Last month I already shared with you one tune, or actually a set of tunes, by this Scottish Celtic harpist – Rachel Hair – which she played together with the multi-instrumentalist Ron Jappy. – Rachel Hair is a very active, prolific and versatile artist who does all sorts of things with the harp and also has her own record label called March Hair Records. Among the things she does is she’s also a part of a trio, simply known as Rachel Hair Trio, and this song that I’m sharing today with you comes from their album Tri, released by the aforementioned label. I don’t know who else is in this trio and haven’t been able to find out, but the song is a traditional one and I really like this minimalistic arrangement.
Since summer has just passed, I thought this would be a very appropriate song to share at this particular time of year. There are several versions that I like, but, at least for today, I chose Clannad. Perhaps some time later on I’ll also share others that I like.
The Last Rose of Summer is a poem written by the Irish poet Thomas Moore while he stayed in Jenkinstown Castle in Kilkenny, where he was said to be inspired by a flower of rosa old blush. It has later been set to a traditional Irish tune called a Young Man’s Dream in English and has been interpreted gazillions of times as it seems, classically and folkily.
This poem starkly reminds me of my little Misha and how he often is concerned about leaves being lonely, like when they fall from trees and one leaf is blown away from the other leaves or is blown on to the heap with leaves from other trees that it doesn’t know and doesn’t feel well with, or when all leaves have fallen except one who is still on the tree and is alone and cold. I think he has even written about that on here at least once back when he did regularly. This song has a very similar feel to that imo. I’m not sure if Misha has had similar thoughts about flowers during transitions between seasons, but he definitely has an affinity with them too and likes to nibble on them and smell themm.
And after sharing a song by Maire Brennan for yesterday, for today I chose a song from her younger sister’s most recent album, the opening title track from it. Dark Sky Island takes its title and inspiration from Sark, one of the Channel Islands, which was designated the first dark sky island in the world and where its entire small population has an interesting way of living, adjusted to the sky, for example cars are not allowed there. Enya’s lyricist, Roma Ryan, clearly has a keen interest in all things relating to astronomy, so it’s no wonder that it has become a huge source of inspiration for her, and for Enya as well.
I thought I’d share this beautiful, very sad, Irish lullaby with you. I like a lot of lullabies and I love how Irish Celtic folk music is so full of lullabies. This one is soulfully sung by, probably well-known by now to the readers of this blog, Maire/Moya Brennan from Clannad, Enya’s sister, who is accompanied by the very popular Celtic music band from Dublin – The Chieftains – who were formed in the 60’s during the Celtic music revival in Ireland and often collaborate with other well-known Irish folk musicians.
For today I chose to share with you a Christian song from Maire Brennan. A lot of her lyrics feature more or less strong Christian themes, because she herself is, if I remember correctly, a devout Evangelical Christian. This song’s chorus is in Irish Gaelic, and as you can find out on
The beautiful piece I’m sharing with you today comes from an act who’s relatively new to me, but ever since I’ve become aware of their existence I like their music a lot. I truly love long, complex pieces for harp, and this one perfectly meets my expectations. 😀 Hope you enjoy it too. 🙂
Today I’m sharing with you a really beautiful, picturesque piece from Lisa Lynne, collaborating, as is frequently the case, with Aryeh Frankfurter. I really really love this piece.
For today I chose another tune from the amazing late Welsh harpist Nansi Richards, also known as Telynores Maldwyn. I’m not exactly sure whether cainc indeed means tune, ’cause it also means things like branch and I guess several other things, but in this context I suppose it’s meant to mean tune.
Today I’m sharing with you a song from Welsh harpist and singer Gwenan Gibbard, already featured on this blog multiple times. I don’t really know much about this song, not eve whether it’s her original composition, or a traditional tune, or maybe someone else wrote and composed it in modern times, but I think it’s beautiful.
This song comes from Loreena’s most recent album, Lost Souls, released three years ago, and it’s one of my favourite songs from this release. I really like how evocative it is.
Today, let’s listen to another piece from this great Scottish harpist and singer, in Scottish Gaelic. This is a really interesting traditional love song from a female perspective. I’ve found a translation of it, which I’ll share below as usual, but if you like this sort of thing or are intrigued by something in the lyrics, I highly recommend you go visit
Here’s another piece from the album Carn Ingli, on which Welsh triple harpist Llio Rhydderch collaborates with Tomos Williams – trumpet – and Mark O’Connor – percussion. –
Today, I decided to share with you another piece from this Welsh-Scottish harpist, whose music I’ve already shared with you on here before. This piece is her original composition and comes from her beautiful album Mentro (Venture, on which she is accompanied by two other great Welsh folk musicians, Jordan Price Williams on cello and Gwilym Bowen Rhys on guitar, mandolin, fiddle and shruti box. I think if I had to pick my most favourite piece from this album, I’d pick this one.
Despite I consider myself quite familiar with the Scottish folk scene, this band is fairly new to me and I’m really surprised I didn’t know about them earlier than I did, because their music is great. This is their first song that I’ve ever heard.
I’ve shared quite a lot of Clannad’s music lately, but I guess this is one of their more recognisable pieces, probably the only ones that are better known are “Robin, The Hooded Man” and “In The Lifetime” with Bono.
I’ve never watched the Yorkshire Television series to which this theme was written and recorded, nor read the book on which the series was based, and have very little idea as for what is about, but I really like this song, it being one of the very first pieces of Celtic music that I’ve listened to.
Rachel Hair is another new harpist that I’d like to introduce to you, guys, except unlike Silke Aichhorn from the previous Song of the Day post, she is also new-ish to me. She is a Scottish Celtic harpist, and it’s quite clear from her involvement in all things clàrsach (Celtic harp in Scottish Gaelic) that she has much love for her instrument. This piece comes from her album on which she collaborates with guitarist Ron Jappy. I really like how her music feels different, yet it’s still very firmly rooted in the Scottish and Celtid tradition. I have no idea about the all the tunes in this set, what inspired them or anything like that, but looking at their credits on Spotify, they are her original compositions, along with Fraser Shaw, who was a Scottish pipe player who passed away in May 2015 due to MS.
Today I come to you with a traditional piece of music from Slovakia, performed by the German harpist Nadia Birkenstock, whose music I’ve shared on here a couple times before already.
Time for some Scottish Gaelic! This song comes from young Glasgow singer Maeve Mackinnon (apparently there are actually two Scottish singers called Maeve Mackinnon). Interestingly, she is not actually a Gaelic native speaker, she only learned it as an adult, but has had an interest in the language and music of her home country from an early age and was in contact with it a lot. I’ve also read that she has some Swedish heritage. I’m pretty sure that this song is traditional, although I have no idea what the title of it means and haven’t found any reliable translation of the lyrics.
Today I’m sharing with you a piece played by the Irish Celtic harpist Lynn Saoirse, but unlike a lot of her music that I’ve shared so far, this is a traditional tune, and not one composed by Turlough O’Carolan. I wrote more about the tune itself
