Suddenly everything, including the bagpipes, is clearer

[annathepiper]

I am full of sulking, because Conflikt is imminent and I'd really like to go for the weekend, only it is extremely unlikely that I will be able to manage all of one day energy-wise, much less the entire weekend. It is particularly unlikely that I will be able to make cadhla's concert tomorrow night, as I would have to pretty much go down there straight from my last round of zapping. And considering that I'll likely be wiped out after that, very dubious that that will happen.

Which disappoints me, because I very much like Stars Fall Home and will be sad to miss the chance to hear her sing live.

But we'll see if maybe solarbird and I can make it down for the Saturday evening concerts, especially since cflute's is one of them. Yay!

And as long as we're on the topic of music, I must note that the sulking is quite a bit made up for by how on the way into work today I listened to just about all of The Best of the Chieftains, and the rest while I was out buying lunch.

Listening to this was really kind of like how I'd never seen Casablanca for so much of my life, but I'd seen the countless references and homages to it in so many other films and media--and then, when I finally saw the movie, all those references and homages made a lot more sense. It was very much a "okay, all you younguns, stand aside and let the grownups show you how it's done" listening experience--suddenly I could see very clearly how much a lot of the groups I love to listen to, even Great Big Sea, owe to this band. Everything I like about my favorite groups was there on this record: vigorous, boisterous playing, the seamless transitions from one melody to another, and the confident (at least on the one track, as this was mostly an instrumental album) flinging forth of Gaelic lyrics.

It also made Fire in the Kitchen, my previous only exposure to the Chieftains, make a lot more sense. Now that I've heard these gents rip through tunes all by themselves, it's a lot clearer to me how they are the underpinning foundation of that album while all the other groups they're playing with are the structures on top.

I very much liked that they had a somewhat more complex and mature sound to their instrumentals than I've heard on a lot of the other albums I own, and a sound very much their own thanks to how they handled their bagpipes and percussion. The liner notes say that these tracks were all remastered for this album as well, and it shows; the mix is stunningly good even on my crappy iPod headphones.

I specifically recognized two different songs off the album as well, which was funny. "O'Sullivan's March" I knew from, of all things, the Master and Commander soundtrack! And in fact, it sounded like very much the same arrangement. I thought for an instant that I'd somehow suddenly jumped albums when that song spun up.

And I recognized the one vocal track on here as one on a Solas album as well. And truth be told, I think I like the Chieftains' take better.

So, Chieftains for the win! I will definitely be buying more of their work. <3

Comments

[technoshaman.livejournal.com]

I never will forget seeing the Chieftains live back in the summer of '00.... jenkitty's folks had come out to see us, and sprang for tickets as a birthday present for her. And Paddy came out on stage (which was covered, thankfully), and said, "And we've brought some fine Irish weather for ya, don'tcha know." And we all tittered nervously and shifted in our blankets and tarps and stood or sat there in the heavy Irish mist out on the lawn of Chateau Ste. Michelle and listened to the boys play.

Just so very *Seattle* a moment...

[technoshaman.livejournal.com]

You know Seanan's got a live album?

[annathepiper]

Pretty Little Dead Girl, yes?

[annathepiper]

Wow, that had to have been like right before my first GBS concert--which was also at Chateau Ste. Michelle. That's funny.

And hee, Paddy sounds like a card.

[technoshaman.livejournal.com]

oh, he's quite the pistol.

Coinkydink? Don't believe in'em.

[technoshaman.livejournal.com]

mais oui.

[grian-ruadh.livejournal.com]

Check out An Irish Evening with Nancy Griffith and Roger Daltry. That's some of the finest music ever pressed to a disk.

Oh, now I have to go dig through the iPod and listen to it again. :D

[annathepiper]

That was recommended in a comment on my previous post, in fact! I shall clearly have to purchase that album next. :)

[annathepiper]

Cool, I shall have to see about getting that. If Dara and I get down there early enough on Saturday, perhaps I can get it from the dealers' room I HOPE will be there? :)

[annathepiper]

Hee!

We all really liked the Chateau Ste. Michelle concert. That was also my first exposure to the Battlefield Band, La Bottine Souriante (and there's another band of whose albums I really want more), and Natalie MacMaster. :) It was a great place for a concert, a nice wide open lawn and good wine and cheese and music!

And afterward, after GBS had ripped through "Excursion Around the Bay" and our little party regretfully bailed, llachglin remarked to the rest of us that he'd never seen a stage rush at a Celtic concert before. ;)

[angharads-house.livejournal.com]

Music sounds like very fitting capstone for end of zappage: yayness is nigh!

[snarlingbadger.livejournal.com]

The Chieftains and The Clancy Brothers & Tommy Makem are the 2 penultimate Irish bands, imho. I grew up listening to both and they still absolutely blow me away.

I love The Chieftains' "Ballad of the Irish Horse," perhaps because it's the first album I specifically remember as theirs, and because I was still quite horse crazy when my dad bought it.

