Tag: Irish music

Órla Fallon – “Morning Has Broken”.

Hey people! 🙂

It’s not morning here anymore, not even for my always jet-lagged brain 😀 – today it happened to be very early – but I hardly post anything in the morning and I would like to share this song with you, so why care about timing, especially that there are so many different timezones and you don’t have to view this today but could be any other day, in the morning or not.

I’m sure most people know the Cat Stevens classic, and yes, unsurprisingly, this song is a cover of it. I don’t really like the original, for no particular reason really, it just doesn’t really speak to me. And yes, it’s probably too common for me to like it, lol. This cover by Órla Fallon is so beautiful though, I fell in love with it instantly when I heard it.

Órla Fallon is one of the former member of an Irish all-female group called Celtic Woman, she was a singer and a harpist there. I really love her harp, and her voice, makes for a very angelic combination. I do not like however that from what I’m observing right now, Órla is stretching more towards the country end of the folk music spectrum, and away from the folksy, Celtic, pure folk, that she was doing with Celtic Woman and solo.

I think she makes this song sound exactly as it should sound – sweet, refreshing and happy in a deep, calm way. – Synaesthetically, this song in her version has a very vivid and distinct raspberry flavour to me, and I love raspberries so it’s just so cool. I think it’s especially Órla’s harp that makes it so perfect. I wonder if other people see it similarly. So here it is, and I hope you enjoy.

Orla Gartland – “Why Am I Like This?”

Hiya people! 🙂

Do you ever ask yourself this question, “Why am I like this?” Some people dn’t, but some people do, and if you are one of the latter, this song is likely going to be very relatable for you.

I really like Orla Gartland. She’s Irish. That alone could be a good enough reason for me to like her. 😀 Even though she doesn’t do Celtic music and is quite popular. But I also like her because she’s very talented and very natural (very rare thing with “normal” artists these days), and a bit crazy, plus has a lot of distance to herself. Her lyrics are also very genuine and distanced, and I think also easily relatable for people.

This song is definitely very relatable for me. ‘Cause, being an overthinker, socially anxious and having AVPD, I quite frequently ask myself this question. Not like I expect to ever get the answer or like it matters that much, it’s just rhetorical and mostly a way to express my frustration. Now since I’ve first heard this song, whenever I wonder about “why am I like this?” the song immediately pops up in my brain. 😀 I can also very strongly relate to the broader topics of the song – overthinking one’s mistakes and anxiety in general. – The overthinking and overintrospecting bit is one of the most frustrating pieces of my AVPD. But I also believe it’s quite a universal experience that people struggle with too much introspection, self-criticism and some shyness on top of that, so I guess it could be very relatable to a lot of people. This is definitely my favourite song by Orla.

I don’t mind songs about love, I do love many of them, but since I myself have never experienced romantic love, and the vast majority of song lyrics are about this, it’s quite rare for me to find a truly relatable song, and therefore I appreciate pieces like this even more.

I couldn’t decide which version I want to share with you – the original or the fully produced – so I’m sharing both, ‘cuz why not.

 

Lynn Saoirse – “Mervyn Pratt”.

Hey people! 🙂

Let’s listen to some more Celtic harp today! I have a lovely little tune for you by an Irish harpist Lynn Saoirse who plays Celtic harp. It is called Mervyn Pratt. I did a little bit of research to learn who the title character was and found out that there was a Pratt family in Ireland who owned the Cabra Castle, which is now a hotel, and there were a few Mervyns born into this family. I really like the whole album from which this song comes – The Seas Are Deep – and Lynn Saoirse’s harp play is great!

Aimée – “Break Me”.

Hey people! 🙂

A song I have for you today is by Irish singer called Aimée. I often decide to show you acoustic versions of songs because I think they often just sound better and are more expressive, especially when it comes to just normal pop, but this time I think the original album version sounds better and conveys more emotion, I just like it more. Though what i like it mostly for is the lyrics. Aime is quite a new artist to me, but I think I’m going to like more of her music.

Aoife Scott – “Do Mhuirnín Ó” (My Darling).

Hey people! 🙂

Today I have an amazing, beautiful Irish folk song for you. As far as I know, it’s title means “My Darling” in English, though I could be wrong about that. Aoife Scott is a young artist but her family environment was very folksy – she is the daughter of a famous Irish folk singer Frances Black – and thus the niece of Mary Black as well, they’re both quite acknowledged as vocalists and also used to sing in a family band that is quite a legend in Celtic music. Aoife’s cousin, Róisin O’Reilly, is a singer as well, and if I get it right Róisin also has a brother who is a musician.

I must say that I quite prefer Aoife’s music to her mum’s and aunt’s, though I appreciate that they are both very talented and have helped to make Celtic music more popular in the 20th century. But this song of Aoife is by far my most favourite. I just love the Celtic, melancholic feel of it. I have no idea about the lyrics other than understanding a couple words, and couldn’t find a translation, which is a shame, but I think the music alone and the sound of the Irish language are beautiful in their own way, even if you don’t know the lyrics.

Enya – “O Come, O Come, Emmanuel”.

Hi people! 🙂

Perhaps you remember that I was sharing a lot of Enya’s music last year around Christmas with you. I was sure I must have shared this song, but looks like I haven’t, so I think it’s the right time to do it now, since this is primarily an Advent hymn! And I think in Enya’s version it sounds so extremely beautiful. Both full of some silent, secret euphoria, as well as nostalgia. I hope you like it too. 🙂

Maire Brennan – “Oró” (Oh”.

