What are your favourite new CDs of (roughly) the last year or 18 months? I’m curious to know what you liked. Please don’t list reissue CDs; perhaps we can do them separately. Old music issued recently for the first time counts. Here is my list (in no particular order). It’s possible that a reissue might have slipped in by mistake, but I’m really just curious to know what good music is being released for the first time. Obviously our lists will reflect our different tastes, no harm in that, as well as what is currently being issued—I love blues, soul and gospel but couldn’t think of anything to include that wasn’t a reissue.
Tom Waits — Orphans
Noel Hill — The Irish Concertina Two
Various — Rogues Gallery (Sea Chanteys and Pirate songs)
The Raineys — Self Titled
Roswell Rudd and the Mongolian Buryat Band — Blue Mongol
Arcade Fire — Funeral
Charlie Parker and Dizzie Gillespie — Town Hall NY City July 22 1945
Thelonious Monk Quartet with John Coltrane — At Carnegie Hall
Nic Jones — Game Set Match
Kitty Hayes and Peter Laban — They’ll Be Good Yet
Brid O’Donahue — Tobar An Duchais
Richard Thompson — 1,000 years of Popular Music (CD and DVD)
I’ll limit myself to the diddly music and from that the music from the West. I don’t actually buy a lot of CDs but these I liked a lot:
Breda Keville : The Hop Down, Junior Crehan’s The Last House in Ballymakea and The Raineys from the past year.
Brid’s as well ofcourse but 18 months old now so we could slip Claire Keville, Eithne D and John Weir and The Thing Itself on as well I suppose which were all launched during the Willie week of 2005.
There are a few to look forward too as well and if the Martin Hayes/Denis Cahill gig with Bill Frisell leads to a recording there’s immense potential for very interesting music. Who knows.
I love Bill Frisell’s playing; one or two records featuring him almost made my list. Can’t quite imagine what he’d do with Hayes and Cahill though. But so often I say that when I buy one of his records only to wonder afterwards what my misgivings were based on.
Nothing wrong with discussing suggestions, even if the CDs don’t yet exist. I just think threads like this can be very useful for people looking for new things to inspire them. By not limiting it strictly to a year, we won’t miss stuff that we were perhaps a bit slow in noticing.
Up South - Fred Morrison
Debatable Lands - Kathryn Tickell
Auga de Maio/Castellum Honesti/Jacobus Magnus - Milladoiro
Susana Seivane - Susana Seivane
Selkie Dancers - Haggerdash
As My Heart is - Julie Fowlis
Simple Tricks - Angus Lyon & Rauri Campbell
Song of The Irish Whistle - Joannie Madden
Lyra Celtica - Lyra Celtica
By Land and Sea - Pauline Cato & Tom McConville
The Dusty Miller - Connor, Gay & Sean McKeon
Looking at the Past - Dave Gibb
Nice selection David, though some are ones I’ve had for years (By Land And Sea, Debateable [sic] Lands and Susana Seivane). The last of those is incredibly uplifting - it even makes cleaning the upstairs on a Monday morning pleasurable if I turn the volume up loud enough!
I actually won the Kathryn Tickell one in a Radio Cornwall competition run by John The Fish (anyone else ever come across the bearded John? ). It was the first time I ever heard my name read out on the wireless! When the CD arrived, it had stamped all over the front “Demonstration copy - not for resale.”
I just remembered that Gay McKeon was playing in Hughes’ Bar in Dublin when flanum took us there at Easter. I knew his playing from Christy’s '70s album “Iron Behind The Velvet,” which also had great contributions from Noel Hill and Tony Linnane playing some of the best stuff you’ll ever hear.
Cheers, David. I do like it and I’ll investigate. Have you got the Skyedance Live CD with Alastair Fraser and a host of Galician musicians? That was a brilliant collaboration. I got that from eBay for four quid!
She’s drop-dead gorgeous, always was and always will be. I wonder if I could get my missus to wear jeans like that. What fabulous, uplifting stuff. You’ve made me pour myself a glass of Glenmorangie Portwood finish now, you devil you!
Not sure if all of these have been released in the last 18 or so months, but I heard them all for the first time in the last 18 months, anyways…
Caetano Veloso–Cê (For God’s sake, buy it!)
Julie Fowlis–Mar A Tha Mo Cridhe
The Go-Betweens–That Striped Sunlight Sound (CD + live DVD from the best band you’ve never heard of)
David Power–My Love Is In America
Téada–Inné Amárach (the DVD gets a bit too po-faced for me, though)
Saint Etienne–Tales From Turnpike House
Mill A-h Uile Rud–Ceàrr (Old-school punk…In Scottish Gaelic)
Arto Lindsay–Salt
Karine Polwart–Scribbled In Chalk (Terminal Star is one of the cheeriest songs about death ever)
Things high on the list to hear next:
Bellevue Rendezvous (Scottish trio of fiddle, nykelharpa & bouzouki–awesome stuff!)
The Raineys
Allan MacDonald–Dastirum
Marcas Ó Murchu–Turas Ceoil
I think my favourite album I bought recently was John Doyle’s ‘Wayward Son’. I can’t wait for him to bring out more. ‘In Play’ with Liz Carroll was also a great purchase. Also the Solas 10th Anniversary reunion gig CD / DVD which has done wonders to pique my 4 year old’s interest in different instruments.
Saw John a couple of weeks ago with Anna Massie at Celtic Connections and the pair of them blew me away, a truly fantastic gig.
Dave
Edit: I just realised I thoroughly violated the rules for this thread. Sorry. Removed offending text.
No need to stick strictly to the guidelines, Dave. The only reason for having them is that, if we stay with recent CDs, and enough people contribute, the thread will be a useful reference for people looking for something new to listen to and wanting suggestions. There are plenty of unrestricted ‘best CD’ threads. I think a lot of us maybe go for a period not listening to new stuff and, when we decide to catch up, it’s useful to have a guide to what other people have been enjoying.
I wish more people would make suggestions, even if it’s just the one or two CDs and even if the styles aren’t necessarily what a majority would like. It wasn’t meant to be an exercise in flaunting knowledge of a wide range of recent releases but a sharing of opinions and knowledge.
). It was the first time I ever heard my name read out on the wireless! When the CD arrived, it had stamped all over the front “Demonstration copy - not for resale.” 
What fabulous, uplifting stuff. You’ve made me pour myself a glass of Glenmorangie Portwood finish now, you devil you! 