, which have helped him in his long list of musical experiments as the 'Groove' (album "The Mist of Avalon" and "Brian Boru") and even the 'DJ Scratch' (album "Back to Breizh") With "1 DOUAR" / 1 EARTH, " Stivell returns to the concept of the" universal "and the" absolute ", embodied in his extensive album "Tir Na Nog - Celtic Symphony / Tir Na Nog -- Celtic Symphony ". “Of Breton nationality I am a citizen of the world. I try to express a borderless world, a world of exchanges, friction and miscegenation, but no name or unification, on the other hand there can be no question of birth control rather than where the differences persist. Why is the music of the Third Millennium is not one and diverse? I believe that the outcome of the various investigations will present a musical synthesis, a fusion of jazz, the music of Indian and other oriental music, from African music, from classical music and ancient, rock, the so-called contemporary music, of European folk music, and even some types of pop. " Like" Tir Na Nog, "" 1Douar "is divided by three separate issues in this case not by movements, but by a central track" A United Earth, 1 , 2 & 3 "with composer reciprocity in the form of march, waltz and ballad, as well as thematic similarity (if Parts 1 and 2)" The borders are only fossils of the past .... Between the two hells of uniformity and the division lies a trail passable. We're almost in the twenty-first century. One of the big problems is that we all have to live together. Does anybody want a solution consisting in all enclosed ghettos, with weapons in hand, as in the former Yugoslavia? Perhaps the solution can melt completely into a mold by becoming interchangeable and individuals numbered? Of course we must compare the different solutions to live between those two hells possible, find a system that does not restrict trade without borders, allowing the continuing various forms of culture and ways of thinking. In my album "1 Douar" I wanted to try this particular issue. The title and evokes a false paradox: the Earth, said Breton. If it is global (I wish the UN would be a real power and government that were not represented in it only states but all peoples of the world) can not elect or remove a language against the other: all belong to a common heritage, although nothing prevented among bilingualism institute a language of communication and the language of culture. I need both the world and Britain, the global and the local. It's what I want to express to continually jump between text Breton and some other language (French, Wolof, Arabic, Irish) The same goes for music, which comes and goes from my Celtic culture to other peoples across the musical genres . From childhood I was struck by the paradox of some similarities as great as the differences. Both the uniformity as the Balkanization of the entire planet would be hell. I see no solution other than the federalist for people to come see the third millennium without too much fear for their children. " In this opportunity Stivell experiments with the music of African and Middle East, no longer counting with 75 musicians as in "Tir Na Nog," but with the exception of figures such as the Senegalese singer Youssou N'Dour, Jim Kerr (Simple Minds vocalist) Paddy Moloney (piper of The Chieftains), and members of the new Afro Celt Sound System, the Welshman John Cale (Velvet Underground). Stivell does not think that this approach loses its Celtic roots, because "as popular music has always been open to other surrounding assimilating elements of these other events is what enriches and promotes." "1 Douar express my desires, my influences, my encounters with great artists today, an emotion that I hope to share in the play." It is noteworthy item 4 "Ensemble" structured on the "an dro" Breton traditional dance that recalls his earlier "Nine Bretons in Prison"-revamped version on his album "Again" with arabic arrangements for this occasion styled as in the album "No Quarter "From Jimmy Page and Robert Plant (ex-Led Zeppelin). The theme two, "The Report of the Human", includes a loop performed on original recordings of the Sisters Gowadec, singers of traditional folklore and admired by Stivell in his youth. Not being able to dispense with their militancy for a free Britain, celebrates its nationalism in track 7 "The Scots are right" based on the current political Scotsman: "They will show us where to go, and years ago and yesterday as the Celts will be free host wishes of equal freedom for its cousin-brother of Wales ", to feel that power in his next album" Back to Breizh. " This sample also includes field recordings of “ waulking songs” (working songs) in Scotland. Perhaps obeying to my own subjective impression I encounter in most of the remaining tracks a Stivell that employes styles already developed by others, the "Aet-on" style bases with Loreena Mc Kennitt, "Hope" emulating Mike Oldfield in the " Sounds of Distant Earth " with styles that refer to the band Enigma," Ever "with sounds reminiscent of U2 and guitar Frippertronic sounds (resource-developed by Robert Fripp of King Crimson). "One's Love" a solo work of Maire Brennan and bases with midi bagpipes , including the closure of the album takes us back to sounds already recorded in his previous "Harper du Nouvel Age / harps of the New Era" (Indie Award at USA'85 and official successor of the album Rebirth of the Celtic harp of'71 - work that would be instrumental to later Grammy Award) and "The MISTS of Avalon / The Mists of Avalon." In brief, "1 Douar" is a “must” album, but I recommend Celtic fans not to listen to it from a celtic ve (as with albums such as "Voyager" from "Mike Oldfield") but as , "the re-encounter with the tradition and on the contrary, research into new expressive forms." in Stivell's own words.

