Dana Fillhart
Supporting Actor
- Joined
- Feb 8, 1999
- Messages
- 977
As anybody who has ever clicked on the links in my sig might have guessed, I have a strong love of Celtic music. I've been an ardent listener of this genre since 1989, and it came to me in a roundabout, random manner. Before '89, during my high school years, I listened primarily to Billboard Top 40 stuff, with some odd excursions here and there (lots of Art of Noise, e.g.) but mostly sticking to stuff I would catch on the popular radio stations. Growing up on the Eastern Shore of Maryland, I had a very limited exposure to influences outside of generic pop-culture music (of that time), so with reflection back on that time, it is with some amazement that I find that one video in particular, one that I saw in the summer of '88, turned my music life completely upside-down. I was randomly flipping through channels, but reversed back to VH1 after passing it up, as the images I saw registered in my mind...but it wasn't the images that captivated me -- it was the sound. The video? Enya's "Orinoco Flow." I was instantly hooked -- an amazing voice, multilayered in such exquisite harmony (even coming from my puny speakers on my pathetic 13" color TV)...she truly captivated me in a pretty profound way, and her Watermark album was to be the very first CD that I would purchase, in the winter of '89 (and I still own it to this day -- the rarer 11-track version -- and still plays flawlessly).
But that's only the beginning of the story. The next summer, while working at a restaurant that had a lot of oreign-exchange workers from the UK, I met a woman who informed me that Enya was in fact Eithne ni Bhraonnain, and came from a family of musicians called Clannad. She suggested I check out their music. Well, being a resident of Ocean City made that task somewhat difficult, but one of the local shops did have two of their tapes in stock -- Sirius and Macalla. The music was interesting, but sadly, Enya wasn't a part of the group in those 2 albums, so I had to do some serious searching to find what I was looking for (this was back before my feeble young mind had ever conceived of email, let alone an Internet -- though later that very year I *did* get my first email address through the local college I was attending...but that story's for another thread
). Well, I'm not sure how I got their brochure (I think it came indirectly through my Columbia House membership), but somehow a pamphlet came in the mail with exactly what I had been looking for -- it was from Shanachie Records. And lo and behold! there was Clannad, featured prominently in their listing, with several albums from their early-career days (we're talking mid-seventies material). A little nervous, but VERY curious, I ordered them all...and found myself completely entranced with their music. After that I searched out as many of their works as I could, and have nearly every album they've released -- including my eventual possession of Eithne's first vocal material with the band, in the original release version of Fuaim (it was later re-released in different packaging). Over the years I've broadened my horizons, and have collected a good variety of Celtic music, including, of course, the solo works of Enya's sister Maire (who, by the way, just released a new album this week, under a new name, Moya Brennan). My particular loves include Capercaillie (Karen Matheson's voice is utterly angelic, probably the greatest range of any Celtic singer I've listened to), Loreena McKennitt (though not strictly Celtic, her material either borrows from or parallels well with that genre), Natalie MacMaster (a beautiful fiddle player from Cape Breton, who I not only saw in concert in Manhattan a few years back, I also had the honor of having two of her CDs autographed by her), Ceoltoiri (their version of Oro Se Do Bheatha 'Bhaile is so incredibly beautiful, harmony-wise, that it's been my #1 song of any non-Clannad-related material)...I could go on all night, really -- lots of the tracks I own are from compilations that led me to those artists' other works.
In the 15 years I've known the Celtic music genre, I have opened my ears and mind to other types of music as well; thanks to Shanachie I was able to gain an appreciation for a lot of different music from around the world (including Ofra Haza and Najma, to start), and from there it led me to quite a vast assortment of world music that I am proud to have in my collection. Today, VERY LITTLE exists in my music collection -- bought, downloaded, or otherwise -- that comes from Top 40 pop culture. What a sea-change my tastes underwent, all thanks to a random flipping of channels and rather fortuitous timing. I've since gained a liking to some harder material (Lacuna Coil -- a band Evanescence is often compared to -- is one I like, Blind Guardian another...many from mp3.com and iuma.org), some electronica, some trance, even some hip-hop (though I must stress, very little; it's something I find too abrasive, along with a lot of alternative or progressive-rock). I even fell in love with some JPop (Japanese pop music), most of it from Japanese anime (Hayashibara Megumi is at the top of the list in this genre for me). But through all of this, Celtic is still the love of my life, and I'll never abandon it as my tastes evolve. There's some quality of ... timeless, eternal beauty ... that I feel is within the music -- it is a quality with which I have an unbreakable affinity for, I believe.
