25 years ago, Wendy Newton got hooked on traditional Celtic
\nmusic and started Green Linnet Records in the back of a house in
\nNew Canaan, Connecticut. With this one act, the entire history of
\nCeltic traditional music in the United States was changed, and in
\nmany ways Green Linnet is solely responsible for the fact that you
\ncan find the stuff in record stores today. Earthshattering perhaps
\nit wasn’t, but groundbreaking it was, and it’s hard to identify any
\nother single label that has had such an effect on the American
\nmusic scene.<\/p>\n
I suppose it’s only logical that Green Linnet decided to
\ncelebrate this occasion by bringing out a double disc of selected
\nmusic from the label’s history, much as they did to celebrate their
\n20th anniversary. (I have that disc too, and perhaps I’ll review it
\nhere sometime.) And I admit to being glad they did. If you need a
\nsingle disc to start on traditional Celtic music, this is the one
\nyou want to pick up.<\/p>\n
Divided into two parts, this is really two CDs in one. The first
\ndisc, 1976-1996, covers Green Linnet’s first twenty years with a
\nsweeping summary of Irish, Scottish, Breton, and Galacian
\ntraditional music, as well as some more modern takes on older
\ntunes. The selections are well-chosen, a nice variety of
\nnote-for-note authentic and more whimsical takes on the music.
\nSpecial note should be taken of a few truly excellent tracks, most
\nnotably Phil Cunningham of Silly Wizard and his hook-laden “Ceilidh
\nFunk” (1989), Altan’s ethereal “Dulaman” (1993), and Kornog’s “Ton
\nBale Mur Ha Dans”, a rich Breton melody originally recorded live in
\n1983.<\/p>\n
The second CD, 1996-2001, covers recordings made since the 20th
\nanniversary collection, and it has some joys as well. These
\nrecordings contain many more less traditional elements, including
\nthe Romanian tinge on House Band’s “Risipiti\/Mairtin O’Connor” and
\nthe African percussion on Old Blind Dogs’ “Forfar Sodger”, but they
\nall work. Of the more traditional melodies, Liz Carroll’s “Lost In
\nThe Loop”, Lunasa’s “Autumn Child\/Heaton Chapel”, and the
\nspine-tingling rich voice of Niamh Parsons singing “An Paistin
\nFionn” are highlights of a consistent and excellent look at both
\nthe changing face of Celtic music and of Green Linnet Records.<\/p>\n
The production on the CD is excellent, the light touch needed
\nfor this sort of music evident throughout both discs. The clarity
\ncontrasts well with the unadorned style needed to not produce the
\nlife out of fiddle and pipes. On a minor but interesting note, the
\npackaging is very attractive, distinctive and comprehensive with a
\ntrack by track expanded listing of original recordings and artist
\nmini-bios. A very minor argument; the tracks seem much closer
\ntogether than on some CDs. I found myself referring to the display
\nwindow on the CD player often, to make sure I knew what track we
\nwere on again.<\/p>\n
If you buy a single CD of Celtic traditional music this year,
\nmake it this one. Celebrate the label that brought it to America,
\nand enjoy this snapshot of the past and present. Here’s looking
\nforward to the six disc box set for the fiftieth anniversary.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":18,"featured_media":28064,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"artist":[5827],"rating":[5646],"class_list":["post-39458","review","type-review","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","artist-various-artists","rating-rating-a"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/39458","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=39458"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/39458\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/28064"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=39458"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"artist","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/artist?post=39458"},{"taxonomy":"rating","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rating?post=39458"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}