Martin Simpson - Making the Steel Strings Sing by Danny Carnahan

Martin Simpson - Making the Steel Strings Sing by Danny Carnahan
This Article appears as featured in Acoustic Guitar Magazine. All rights reserved by the author and posted under permission

When asked about the high-tech tricks he used to nail the sound on his new live concert CD, Martin Simpson justs laughs and suggests we talk instead about divine intervention.
"I went out on a 25-date tour intending to record every show under the best possible circumstances for a good live CD: DAT machine, tube mic preamps, the works. Then, after listening to what seemed like a thousand hours of tape, I just didn’t like any of it. So on the next tour I’m in Oxford and Tim Healey, the guy promoting the show said, ‘Do you mind if I record it?’ And I said, ‘No, of course not.’ So he put a metal cassette in a boombox, I sang into an SM-58 and plugged direct through a Highlander pickup. Later he sent it to me first as a cassette and then as a one-off CD and hounded me to listen to it, saying, ‘This is really good. I want to put this out.’ And I thought, ‘Oh God,’ but eventually I listened and thought it was a good gig, an amazingly good recording, good ambience, and why not?" He shrugs. "And what tickles me most is how it’ll slay the techies!"
Martin Simpson Live was released in Britain on the tiny Beautiful Jo label, then released in the U.S. in February by an enthusiastic Red House Records. It’s a good thing Red House is enthusiastic about Martin, because his artistic output is prodigious. Last year he and his wife and collaborator Jessica Ruby Simpson put out a CD with their Band of Angels (with another planned soon) and Martin is already working to complete his next studio production featuring, among others, David Lindley and members of the Malagasy band Tarika Sammy. And in his spare time lately he’s recorded and performed with Chinese pipa virtuoso Wu Man, David Hidalgo, Bob Brozman, and Indian guitar master Debashish Battacharya, and taped a series of Homespun teaching videos, just for starters.
Martin Simpson Live provides a terrific glimpse of how this transplanted Brit, now living in Santa Cruz, California, focuses into his music so intently while allowing melody and rhythm to explode in new and unexpected directions. On his vocal pieces, like his own haunting "Dreamtime," his passion is always barely contained. In his solo instrumentals he paints with a very broad emotional pallette.
Playing his Sobell Style One guitar, Martin chose a Gsus4 tuning (DCGDGD) to explore the nuances of the medley "Donal Og/My Generous Lover/The Coo-Coo Bird/Santa Cruz." The tuning allows him to play the first tune in dark minor, moving through mixolydian colorations, and finally snapping into his original composition "Santa Cruz" with a distinctly major feel.
"Like David Lindley and Ry Cooder, I’m a banjo maniac. I think that makes a huge difference to my approach to the guitar. By the time I was 13 I was out of standard tuning. If you take the third out of the tuning and replace it with a fourth or a second, it’s major or minor when you want it to be. And I’ve been getting really wacky, taking this idea further and further, cause the whole way of thinking is you’ve got roots and fifths and... something else. So I’ve been playing in ‘Klingon’ tuning: DADGAC, a suspended fourth with a flat 7 on the top—instant mixolydian—phenomenal for playing minor stuff because you go to the 5 and it’s a 5 minor chord. Nothing like a minor 5 to ruin one’s day... instant doom."
But on the four-tune medley on Live, what’s most striking is the way Martin stretches time to emphasize the meaning of lyrics that aren’t even there.
"I think that’s exactly what the best musician does." he insists. "My absolutely favorite musician that I’ve heard in years is Djivan Gasparyan, the Armenian duduk (flute) player. He can have tears rolling down my face in fifteen seconds. And what the guy’s doing is giving voice to the depth of human feeling without words. So playing "Donal Og" to evoke Irish syntax, I remember the sound of wordless Armenian or Blind Willie Johnson playing in... Ebonics [laughs]. There’s no doubt that what these people are doing is non-verbal verbal communication. That’s it for me. That’s what I want."

