Search - Various Artists :: Heart Of Ireland: A Collection Of Traditional + Modern Celtic Songs

For a performer or group aspiring to revive and continue Irish traditions of folk music (there are 16 of them in this compilation from Ireland's Gael-Linn label), the first job has been to restore it. Irish music has suffered, through the centuries, not only from war, insurrection, famine, and political repression but even more from friends who adapted it to Hollywood and jukeboxes. The music in this collection has been carefully cleansed of such influences. Instrumental jigs and reels aside, there is not much here that would be heard on St. Patrick's Day in places where the beer is tinted green. Most of the vocal music has Gaelic words and all of it has tunes that sound as old as the peat bogs and as fresh as a spring morning. This would be a good point from which to start exploring real Irish music. --Joe McLellan