Songs, stories, and tunes from the Celtic world have a way of holding both joy and melancholy together in the same piece of music. It might be through a contract of words and melody, through a turn of phrase that may be taken more ways than one, or through a haunting pattern of notes. Whatever way this happens, it’s music that encourages and invites a listener to come in and explore the story.

That sort of thing works especially well when it comes to love songs, an idea which is taken well into account in both song choices and song sequence in the two disc set A Stor Mo Chroi, a recording which comprises thirty tracks from a range of artists from Ireland, Scotland, and Canada.

If your acquaintance with Celtic music is a passing one, you’ll still have heard of several of the artists involved. Sinead O’Connor, for example: she offers a passionate rendition of Anachie Gordon, a traditional tale of lovers whose lives and love were star crossed in so many ways. On a happier note, Sharon Shannon provides ever lively and creative instrumental partnership to Steve Earle’s vocals on The Galway Girl. Eddi Reader joins up with Alan Kelly for a haunting contemporary song of friendship and change, I Hung My Harp Upon the Willow. If you’ve seen Riverdance, you may well have seen Niamh Ni Charra play her fiddle and concertina– she’s here too, with Cailleach an Airgid.

There are all sorts of resonances through the songs, too, both in melody and lyric. John Doyle and Karan Casey’s False Lover John speaks to a different tale of love gone wrong told by the band Grada in Pretty Polly. Lumiere’s graceful harmonies illuminate the familiar admonition to take care in love in Fair and Tender Ladies, which stands well along side the grit and resignation of what happens when things don’t work out as planned in John Spillane’s When You and I Were True, and with the different sort of parting and reunion Loreena McKennitt talks of in She Moved Through the Fair. There’s quite a bit more, with music from Luke Kelly, T With the Maggies, Muireann Nic Amhlaoibh, and Solas among others.

About that title: mo chroí (that’s said kree) means my heart, in Irish. A Stor Mo Chroí may mean thing, treasure, value, part, of my heart, and is sometimes used as a bit of flowery shortcut for dear or darling. Romantic enough, and what with Valentine’s Day on the horizon. it might be the right the soundtrack for your listening just now.

Rostrevor is a small town in County Down, Northern Ireland. It stands on the shores of what in Norway would be called a fjord and in Ireland is called a lough, looking across the water at the Cooley Peninsula, in the Republic of Ireland. The mountains in Cooley play an important part in Irish legend and myth, as do the Mourne Mountains, which rise up behind Rostrevor. Just a stone’s throw up the road is the city of Newry, long a center of connection and commerce, a hub for travelers and traders from within the north and from across the nearby border. A bit further on to the north and west is south County Armagh, a lovely land and one that holds so much conflict in its recent history that during The Troubles it came to be known as known as Bandit Country.

Tommy Sands took in all these things as he was growing up in Rostrevor. He made the choice, as a young man, to make his way in music and to do his work for peace and healing in Ireland through that music. Across the years, he’s written about other subjects, of course, and sung and taught and brought all sides of his music, and worked for peace and connection and understanding in different lands, from the Middle East to India to North America. It is that land along the border between Northern Ireland and the Republic, and the conflicts and connections that happen there which have been the forge and center of his ideas, though. For his album Arising from the Troubles, he’s gathered eighteen songs, many he’s sung for years but never recorded and others recently composed, that speak of peace, conflict, healing, history, and hope, in both personal and political terms.

You do not have to know or care about the Troubles in Ireland to enjoy this music: for one thing, the songs stand on their own as compelling tales, and for another Sands has a storyteller’s voice and a fine knack for imagery as well. The songs themselves tocuh on unioversal themes, too.There are anthems of hope, history, and reconciliation, such as Song for Erin, and funny songs that take a lighter perspective on things, such as The Mixed Marriage. There are songs which look at the history from different sides, such as You Sold Us Down the River and Bloody Sunday, civil rights anthems such as We’ll Sing It All Over, and songs of hope for the future seen in passing moments of change and connection, such s A Stone’s Throw.

Ideas and lyrics such as these are grounded in place and circumstance, and help with the understanding of those things, even as they reach beyond them. So just listening to the songs on Arising from the Trouble, you’ll likely come away with different perspectives on Northern Ireland and the peace process there than you had before. hearing them. Reading the thoughtful liner notes, in which Sands reflects briefly on the story behind each song, will add even more to your understanding.

Sands in joined on the songs by his daughter Moya and son Fionan, both fine musicians in their own rights. Guests include others whose names you may know, among them Pete Seeger, Dolores Keane, Greg Anderson, and Arty McGlynn.

you might also like to

read about the political situation and travel in Northern Ireland
learn about another album by Tommy Sands, called Let the Circle Be Wide

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Winter may be a time of cold, crisp nights and frosty clear days, a time of blowing snow and howling wind, a time of appreciating the winter’s snow filled landscapes and of enjoying the warmth of fireside just as much. All these aspects of winter come into play in the music Helene Blum has chosen and created for her album Liden Sol.