Hi people. 🙂

Today, a song by Maire Brennan I want to share with you is a very lovely Gaelic lullaby. I love lullabies, I have a whole collection of them, and this one is among them. Not quite as brilliant and breathtaking as her sister’s “Song Of The Sandman” but very beautiful too. Here are the English lyrics.

 

Oh my little babe
Always stay by my side

Oh my darling
You give me hope, my darling

Sleep peacefully, sleep peacefully
Sleep peacefully, my sweet child…

Oh my little babe
Take my sure advice
My peaceful love

Oh my little babe
And a prayer from my heart
For the life in front of you

Sleep peacefully, sleep peacefully
Sleep peacefully, my sweet child…

Maire Brennan – “Misty-Eyed Adventures”.

Hi guys! 🙂

I really love this Maire Brennan’s song. It’s so gentle, but so atmospheric and dream-like. I always like all those journey motives in Enya’s music, and it is present in Maire’s as well, and very much so in this song! I hope you like it too. 🙂

Maire Brennan – “The Mighty One”.

Here is another song by Maire Brennan, also about God. I think the sound of it is very powerful, and it has more of an ethnofolk feel. The chorus is in Irish, and here is what it means in English.

  All my blessings from my heart to you
Isn’t the view delightful?
My blessing from my heart to you
And glory be to God

Song of the day (25th September) – Maire Brennan – “Perfect Time”.

Hi people. 🙂

I’ve recently realised that I’d never shared with you any of Maire Brennan’s music. Not that I love her so very much, but she’s quite an icon of Celtic music, and she does have some songs I like. Other than that, she’s Enya’s sister! I’m not very keen on the type of voice Maire has, but, as I said, some of her music is really good and she is also a harpist, though there’s no harp in the song I want to share with you now. I’d like to dedicate a few song of the day posts to my favourite songs of hers. If you have listened to some more famous Celtic music bands, you may remember Maire from Clannad (famous for “Robin, The Hooded Man” in the 80’s, for example). And Clannad has also loads of great music, but I won’t be sharing theirs now. Maire Brennan is also known as Maire ni Bhraonain, Moya Brennan or, in her earlier days, as Mary Brennan.

Maire was raised in a Catholic Irish family, but she’s now a member of evangelical church, and a lot of her songs are more or less religious. This one is as well. I think it sounds really good, though of course as you know I prefer Enya’s music far more. This video doesn’t have the best sound quality, don’t know how about visual, but there are so many versions of this song, I believe from different albums, that I had a hard time finding the one I like best and I found it in such a bit rubbish quality.

Celtic Woman – “Orinoco Flow”.

Hi people! 🙂

Celtic Woman are one of my most favourite Irish/Celtic groups, yet I’ve only shared one song with you so far. I’ve recently seen that they released something new, including a newer version of “Orinoco Flow” that they also sang before, but I decided I like the older version more and will show it to you. It comes back from the times when they had their good old line-up, with Lisa Kelly, Meav and such, I liked them best at that time in the history of the band, though I still do like them a lot.

The song was originally song and composed by ENya and appeared on one of her earliest albums back in the eighties – “Watermark”. – If you know me and my blog at least a bit, you probably already know Enya has been one of my major music crushes over the years. Curiously however, “Orinoco Flow” is the only song of hers that I really, really don’t like, as much as I love all her other songs and compositions. It was played a lot and is still one of the most recognisable songs by Enya, I believe, and I knew it way before I started loving Enya and discovering her music. In fact, at the beginning I thought I disliked all of her music, it had to grow on me and it did very suddenly. But “Orinoco Flow”, despite my brave attempts to like it, remains the only song of Enya’s that I do not like, and almost hate. Why is that? I don’t even exactly know. 😀 Perhaps I have some bad associations with it that I don’t realise, which is very possible, in any case, for some reason it makes my sensory anxiety come up. Weird, given how relaxing Enya’s music is and how normally it’s very soothing to me. Anyway, I do like it by Celtic Woman, so maybe it depends on an arrangement or whatever. So, here it is. I hope you enjoy. 🙂

Song of the day (15th July) – Lisa Hannigan ft. Damien Rice – “9 Crimes”.

Hi guys! 🙂

Sorry for my very long absence on here! Lots of catching up ahead! Firstly, I have a song for you. I believe it’s got some popularity some time ago in Poland, I at least have heard it around much earlier than I started to be really interested in Irish music, Celtic or not Celtic, and before I learnt that this song is by Lisa Hannigan, who is one of my most favourite Irish non-folk singers. I always kinda liked this song. I guess what I like the most about it is the melody. It’s also very emotive, as I’m sure you’d agree with me.

Lisa Kelly – “Lift The Wings”.

I guess I haven’t yet posted any (or not many anyway) songs from one of my absolute favourite Irish Celtic folk bands, Celtic WOman, nor any of their soloists. So here is one of them that I like the most – Lisa Kelly! – I think she’s gorgeous, just as all of them are. Celtic WOman is an Irish band performing Celtic folk music. The line-up has been changing a lot but the soloists are all women, and all are very talented. From what I know, Lisa Kelly is no longer with them, I guess she went on to make some dance-related project with her husband. I think she has a very clear voice and I like to listen to her. So here’s her solo song, “Lift The Wings”.

Song of the day (3rd March) – Karliene – “Let No Man Steal Your Thyme”.

And here’s another song from Karliene, it is a traditional Irish ballad which she covered, and I like the symbolic language in it a lot, I think it’s incredibly beautiful.