Hello all!
I’m new to Celtic music and have got the bug bad - thanks to seeing a band called Lunasa. I have all of their CD’s, and am learning the low whistle. BUT…I’d love some names of good Celtic CD’s to put on my Christmas list. (I prefer non-vocal music.) What would you suggest?
Thanks!
Dervish and Danu…are two of my favourites…there are some songs but delivered very nicely in the Traditional way…Danu has an excellent DVD One Night Stand (a top prezzo to buy for youself !! )..Dervish also has DVD’s of live performances…both bands have great fluters/whistlers..
Philippe Varlet and his company Celtic Grooves has a vast selection of Irish/Celtic music and he’s a very helpful bloke…
Lunasa’s CD was the first CD I ever bought and I now have over 250 !! Lets hope the bug bites you as deeply as it has bitten me !!..I’m happy whenever he bites…
Welcome to the Tradition…weedie…
Definately the Joanie Madden’s CD’s: “A whistle on the wind” and “Song Of the Irish Whistle I & II”.
Welcome!
Let’s not leave out Joe McKenna’s The Irish Low Whistle.
Many others will be posted here for sure. We all have our favorites. 
I also recommend Danu as mentioned above. Also, Cherish the Ladies although both groups include some singing as well.
MTGuru posted a Top 10 recently of whistle albums and I couldn’t agree more with his list:
Welcome Brinn,
‘Celtic music’ you say? I’ll jump to the conclusion (because I am Irish!) that you mean Irish Celtic music.
Why don’t you give yourself a real treat and buy a few CD’s of Ceili music or session music instead of CD’s which feature single artists like Joannie Madden etc (good though she is) and hear how the music is really played.
I have a CD titled ‘Irish Ceili, Traditional Dance Music Of Ireland’ which features ‘Brendan Mulhaire’s Ceili band’ and the world famous ‘Bridge Ceili band’. If you search for ‘ARANCD 609’ this will give you the album. It is a real foot tapper, and great to play along to if you are fast enough.
You could also try www.soundsirish.com and try searching for CD’s there.
Here is a great album of session music that I have that is also on their site http://www.soundsirish.com/search/?pid=474. The album has a button squeeze box on the cover and the album is called ‘Traditional Irish Sessions’
Good luck.
Oh, and another fantastic album is ‘Ragus’, it is the soundtrack from their live show of Irish music, dance and song from the Aran Islands.
Try www.ragustheshow.com to find the album details.
You know, for a sort of “gateway” to real traditional Irish music, I don’t think you can do better than Music at Matt Molloy’s. It’s very approachable for people who don’t know much about the music, with a variety of performers and approaches; yet it has plenty of good, hard core traditional stuff in it, and loads of tunes well worth learning.
For more bands like Lunasa yet “Celtic” rather than Irish, the first two choices that jump to mind for me are Scotland’s Old Blind Dogs (I’d particularly recommend the albums Fit? and The World’s Room and Newfoundland’s A Crowd of Bold Sharemen (only one album, but they’ve got half a concert on-line for free). Both those groups also feature songs; Old Blind Dogs have a decent amount of nice low-whistle playing on the albums I mentioned.
Now that’s what I like…a loooonng Christmas list! I loved everyone’s input…thank you very much!
Good thing there’s still lots of room on my iPod. (Not that I’ve been snooping…but I know some of these ideas are being purchased for me right now!)
Also, I love the self-titled Kells album. It can be purchased on iTunes among other places.
The Ceili band music you can download on the comhaltas site is good too for getting the spirit of the music, although I have to say that a lot of Ceili band music sounds a bit like the stuff they play in old elementary school lunch rooms for the senior center crowd.
Brinn,
Cillian Valley and his brother Niall did a wonderful instrumental CD called “Callan Bridge” that also features John Doyle, Paul Meehan and Caoimhín Valley. Wonderful whistle, pipe and concertina. It’s available from the same label as Lúnasa. Check out “Muireann’s Jig” and “The Humours Of Tullycrine.”
You can order here:
http://compassrecords.com/catalog/product_info.php?products_id=50
If you haven’t heard Planxty, you should check them out. i know it’s old and not all whistle, maybe even too ballady for some, but it truly is amazing stuff with some amazing musicianship. I literally owe my burning desire to play the pipes to this band… so maybe you might not want to listen to them, lol, unless they give you a whoa of a whole other sort.
Anyway, though, i’m new to Irish Trad too but know that planxty really is amazing and that they have some very beautiful music.