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From: clive@druri.UUCP (StewardCN)
Newsgroups: net.music.folk
Subject: Re: Celtic Harp Inquiry
Message-ID: <1130@druri.UUCP>
Date: Mon, 15-Jul-85 15:29:21 EDT
Article-I.D.: druri.1130
Posted: Mon Jul 15 15:29:21 1985
Date-Received: Wed, 17-Jul-85 07:00:01 EDT
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You may want to check out Alan Stivell, who's likely the best known
practitioner.

He has a lot of albums out; probably the best one to start with is
Renaissance of the Celtic Harp.  I think it's his best effort; it's
sweet and has mystery; most people really seem to like it.

Many of the others are concert recordings, which tend to sound uneven and
maybe bombastic; maybe it has to do with the enthusiasm of the friends he
always seems to invite to play with him, and his interest in linking
rock and (pre-)tradition.  Which seems to have its points, though, on
stage.

I saw him in concert a few years ago (rare in US), and many people
left at the intermission.  Yet for those who stayed, he managed to
turn the thing into a kind of rave-up, getting people dancing 
while he played the pied piper with one of those ancient reed horns which
sound something like a single bagpipe chanter.

Another path, and maybe offering wider sense of language in the experience,
is to listen to Kevin Burke and Michael O'Domhnaill.  Theirs is Irish (and
sometimes Breton) fiddle and Gaelic vocal music with a great difference of
sensitivity, and very individual guitar accompaniment.