Narada Celtic Samplers
Narada, the New Age record company, has produced two quite excellent
sampler albums that make a great introduction to modern
celtic music. They have pulled together some of the best of recent
recordings, spanning a range of countries and
styles.
Not surprisingly, there is a bias towards the more refined and contemporary
- no ceili bands or pub ballads here - and there are a few
tracks that are more New Age than traditional, but overall, the
two collections are very good. The production is flawless and both include
extensive liner notes on the featured musicians.
Narada was kind enough to make available sound samples from several of the
tracks. Whenever this icon appears, you can click on it to get a sample of
that track (~30 seconds, 350kb). See the helpfile
if you need assistance in setting up audio on your Web browser.
Reviews and samples:
Celtic Odyssey
Celtic Legacy
Which is the better? I would go for Celtic Legacy, which is not
only longer (65', 16 tracks) than Celtic Odyssey (49', 14 tracks), but also
has a few more memorable tunes. Having said that, both are quite similar,
so if you like one, you'll probably like the other too.
Other celtic albums from Narada
Celtic Voices featuring four women singers from different celtic regions.
Celtic Treasure, a terrific instrumental album, dedicated to the music of Turlough O'Carolan.
Celtic Spirit, a luscious treat of of
Christmas and other celtic spiritual music music from Aoife Ni Fhearraigh, Connie Dover, Billy
Jackson and others...
Availability
These albums should be widely available in record stores in North America (try under
New Age if you don't see anything in Celtic). If you need more info, or can't
find them locally, give Narada a call at 1-800-966-3699. I have also heard that they are
both available through the BMG CD club: the number for Celtic Odyssey is 106229 and
that for Celtic Legacy is 108277.
You can also order online, at a discount price from
CD Universe. Here are the direct links for
Celtic Odyssey,
Celtic Legacy,
Celtic Voices,
Celtic Treasure and
Celtic Spirit.
Feedback
Narada is interested in receiving feedback about sound samples on the WWW. Please email
your comments to them at friends@narada.com.
To the Ceolas home page.
Gerard Manning ceolas@celtic.stanford.edu
