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!
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.
I’ve recently grown to really like this young Irish musician with a very unique name, and this song is one of my most favourites by her. I hope you enjoy. 🙂
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.
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. 🙂
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…
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. 🙂
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
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 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. 🙂
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.
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”.
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.
Here’s another Enya’s sort of winter themed song I have for you this month. I think it’s one of my most favourite wintry but non Christmassy songs by her for some reason. 🙂
I’ve shared with you quite a couple Christmas carols by Enya so far. Today, I’m also sharing a song by Enya, though this one doesn’t have much to do with Christmas, but it’s still very wintry and cosy, and I love it because of it. 🙂
