Listing Details
| ID: | 918 |
| Title: | Music Road |
| URL: | http://www.musicroad.blogspot.com/ |
| Category: | Entertainment: Music |
| Description: | Folk, roots, country, and Celtic music from many different neighbourhoods, and sometimes, from behind the scenes. |
| Mary Black: Stories from the Steeples - Sat, 04 Feb 2012 11:34:00 +0000 |
Back in the 1980s when Irish singer Mary Black releasedher first solo album, she chose contemporary and traditional folk song in English, a hint of country, a bit of irish tradition, “and it didn’t really tell people what I was about!” Black recalls, laughing. Yet, in a way it did: several decades on, Black's latest recordingStories From the Steeples still holds that mix of contemporary and traditional music, of good stories well told, and that fine voice which marked her first solo album and has been part of all her music over the years. With a storyteller's instinct and that distinctive voice, Black offers a gathering of songs that explore change, reflection, celebration, love -- and murder. Indeed there’s a murder ballad here. Marguerite and the Gambler. Black says she was drawn to it at first because the story begins in the same way as the traditional Irish song Anachie Gordon, with a woman drawn to a man her father becomes set against, but,,Black points out “It ends in quite a different way!” It holds a story that will keep you listening, and a melody that will stay with you, as well. In the first of three collaborations with guests on the album, Black joins up with Imelda May for an intertwining of voices that well suits the vivid images of journeys and returns on Mountains to the Sea. A quieter journey is the subject of The Night Was Dark and Deep, set as a vignette of a moment on a night car trip painting a picture of a childhood memory. Just as it is with such memories, in the song not everything is explained. Healing, hope, resignation, and facing change all play their parts in varied ways in the songs Faith in Fate and Steady Breathing. Black and Finbar Furey join up for the lovely relaxed celebration of Walking With My Love, while Black adds understated grief and grace to the anti war song All the Fine Young Men. Black’s children, Danny, Roisin, and Conor O’Reilly, are each involved in various tracks across the album. Al three join in on a song which asks powerful questions (and which Danny wrote), The Night Is on Our Side. Lighthouse Light draws together ideas of journeys, change, and the continuance of love, in a graceful song that is a once straightforward and complex, and makes a fine piece for Black and Janis Ian to share in the singing. Songwriters new and time tested, emotions that last, stories well told and music that gets to the heart: those things, have been hallmarks of Mary Black's music across the years, and withStories From the Steeples she takes the next right steps along that path. Come along for a listen.you may also wish to see Music Road: Reflections with Mary Black Music Road: new song from Mary Black  |
| Celtic Connections 2012: the music continues - Tue, 31 Jan 2012 06:02:00 +0000 |
Celtic Connections, in Glasgow, Scotland, is one of Europe’s and the world’s premiere winter festivals, bringing hundreds of artists for sharing of tune and song, in venues ranging from a rock club to a cathedral, from a quiet song session in a concert of the concert hall building to a grand performance onthat same buildnig’s main stage. As the music cotinues, here’s a bit of what all that looks like     artists in these images include Archie Fisher, Caroline Herring memebr of the Lothina nd Border Police Pipe Band June Tabor, and Corinna Hewat. photographs were made with permission of the artists and the festival, and are copyrighted. thank you for respecting that. you may also wish to see Music Road: Caroline Herring: Golden Apples of the Sun Music Road: Scottish music a different way: The Unusual Suspects Music Road: Celtic Connections 2011: images, part two  |
| music and telling the long story - Mon, 30 Jan 2012 10:06:00 +0000 |
Telling the long story, the story that moves through laughter love, grief, loss, change, faith,. connection, friends, spouses children and grandchildren, peace, war, home, and travel: that’s how we live our lives. Your story won’t sound exactly like mine; the threads we weave of our experiences will be of differing weight and color. There will be things in common, though, even if we do not have the same experiences or share the same views of what happens in our lives. You might find a bit of a laugh in the wry twist of ending in the song Johnny Be fair, from Ireland, and a fine celebration of holidays in the American West in Two Step ‘round the Christmas Tree. You could join in the anthems of We Shall Overcome, Bandera del Sol, and We’ll Sing It All Over. You could have fun teaching your children Froggy Went a-Courting and Mother Will You Let Me Go to the Fair? There are thoughts about the relationships between parents and children in songs including I’ll Go Too and All the Ways You Wander, and if romantic love is what you’re wanting to talk of or listen to, there are buckets of songs on that, among them My Love Is Like a Red Red Rose, and, if you look at it that way, Aanachie Gordon and Bay of Biscay The long story as told in moments, from the immediate moment of a lively jig and a slow air, songs of faith within and without church doors. songs of hope and peace -- and connection. Music is a way for us to tell the long stories of our lives. Music helps us tell and listen to these stories, to connect through the differences, to celebrate the connections and the threads that pull through. Music to go along with these ideas Music Road: India to Indiana: Everything Is Everywhere from Carrie Newcomer Music Road: Eddi Reader, Emily Smith, Robert Burns Music Road: Cathie Ryan: teaching tradition  |