Litha

Is this the first time in almost four years of Fiddlefreak reviews that I’ve let an entire month pass without a post? Gack! So here we go with the first review of 2012, and by God it was worth the wait. Scotland’s Aaron Jones and his partner Claire Mann make up half of a brillant new Celtic-German group called Litha. They just released their new record with an official launch at Glasgow’s huge annual music festival Celtic Connections.

Dancing of the Light (on Artes Records) contains 8 songs and 6 instrumentals from Scotland, Ireland and Germany that range from introspective contemporary folk to raging sets of traditional jigs and reels. Words cannot express the beauty evoked by Litha in this brilliant release. With excellent choice of material, impeccable performances, and exquisite production values, this is a master work of artistic creativity and execution.

Litha did not spring to life fully formed. In fact, the quartet released a previous album titled “Until the Cows Come Home” under the moniker of 2Duos. From the band’s website:

The 2Duos started out as a collaboration between Claire Mann and Aaron Jones from Scotland and Gudrun Walther and Jürgen Treyz from Germany. Although initially 2Duos started out as an experimental collaboration, we enjoyed playing and touring together so much that we decided to take the ‘project’ further and form a permanent band with a new name. ‘Litha’ is an old Anglo-Saxon word for the month of June, the time of light and the summer solstice celebrations. The band first met at Wimborne Folk Festival in England during the height of the summer in 2006 and so Litha felt like the perfect name for the band.

Dancing of the Light

Litha consists of Gudrun Walther (accordion, fiddle, vocals), Claire Mann (flute, fiddle, whistles, vocals), Jürgen Treyz (guitar, dobro, vocals), and Aaron Jones (bouzouki, guitar, vocals). Jürgen did all engineering, mixing, and mastering, and the band did all its own arranging and production for Dancing of the Light. Simply amazing.

LISTEN: Rosie´s Reels

LISTEN: Gypsy

LITHA WEBSITE

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Colleen Raney

Colm MacCárthaigh

Portland singer Colleen Raney is a rising star on the West Coast Irish music scene. (Previously reviewed HERE.) Her new record, titled Cuan, is a duo project with Seattle-based Colm MacCárthaigh, who plays guitar and cittern. Together they cover a nice range of Celtic material with style and grace, bringing a lovely lift to both old favorites and obscure gems that range from traditional to contemporary pieces. A strong contribution to the pantheon of Celtic song, Cuan will help to put Portland on the Irish music map! Enjoy these samples.

Cuan

LISTEN: Bound for Caledonia

LISTEN: Western Highway

Colleen Raney Website

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Colleen Raney

The dark and rainy Pacific Northwest continues to produce an endless stream of brilliant folk music, and it was on display everywere at the recent Northwest Folkife Festival. The seething mass of humanity that is NW Folkife was held recently in downtown Seattle, in the shadow of her famous landmark, the Space Needle. Folkies came out in droves to this event, from raucous tatooed crusties to polished professionals, picking and sawing and dancing and singing, an estimated quarter-million in all, over four days.

Lark

Singer Colleen Raney was one of the polished ones, mesmerizing the crowded plaza with her lilting songs of the Irish and Scottish traditions. In a hectic backstage environment, guitarist Casey Neill kindly passed along copies of her two albums. Both are absolutely lovely, as was her stage show: her singing angelic and her backing band culled from the royalty of the Portland Irish music scene. Here are two selections from her new release titled “Lark.” Recommended for all fans of traditional Celtic song!

LISTEN: Patrick Street

LISTEN: Otterburn

WEBSITE

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Heidi Talbot

Unlike here in the States—where trad folk and indie-pop are separated by a Berlin Wall of narrow thinking—folk music in Scotland and Ireland thrives in an environment where a rich hybrid of old Celtic and new folk can interbreed. From this fertile brew comes Heidi Talbot’s second solo album The Last Star, set to be released October 4th 2010 on Navigator Records. In close collaboration with her partner John McCusker, Heidi has produced a beautiful crossover record that successfully spans modern folk and traditional Celtic themes.

Navigator Records is giving away a free download of this old and now refurbished song “Hang Me” from The Last Star. “My good friend Kris Drever wrote the melody for this song and joins me on vocals,” says Heidi. “He gave me a Garageband version of him singing it when I told him I was on the hunt for songs. The lyrics are traditional. I added the last verse from a version Peggy Seeger recorded.”

LISTEN: Hang Me

A native of rural County Kildare in Ireland, Heidi now calls Edinburgh her home. Following a 5-year stint with New York’s Cherish the Ladies, she released her first solo release In Love + Light at Glasgow’s Celtic Connections festival in 2008, to broad critical acclaim. Comparisons to North England’s famous singer Kate Rusby are inevitable: her vocal style is similar, and Rusby has also worked closely with the ubiquitous producer and multi-instrumentalist John McCusker. The Last Star is a lovely Sunday-morning record: a low-key, mellow soundtrack for sipping tea and stroking your cat.

LISTEN: Willie Taylor

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Artist Website

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Rebecca Lomnicky and David Brewer

Inspired

I’ve said it before, and I’ll say it again. One of the best things about being a music blogger is when one of my friends releases a record that turns out to be Fiddlefreak-worthy. Such is the case with the album “Inspired,” a lovely new collaboration from champion Scottish fiddler Rebecca Lomnicky and piper David Brewer, of Molly’s Revenge.

Oregon native Rebecca Lomnicky is an award-winning young fiddler whose playing brims over with grace and passion, while David Brewer shreds just about any instrument he can get his hands on (on this record: highland bagpipes, Scottish smallpipes, bodhran, whistles, guitar, bouzouki, and mandolin.) Most of the tunes on this all-instrumental release were written by either Rebecca or David, or both. The repertoire here runs the full gamut from grand marches and sentimental airs, to whimsical jigs and raging reels. Recommended for all fans of traditional Scottish music, this record from Rebecca and David is truly an “Inspired” piece of mighty music! With special guests Natalie Haas on cello and Jeffrey Spero of the Syncopaths on piano.

LISTEN: The Panda

David Brewer Website

Rebecca Lomnicky Website

Listen or Buy on CD Baby

WATCH: Brewer & Lomnicky, with Cary Novotny on guitar:

YouTube courtesy of David Hopfer and Pagurus13