Influential Musicians - Andy Irvine (Ireland) – PART 2 - by Sergio Gonzalez -

This review was written by Sergio Gonzalez who took part of the first BRAN line-up and was former member of the local celtic folk band Kells. All rights reserved by the author and published under permission

Among his works summits, is an disc that he recorded with Paul Brady ( "Andy Irvine & Paul Brady © 1976) mainly comprises songs from the tradition of Northern Ireland. This work is considered a seminal album of folk inside. Also noteworthy is the work we did together with the Scots singer and guitarist Dick Gaughan. ( "Parallel Lines" © 1982)
In his solo career, there is a CD of special importance to the scene "Celtic" international day of our (curiously his only work that is not of Irish folk!), Although by the time they are published, not even know what ... This is "East Wind" (© 1992), who shot along the Irish piper Davy Spillane. Work that addresses from a very personal music of Eastern Europe. Andy falls in love with this music on a trip that took 18 months for the Balkans in his youth ( "then all went to India ... and I decided to try something different ..." - Review later). The idea of the disc was playing music instruments Irish Balkans, the Balkans and too modern. The producer of that work was Bill Whelan, a famous Irish musician and arranger. That name may go unnoticed, but surely many people know the dance spectacle "Riverdance" and its sequel "The Lord of the Dance". The composer of this piece is the same Bill Whelan and in subsequent reports, Bill admitted to "East Wind" as one of its main inspirations. Listening to the album it shows clearly that this was so.
His current band Patrick Street was born when a producer suggested bringing together four "superstars" of Irish folk and make a tour of the USA. The musicians in question were the Accordion Jackie Daly, the fiddler Kevin Burke and guitarist Arty McGlynn and Andy Irvine. The tour and the chemistry between the musicians was so good that they decided to form a band. While all members have individual projects, already have 9 CDs released under the name of Patrick Street.
Described by Dónal Lunny (ex Planxty, former Bothy Band and inseparable companion map) as a "tireless traveler," Andy their lives permanently 60 years traveling all over the world, playing with his band Patrick Street, with other musicians or completely alone and Also giving workshops on Irish bouzouki or Mandolin, two tools that run with a skill rarely seen.




DISCOGRAPHY

Sweeney's Men: Sweeney's Men 1968

Planxty:
Planxty 1972
The Well Below The Valley 1973
Cold Blow And The Rainy Night 1974
After The Break 1979
The Woman I Loved So Well 1980
Words & Music 1983
Planxty Live (CD y DVD) 2004

Patrick Street:
Patrick Street 1986
No. 2 Patrick Street 1988
Irish Times 1989
All In Good Time 1992
Corner Boys 1996
Made in Cork 1997
Live From Patrick Street 1999
Compendium 2000
Street Life 2003
On the Fly 2007

Solo Albums & Collaborations:
Andy Irvine / Paul Brady 1976
Rainy Sundays... Windy Dreams 1980
Parallel Lines 1982
Rude Awakening 1991
East Wind 1992
Rain On The Roof 1996
Way Out Yonder 2000
Mozaik Live from the Powerhouse 2004
Changing Trains 2007

Influential Musicians - Andy Irvine (Ireland) – PART 1 - by Sergio Gonzalez -

This review was written by Sergio Gonzalez who took part of the first BRAN line-up and was former member of the local celtic folk band Kells. All rights reserved by the author and published under his kind permission