Blum is from Denmark, so she knows a thing or two about winter. “I live in a big forest,” she says, “so I experience the soul of nature at close quarters. Winter makes a big impression. It is strong a beautiful, but it can also cause enormous difficulties if, as happened to us on a Christmas tour one year, you run into a seemingly unending blizzard between two concerts in Denmark and Germany…”

Blum has turned those winter experiences to good use, choosing texts and songs from Danish writers past and present, along with songs from Denmark’s folk tradition and melodies and songs she has written herself. The title tune, Liden Sol, whose title translates as Little Sun, is a contemplative look of winter’s quieter side sparely presented through just voice and guitar, while It is White Outside, with lyrics from nineteenth century Danish poet Bilcher and melody from Blum’s husband, fiddle player and composer Harald Haugaard, brings the listeners into a storm of snow. Julevise 1862 finds Blum and Haugaard devising a new setting for a traditional Danish song of winter, which celebrates the joys and festivities of winter holidays, both public and in the family. The remaining tracks are equally winter engaged, and equally diverse.

Blum is well qualified to handle such diversity. Drawn to music at an early age and skilled on several instruments, she chose to focus on singing, and also to follow her love of Danish history, stories , and folk tales. Bringing these together, Blum became the first singer with a focus on folk music to graduate from Denmark’s prestigious Carl Nielsen Academy of Music. Her first album won a DNA folk Grammy award, and her holiday tours across Europe as well as her festival appearances in other parts of the world are always well respected and enjoyed.

Blum’s voice may remind you a bit of of Alison Krauss or Claire Lynch, and though she sings in Danish, it’s easy to understand why audiences across Europe, Asia, and North America find Blum’s work engaging. She finds it engaging to share her heritage and her music, as well.

“Few things are as essential to me as the whole Danish treasury of song,” Helene Blum says. “It’s a wonderful mirror of our language, the times we live in, our roots, and not least, the nature we are surrounded by. It is for me an eternal source of inspiration.”

you might also want to

follow this link to hear an excerpt from the song
Glade Jul from one of Blum’s Christmas albums. I think you’ll recognize the melody
join Perceptive Traveler Brian Spencer for a winter visit to one of Copenhagegen’s icons

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A music festival during the famously cold and changeable weather of New England in January? That’s a time when musicians are usually off the road and making plans for their next year of gigs and travels. As professional musicians, festival founders Laura Cortese and Shannon Heaton knew about that, and with their involvement in varied Celtic music projects around the Boston area, they realized something else: there was no single festival where musicians from Irish, Scottish, Cape Breton, and other Celtic traditions which flourish in the region focused on getting together and interacting. So they started one: the Boston Celtic Music Festival, BCM Fest as it’s known for short. Nearly a decade later, this artist founded and still artist run festival is going strong.

This year, the festival takes place on January 6th and 7th, with all the events in venues near Harvard Square in Cambridge. Things kick off with a concert featuring many of Boston’s best Celtic singers and players at the intimate Club Passim. This is followed by the Boston Urban Ceilidh, an event which has been described as Celtic music meets mosh pit. Maybe that’s a bit extreme — or maybe not — but in any case there will be high energy dancing to high energy music music from across the Celtic world, along with instruction in Celtic dance steps if you like. The ceilidh has been held in different places around the area through the years. This time. it will be at The Atrium, close enough to Passim that there will be a sure to be fun procession from one venue to the other as the concert winds down and the dance begins.

On Saturday, the day will be be filled with concerts and workshops, back at Club Passim, and in several areas of First Parish Church nearby. NØÍR will offer a meeting of Irish and N Irish and Norwegian music, Ken Perlman and Jim Prendergast will play a range of Irish, Scottish, Canadian and American tunes and songs on five string banjo and guitar, Kyle Carey will bring her thoughtful original songs drawing on her experiences in Appalachia, Cape Breton, and Ireland, and Hannah Sanders and Liz Simmons will add rich voices in lead and harmony to traditional and contemporary folk song. That’s just an inkling of what will be going on during the day, and in keeping with what has become a BCMFest tradition of sorts there are bound to be a few less than serious things, too. Already scheduled are a Bawdy Breakfast set of songs and a look at several of Michael Jackson’s hits done Celtic style.

To close out the festival there’s another BCMFest tradition: a concert in the sanctuary of First Parish Church, a place whose spare setting and long connection with history and faith lend itself to welcoming music. Guitar wizards Matt Heaton and Flynn Cohen will present the concert, which will include many festival performers along with special guests, as all join to share celebration of music, winter, and the Celtic communities of New England.

there’s information about tickets, schedules and other festival things at
Boston Celtic Music Festival web site

you might also want to
check out a nearby place to eat: Oggi Gourmet at Harvard Square
take a look back at what things were like at earlier years of the festival
learn more about upcoming events at Club Passim

photograph of Matt and Shannon Heaton performing at Club Passim is by Kerry Dexter, and is copyrighted. thank you for respecting that.

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