Search - Various Artists :: Celtic Voices

This 65-minute compilation from the Green Linnet label brews a wispy, contemporary atmosphere that will sound familiar to veteran Celtic listeners, lyrical and warm to new North Sea isle explorers. There's a mixed bag of songs here--all finely recorded--from albums by such established artists as Loreena McKennitt, Nóirín Ní Riain, Karen Matheson (Capercaillie), and Mairead Ni Mhaonaigh (Altan) as well as newcomers Kíla and the Iron Horse. Unlike other Celtic samplers, this collection focuses on the Celtic voice and is oftentimes spiced with modern musical accompaniment--so modern that Dan Ar Braz's "She's Gone" sounds like it belongs in an American TV-folk compilation and Talitha MacKenzie's "Ajde Jano" in a Serbian-dance anthology. Still, for a record of who's pushing the boundaries of Celtic music, it does the genre justice by spotlighting the more obscure vocalists and groups otherwise not covered by mainstream media. --Karen Karleski