ReelsMusic Celtic Feed

Dublin98 Celtic Song Contest

steve@reelsmusic.com — 2010-03-09T23:08:15-05:00

Irish radio station Dublin98 is giving away a 5 CD set of Irish music. All you have to do is email them your top 5 favorite Irish songs.

Full story here

The Chieftains Fuse Celtic and World Music

steve@reelsmusic.com — 2010-03-07T11:43:04-05:00

The Chieftains are one of the world’s most famous Celtic bands. They have been together in different incarnations for 48 years. Through touring the globe, they have also incorporated many other world music styles into their performances. They will be performing in the St Paul area in March of 2010.

full story here

Scottish Music

steve@reelsmusic.com — 2009-07-13T12:00:24-04:00

The earliest Scottish music was probably harp tunes and Gaelic singing. Many forms of Scottish music exist... from pipe and drum to folk styles. One of the most well known is dance music, based on traditional Scottish dances including stepdance. dance music is played to this day at ceilidhs, weddings and country dances.

Scottish instruments include harp, accordian, fiddle, guitar, tin whistle, drums and of course, the great Highland bagpipe or pìob mór. Bagpipes can be traced back as far as the 6th century. Scottish clans known for piping include the Clans MacLeod, MacCrimmon, McKay, MacDonald, and MacArthurs.

Some well known musicians of Scottish descent are Steve McDonald, Rod Stewart, Donovan, Donald Black, Gordon Duncan, Fred Morrison, and one of my favorites, Ian Anderson of Jethro Tull. Scottish bands of notoriety include The Clutha, The Boys of the Lough, the Incredible String Band, and The Tannahill Weavers.

I only have a few Scottish songs so far, but I'm working on more. Let me know what you want to hear on the form at the bottom of the page.

irish Instruments

steve@reelsmusic.com — 2009-07-07T21:25:03-04:00

Top 10 Irish Songs

steve@reelsmusic.com — 2009-07-04T20:43:21-04:00

Everyone has their favorite Irish songs... here’s mine. Maybe a new album in the works?

In no particular order:
Wild Rover
John Barleycorn
Cockles and Mussels (Molly Mallone)
Pretty Maid Milking a Cow
Drunken Sailor
Gary Owen
Mountain dew
Ramblin Rover
Whiskey in the Jar
Danny Boy

Spinal Tap Goes Celtic?

steve@reelsmusic.com — 2009-05-08T22:36:24-04:00

The ultimate parody heavy metal band Spinal Tap will release a new song called “Celtic Blues” soon.It will appear on their new album 'Back From The Dead' to be released on June 15, 2009.
Spinal Tap is the brainchild of comedians Harry Shearer, Christopher Guest and Michael McKean, who starred in 1984’s cult classic spoof rockumentary film This is Spinal Tap. In that movie, the band first showed their Celtic side on the song StoneHenge. The Celtic part starts at about 2:00 in. Hilarious!

Video - Wearing of the Green

steve@reelsmusic.com — 2009-05-05T22:33:39-04:00

The irish song known as "Wearing Of Green" is based on an older irish song know as the "The Rising Of the Moon". Same melody, different words.

Skyearth performs the song as an instrumental here, so you can sing whichever words you like!

The band takes this tune into several new musical passages, with soaring violin solos, toe-tapping drum and bodhran beats, and dueling guitar riffs.

Wearing of the Green-Guaranteed fun for Lords and Ladies alike!

Celtic Rock

steve@reelsmusic.com — 2009-05-07T22:31:41-04:00

Celtic Rock Music as its name implies, combines Celtic music and instruments with those of Rock Music.

Fairport Convention, is sometimes credited with being the first English folk-rock band. They formed in 1967 in England, and began a long and often difficult career. Though many of the members have changed through the years, Fairport now is one of the busiest of the Celtic Rock bands in Europe. Bassist Dave Pegg also plays with Jethro Tull from time to time.

The Irish group Horslips, who in the early 1970s were the first group to use the term 'Celtic rock' to describe their music. Horslips in particular displayed many elements of Celtic rock: traditional Irish/Celtic music and instrumentation, celtic themes and imagery, concept albums based on Irish mythology all powered by driving hard rock. Other early bands who fall under the Celtic rock music banner include Sweeneys Men, Pentangle and Steeleye Span.

Jethro Tull has taken Celtic Rock Music into the realm of mainstream success. Tull began by combining Celtic themes with American jazz and blues, but progressed into a harder style and commercial success with "Aqualung". Fans of Celtic Music would appreciate the "Songs from the Woods" album.

In the wake following punk music, the London based The Pogues created the subgenre Celtic punk. In more recent years bands like Cruachan have combined Celtic music and imagery with heavy metal to create a new sub-genre of Celtic rock - Celtic metal.

Styles Of Celtic Music

steve@reelsmusic.com — 2009-05-03T22:28:48-04:00

Styles are determined by tempo (speed of the song) as well as

• Reels : probably the most popular style of Celtic or Irish music, these are usually at a very fast tempo in 4/4 time.
• Jigs : also very popular, jigs are usually in 6/8 time
• Slip Jigs : unusual time of 9/8. counted as 3-3-3
• Marches : these pieces of music were typically used in wartime. There are three main types...Scottish using the Highland pipes, English using Northumberland pipes, and Irish using Irish war pipes. These pieces of music were usually in 4/4 time, but some early marches were in 3/4.
• Airs : slow haunting ballads often played on harp.

Scotland The Brave

steve@reelsmusic.com — 2009-03-27T22:20:03-04:00

"Scotland the Brave -" is a rocking video of Steve Reel and The SkyEarth Orchestra performing in front of a very enthusiastic crowd during a concert in 2006. The medley includes, of course, Scotland the Brave, Drowsy Maggie, and Turkey in the Straw.

Scotland The Brave Medley features drums, bass, electric guitar, acoustic guitar, violin,bodhran, spoons and synths covering the bagpipes.

The original recording of this version of Scotland the Brave is from Steve Reel's Celtic Night CD. Download it today and rock out tartan style! You can find it under Celtic Songs

Reposted from Youtube
Steve Reel and the Skyearth Orchestra
Scotland The Brave - Medley