The Chieftains have done a number of crossover albums, bringing in artists from different genres, blending the music and exposing Celtic flavor to people who otherwise might never have listened to them. I have one featuring Alison Krauss, Vince Gill & others.

[annathepiper]

Yeah, I'm aware of the Clancy Brothers, too, though I haven't sought them out yet. Pictures of them are in one of the songbooks I have here. I have the impression though that they lean more trad in style than the Chieftains, though I have nothing to found this on. Any albums of theirs you'd specifically recommend?

I have heard frequently of Chieftains crossover albums, yeah. Fire in the Kitchen is one such, and highly recommended as it provides a nice sample set of Canadian bands and artists--not only GBS, but also La Bottine Souriante, Leahy, Ashley MacIsaac, the Rankins, and others. ^_^

[annathepiper]

Indeed. :) And I am in general very pleased that a filk convention is starting up here in the Pacific Northwest. I miss OVFF in the Midwest!

[angharads-house.livejournal.com]

Insert wistful noises about schedules and distances.

I had entertained the vague idea of seaplaning my way down for Saturday night and back up on Sunday (since of course do have a pied-a-terre in Brambleville, and my gang there would likely also enjoy some filkeration), but:

a) I'm really flat-lined from yesterday and,
b) looks like we're going to turn a working-panel around sometime this weekend and they need my fancy-assed rock-doctor input, so that means down pit tomorrow. Canna' come oot the pit in tha afternoon and then fly tae Sea Atoll all filthy wi'coal dust, when it's this close tae Rabbie Burns Nicht. No way, lassies and laddies.

Pretty please, if you do get to Conflikt, some reportage thereof? Wistful filk-heads want to know. //^_^\\

Be well, finish zappage, sing hurrah!

[annathepiper]

Bummer about the weekend work! I've got some of that likely in my near future, again.

And to be sure, if I make it down there, there will be postings. Dara will also doubtless post.

[angharads-house.livejournal.com]

Conflikt being in its inaugural year? Utterly slipped my mind, and here I am sure Glenn told me when we were discussing the close scheduling of GAFilk (which I did register for and then couldn't get to) and Conflikt (which at the time seemed beyond my budget, even though it's local).

And weekend work, oh sigh. At least Saturdays down pit are pleasant (as pleasant as anything can be in an inescapably-grotty environment in a black hole underneath a mountain). It's an overtime shift, and only the old fellows (age 60+) from the UK are accustomed to signing up for it -- so none of us get too wound-up, we get to swap stories about the NCB while having our luncheons across the nice warm switchgear-cover, and we marvel at each other's accents. Thus far we have determined that I talk tidy (good southern Anglo-Welsh, ayuh del heno) in the foreshift, and then as I get tired, I slide more and more into some sort of odd Vancouver/Seattle hybrid sociolect. Damn near Chinook Jargon by the end of the shift, at which point I am one skookum mesachie klootch anyway, and about ready to mutter hwch'ga and go bunch 'er.

Sunday I get to sleep in. Yay for Sunday. ^_^ And double yay for you being done with Zappy.

[annathepiper]

Yes, this is Conflikt's very first year. :)

Hee about the accents. Mine tends to vacillate between "more or less Seattle-ish" and "drawly Kentuckian", depending on whether I've spoken with any of my family lately, or if I'm stressed or tired. Which is fun when I'm trying to sing GBS's "Trois Navires de Ble", since that makes for several steps of accent drift!

I shall join you in celebration of Sunday sleeping in! There are rumblings of snow in the area overnight tonight, so maybe I'll have a snowy Sunday, which is perfect for sleeping in on.

[angharads-house.livejournal.com]

Snow. Yeah, snow.

It started here at 1330 and now it's coming in thick and fast, and sticking to the ground. Don't have a current forecast, other than to guess that it arrived about 8 hours early. Please be very careful out there driving -- if the temperature stays near freezing we can get the compact wet ice at all the stop-signs.

Sleeping-in Sunday is officially fsked -- just found out I have to work tomorrow, too, and that means getting up here at 0500 like usual. Buggity- buggity-damn-damn-damn. But that means I get Friday off, instead, so will have a four-day weekend in Brambleville next week, and probably some shopping at my favourite haunts in Sea Atoll (like the Goodwill outlet store, which is my fave for finding cheap glorious clothes). Highly recommended if you haven't gone there yet.

Also going to stock up on Japanese condiments at Ballinger Thriftway since they seem to have the best combination of price/selection, even better than Greenwood Market where Sis and I usually shop. Uwajimaya is way more expensive for the things I want.

Question: can you fluently speak Kantuckian when not tired/stressed? I notice that my default accent is now pretty solidly Salishaan (I've lived out here a long, long time now) maybe verging a bit on Island-side what with the Chinook loanwords, and although I code-switch when with family, it isn't stable anymore otherwise. Kind of saddening actually; everybody says that when I talk tidy it's "musical" and "cute". Myself, I just think it's a bit too fecking ethnic verging on twee, and would rather speak Queen's English (good old Received Pronunciation or BBC English); that's always been what I aimed for as an adult. I guess it's a class-consciousness thing.