I'm curious to know if anybody else here has this same fascination with this genre -- who/what/where/how you fell in love with the genre. And of course I'm curious to hear what your favorite bands and/or singers are. Goodness, I hope I'm not the only one here on the forum who adores this genre!
(Thanks for your patience on my ramblings)
But that's only the beginning of the story. The next summer, while working at a restaurant that had a lot of oreign-exchange workers from the UK, I met a woman who informed me that Enya was in fact Eithne ni Bhraonnain, and came from a family of musicians called Clannad. She suggested I check out their music. Well, being a resident of Ocean City made that task somewhat difficult, but one of the local shops did have two of their tapes in stock -- Sirius and Macalla. The music was interesting, but sadly, Enya wasn't a part of the group in those 2 albums, so I had to do some serious searching to find what I was looking for (this was back before my feeble young mind had ever conceived of email, let alone an Internet -- though later that very year I *did* get my first email address through the local college I was attending...but that story's for another thread
). Well, I'm not sure how I got their brochure (I think it came indirectly through my Columbia House membership), but somehow a pamphlet came in the mail with exactly what I had been looking for -- it was from Shanachie Records. And lo and behold! there was Clannad, featured prominently in their listing, with several albums from their early-career days (we're talking mid-seventies material). A little nervous, but VERY curious, I ordered them all...and found myself completely entranced with their music. After that I searched out as many of their works as I could, and have nearly every album they've released -- including my eventual possession of Eithne's first vocal material with the band, in the original release version of Fuaim (it was later re-released in different packaging). Over the years I've broadened my horizons, and have collected a good variety of Celtic music, including, of course, the solo works of Enya's sister Maire (who, by the way, just released a new album this week, under a new name, Moya Brennan). My particular loves include Capercaillie (Karen Matheson's voice is utterly angelic, probably the greatest range of any Celtic singer I've listened to), Loreena McKennitt (though not strictly Celtic, her material either borrows from or parallels well with that genre), Natalie MacMaster (a beautiful fiddle player from Cape Breton, who I not only saw in concert in Manhattan a few years back, I also had the honor of having two of her CDs autographed by her), Ceoltoiri (their version of Oro Se Do Bheatha 'Bhaile is so incredibly beautiful, harmony-wise, that it's been my #1 song of any non-Clannad-related material)...I could go on all night, really -- lots of the tracks I own are from compilations that led me to those artists' other works. In the 15 years I've known the Celtic music genre, I have opened my ears and mind to other types of music as well; thanks to Shanachie I was able to gain an appreciation for a lot of different music from around the world (including Ofra Haza and Najma, to start), and from there it led me to quite a vast assortment of world music that I am proud to have in my collection. Today, VERY LITTLE exists in my music collection -- bought, downloaded, or otherwise -- that comes from Top 40 pop culture. What a sea-change my tastes underwent, all thanks to a random flipping of channels and rather fortuitous timing. I've since gained a liking to some harder material (Lacuna Coil -- a band Evanescence is often compared to -- is one I like, Blind Guardian another...many from mp3.com and iuma.org), some electronica, some trance, even some hip-hop (though I must stress, very little; it's something I find too abrasive, along with a lot of alternative or progressive-rock). I even fell in love with some JPop (Japanese pop music), most of it from Japanese anime (Hayashibara Megumi is at the top of the list in this genre for me). But through all of this, Celtic is still the love of my life, and I'll never abandon it as my tastes evolve. There's some quality of ... timeless, eternal beauty ... that I feel is within the music -- it is a quality with which I have an unbreakable affinity for, I believe.
I'm curious to know if anybody else here has this same fascination with this genre -- who/what/where/how you fell in love with the genre. And of course I'm curious to hear what your favorite bands and/or singers are. Goodness, I hope I'm not the only one here on the forum who adores this genre!
(Thanks for your patience on my ramblings
)
