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Introductory Celtic Music Albums & Celtic Collections

Updated March 27, 1999

Here are a few albums that are excellent samplers of traditional Celtic music. This is a great way to get exposure to a wide variety of Celtic traditions, groups, and individual musicians in a very cost effective way.

Collections of Different Types of Celtic Music:

	Joyful Noise -- Celtic Favorites from Green Linnet (1998, Green Linnet). Nothing new here, but it is a two CD set for the price of one, and an excellent bargain sampler of great music particularly for those just beginning to get into this music. Reflecting Green Linnet's artists, the music is probably 75% Irish and Irish-American, 25% Scottish, with unfortunately no Cape Breton or Galician elemnts and onl one Breton tune.
	Green Linnet's Twentieth Anniversary Collection(Green Linnet 1996), a 2 CD set of 38 tracks for the price of about $15. The Green Linnet albums contain mostly Irish music, with a few Scottish and Brittany albums, but only rarely Cape Breton music. Still, it is a great bargain.
	Celtic Tides - A Musical Odyssey (1998, Putamayo. This comes as either a 50 minute video of the TV show made for the Canadian Broadcasting Corp., an audio CD, or a book. The CD is the best option. This collection features Cape Breton musicians (Mary Jane Lamond, Ashley MacIsaac, Natalie MacMaster) more than most collections. Other musicians included are the Irish musicians (Mairead ni Mhonaigh, Clannad, Seamus Eagan, Mary Black, the Chieftains) and Scottish musicians (Dougie MacLean, Karen Matheson, Old Blind Dogs). The narrators of the video are Heather, Raylene, and Cookie Rankin from Cape Breton. It's generally nice to hear the performers' thoughts, but there is so much crammed into 50 minutes of the video that there is very little music wihout someone talking over it. There are some interesting short clips of live performances (taken from oher shows), but this is basically a series of interviews. Your money is better spent getting the companion CD. No new tracks here, but it is a very good sample of music from he diverse artists mentioned above.
	Women of the World - Celtic (1995, Putamayo 120-2) An excellent collection of Irish and Scottish women singers with some of their best songs.
	Women of the World - Celtic II (1997, Putamayo 134-2) This album contains some great tracks by Cape Bretoners Natalie MacMaster and Mary Jane Lamond; Scottish singer Karen Matheson, and Irish-American fiddler Eileen Ivers.
	Celtic Colors of the World (Allegro ALL COTW 2) The biggest appeal of this CD is that its only $4.98! And for that price its a terrific bargain sampler of 11 tracks from 11 groups. Cathy Jordan's absolutely gorgeous version of "Ar Eirinn Ni Neosfainn Ce Hi" from Dervish's At the End of the Day album is worth $5 by itself. In addition, you get tracks from Susan McKeown, Cape Breton's unique Puirt a Baroque, Irish accordionist Brendan Begley, Scottish fiddler Johnny Cunningham, a Welsh song from Julie Murphy and Annie Ebrel and wonderful track of Irish music from The Smoky Chimney by Gerry Harrington, Eoghan O'Sullivan and Paul De Grae.

Introductory Albums of Music of the Specific Traditions:

I have many more suggestions of introductory albums located at the beginning of the pages on each specific type of traditional celtic music. These links will take you right to those recommendations.

Irish
Scottish
Cape Breton
English & Other Celtic (Welsh, Brittany, Galithea)

Please send me your comments or suggestions: jim@sfcelticmusic.com