I’m not sure what precisely to
\ncall<\/i> Margaret Davis’ music. The back of the CD
\nPrincess Of Flowers<\/i> says ‘file under Celtic World Music’,
\nbut that’s not quite right. Davis is attached to the northern
\nCalifornia filk music scene, but this isn’t filk, either. She
\ndoesn’t call it anything at all, merely dedicating the CD to ‘my
\nfellow seekers of magic and the fantastic’. Let’s call it
\n‘Celtic\/Medieval retro’ and be done with it. It’s not the most
\naccessible musical form in the world, but what the heck; if
\naccessibility was required for stuff we review on “The Daily
\nVault,” Chris Thelen’s death metal collection would be gathering
\ndust.<\/p>\n
That said, this is an
\nexcellent<\/i> piece of work. Davis is a brilliant harp player
\nand an ethereal vocalist, somewhat similar to Loreena McKennitt but
\nwithout McKennitt’s gothic-angst overtones, and Kristoph Klover
\nprovides solid instrumental support throughout, whether it be
\nguitar, 12-string, bass, mandola, or backing vocals. Guest
\nmusicians like Kris Yenney, Shira Kammen, and David Miles add to
\nthe fun. It’s not for everyone – 14th century medieval troubadour
\nand traditional Scots ballads are an acquired taste – but for those
\nit is for, Celtic music fans and closet SCA members alike, this is
\nwell done<\/i>.<\/p>\n
Standout tracks include the opening “Princess Of Flowers”
\n(with its soaring vocal intro and sweet harp line, this could have
\na dance beat laid behind it and be played for trance music – and
\nanyone who would try that should be beaten with a sackbut); the
\nspectacular recorder line of “I Once Loved A Lad”; the chiming,
\nhaunting wire-strung harp of “Tha Mi Sigth”; the brilliant
\ninstrumentation of “Chanson De La Mariee”; and the excellent
\nadaption of the Scottish “The Boatman”.<\/p>\n
There are very few miscues on this CD. I wasn’t overly fond of
\n“Thrice Toss These Oaken Ashes”, but that was more stylistic than
\nanything else; it wasn’t anything Davis did, it was the song
\nitself. In all, Davis should be proud of this work. It’s a CD where
\nthe artist herself and her musicians didn’t do
\nanything<\/i> wrong, and very few people can say that. If you
\nlike this genre of music, get yourself a copy of Margaret Davis’
\nPrincess Of Flowers<\/i>. You won’t regret it.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":18,"featured_media":27811,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"tags":[],"artist":[7492],"rating":[5646],"class_list":["post-39194","review","type-review","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","artist-margaret-davis","rating-rating-a"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/39194","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/review"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/18"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=39194"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/39194\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/27811"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=39194"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=39194"},{"taxonomy":"artist","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/artist?post=39194"},{"taxonomy":"rating","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rating?post=39194"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}