How often it has been said that there's a bit o' the Irish in us all . . . an expression that's apparently true of the Celts in general, if current music charts are any indication.
Billboard's latest ranking of the "Top World Music Albums" shows how popular Irish and, more broadly, Celtic tunefulness is at the moment - given focus, no doubt, by St. Patrick's Day. Grouped in the top 10, along with albums derived from such locales as Africa and Spain, you'll find the latest music by the Chieftains, Ireland's keepers of the flame; Canada's Loreena McKennitt, a pan-Celtic experimentalist - and no fewer than four Irish/Celtic anthologies.Here's a look at couple of those collections.
VARIOUS ARTISTS; "Celtic Legacy: A Global Celtic Journey" (Narada). * * * 1/2
Two milleniums ago Celtic peoples spanned Europe and established cultural outposts that survive still in the British Isles. "Their legacy persists and their descendants continue to flourish artistically . . . , and no tradition has been more resilient and resourceful during tides of emigration and displacement than Celtic music," Earle Hitchner writes in the introduction to this attractive anthology.
Avoid the tendency to circumscribe Celtic references to Ireland - "Celtic Legacy" shows just how expansively, yet accurately, that umbrella can spread. The program includes musicians from the Emerald Isle, for sure, but also from Scotland, Wales, Brittany, Canada's Cape Breton Island, the United States and even Spanish Galicia.
Clocking in at well over an hour, the album spins a most enjoyable mood, steeped in tradition yet not dictated by it.
The sequence begins strongly with instrumental tunes like American William Coulter's guitar-and-flute melody "Einini (Little Birds)" and "Douce Mousitomanie," by Orion - a group from Belgium employing such instruments as piano, accordion, fiddle, viola and guitar. Vocals play an important role too, in such songs as the all-male Welsh band 4 yn y Bar's dynamic "Dacw `Nghariad" and the female-voiced Scottish waulking song "Dheanainn Sugradh," by the Poozies. The epic of the set is William Jackson's "The Tree," a simple, entrancing melody starring the Scots harp, with an array of instruments in support.
There are 16 tracks in all, and these are just among the most striking in a box of gems. The liner notes conveniently include addresses for the featured performers - and no doubt many newly enthralled fans will be tracking down more music by many of them.
Narada, essentially a contemporary instrumental label, ventured earlier into this territory with "Celtic Odyssey," which itself had incredible musical high points. "Celtic Legacy" makes a fine companion - and, if anything, mixes the traditional and the contemporary more effectively.
VARIOUS ARTISTS; "The Celtic Heartbeat Collection" (Atlantic). * * * 1/2
This sampler actually trumpets the debut of a new label, Celtic Heartbeat, a subsidiary of Atlantic promoting the music of Ireland - folk tunes; modern ventures that stir jazz and pop stylings into a traditional pot; vocals with an "American" country tinge. Celtic Heartbeat obviously will not be dwelling solely upon music of the past, planning instead to show the diverse directions Irish melody-makers are taking today.
Again, most listeners will find nary a coal among the diamonds.
The album has a dozen selections. Composer Bill Whelan instantly mesmerizes with "Caracena," which begins as a folk instrumental then branches out with an orchestra - serving perfectly as a overture to that which follows. Frances Black performs the beautiful, bravely sad "All the Lies That You Told Me." The internationally popular band Clannad is represented by "Harry's Game" (which should be familiar to many; originally a theme for a TV series, the song was also used in the film "Patriot Games" and in ads for Volkswagen). Eleanor Shan-ley is in strong voice on "Road to Glory," a folk-rock anthem reminiscent at times of Joan Baez. Perhaps representative of the collection's hybrid sound is "The Storm," by Moving Hearts, which opens traditionally, then evolves into a rhythmic, beat-driven jazz-rock exercise.
In time for St. Patrick's Day, Celtic Heartbeat has already released its first batch of recordings. These feature Anuna, an intriguing choral-oriented group; Frances Black's "Talk to Me"; fiddler Maire Breatnach's "The Voyage of Bran"; Patrick Cassidy's "The Children of Lir"; Alec Finn's "Blue Shamrock"; and "Themes," a survey of music by Clannad that has been used in television and films.
Ratings four stars (* * * * ), excellent; three stars (* * * ), good; two stars (* * ), fair; one star (* ), poor, with 1/2 representing a higher, intermediate grade.