Called by the press reviewers as "the tradition itself." Virtuoso instrumentalist, singer and songwriter, Andy Irvine kept his reputation intact through to the nearly 40-year career as an artist in the forefront of Irish Folk.
Born in London on June 14, 1942, of Scots father and Irish mother, followed an early taste of his mother by acting and appeared in some films and took part in plays until 1964. Year in which overturned completely to the music. At about age 15 had discovered the folk singer from the United States, Woody Guthrie and then never lost the interest in folk music. Specially: Ireland.
Since his first group "Sweeney's Men" in the mid-60, passing through the huge success of "Planxty" of the 70's (practically there is no Irish folk band these days that is not influenced by them), until today group of super-stars "Patrick Street" and his solo career, Andy is in the icon of traditional music and a benchmark for new musicians

It was with the band Sweeney's Men that the bouzouki made his first appearance in the mid-60's, in the Irish music. Johnny Moynihan (one of its members) brought it as a "souvenir" from a trip to Greece (the bouzouki is a stringed instrument with four double chords, of Greek origin). Andy quickly adopted it as its own, changing the pitch (G, D, A, D) as Johnny Moynihan did, in order to fit better with Irish music. It did so knowing Dónal Lunny, who also chosed it as quickly as their main instrument. Since then the "Irish Bouzouki" was accepted completely within the traditional music of Ireland. More over , its use has expanded in all countries with Celtic roots of Europe and North America. In Spain, for example, its use is almost "mandatory" in the folk bands such as Carlos Nuñes, or Milladoiro Luar na Lubre, in Galicia, as well as Llan of Cubel or Felpeyu in Asturias. (these last two bands, are heavily influenced by the Irish stlyes)
In the short period of 3 years, the unique sound and totally new to the Planxty era, won fans around the world. Their first three albums ( "Planxty" © 1972, "The Well bellow the Valley" © 1973 and "Cold Blow and the rainy night" © 1974) were nominated as"Folk Album of the Year" by the prestigious magazine Melody Maker. It might be said, that the impact of Planxty for the Irish folk, was similar to the one of The Beatles in pop music. The transgresor spirit of the band captured the attention of the young Irish, who until then almost completely ignored their folk music The group was made foolproof: the songs performed by Andy as Christy Moore, (the two vocalists in the group) were arranged with subtle and complex web of strings (mandolin, bouzouki and guitar) by Andy, and Dónal Lunny, in the way not lose its traditional character and earning a new life. In turn, instrumentals (Dances: Jigs, reels, hornpipes) were interpreted by Liam O'Flynn with bagpipes Irish (uilliean pipe) and Matt Molloy on flute (current member of The Chieftains, who joined Planxty on their 4th LP ) receiving similar treatment.
They conveyed an energy very close to the one of a nowadys rock band... but using almost the same instruments that were used three centuries ago. Since then the Irish folk music found a new path, which continues till today.

MAUAS PINTO/BOLLANI -THE "NEW CELTIC" PROJECT

It was on October 2006 when I was introduced to Gabriel Bollani a neighbour musician who has the same passion for virtual developments as meDue to a proposal of a local label about recording a chill out album, our duet raised as part of this experimental project intending to create a New Celtic approach to traditional songs based on the fusion of celtic instruments like irish harp, whistles, bagpipes, bodhran, assorted guitars with other virtual sounds and instruments. Basically our intention is to work as a duet with guest vocalists.On this song the vocals were recorded by Patricio Villanueva, the lead singer of Chaneton, he owns a unique voice similar to Peter Gabriel's, endowing thus an outstanding touch to our new version of this song.
It was on December of 2006 when wepublished our 1st demo cut: "She Moved through the Fair" on the local music magazine "Mellotron" which is published along with a CD sampler. Presently we have recorded all 13 tracks of this new work which we hope to finish soon in order to share it with you.
You may download for free this song demo from our Soundclick Band Page, or from the Elven Lair google group files.