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Before we dive in to the music I love best, you've got to check this site out. If you know what you like and want to find more like it, this is incredible. Pandora is even more amazing... it lets you create a customized Internet radio station that is ideally suited to your unique tastes. The more data you provide, the more eerily accurate it becomes. It is a joy.
Radio Rivendell plays great music to read and write fantasy and anything else, by. Recommended!
I also adore Folk Alley, which offers folk (you probably guessed that), acoustic, and Celtic music.
I love folk, contemporary acoustic and Celtic music... although it's actually pretty hard to find music I don't like. Some favorites include the late great Stan Rogers and Harry Chapin, and the under-appreciated (really) Jimmy Buffett. He's done a lot more than Margaritaville, folks.
I also love REM (I saw them play before they'd settled on that name!), Simon and Garfunkel (and the songs of Paul Simon), Indigo Girls, U2, the Beatles, David Wilcox, Annie Lenox, Mike Cross, Cheryl Wheeler, Banks & Shane, Luka Bloom, 10,000 Maniacs and Natalie Merchant, The Eagles, Johnny Mercer and the Cranberries.
Speaking of the Beatles, is Paul dead?
My friend Bill Shaouy is in a band called Desmond Drive. They are fantastic.
I'm also very fond of Big Bad Voodoo Daddy, Great Big Sea, and Barenaked Ladies. It seems like just yesterday that I discovered Captain Tractor, a band that always makes me smile. They are terrific. Who can resist the amazing Sarah McLachlan? Don't miss Sheri Kling.
I've also just learned about the amazing Jennifer Daniels and Michaela Foster Marsh. Jennifer has an lovely, powerful voice and is an extraordinary songwriter. The lovely and talented Michaela is a Scottish singer/songwriter making her homes in Ottawa, Canada and New York City. She sings like an angel, and her lyrics, inspired by mythology, love, sex, loss, and spirituality, are truly astonishing. Charles de Lint and MaryAnn Harris turned me on both to Michaela and the incredible Fred Eaglesmith. I also adore the amazing Beth Nielson Chapman.
Can't remember the words to a favorite tune? If you're a folk music fan, there are a couple of sites with the lyrics to tons of your favorites. Visit the Digital Tradition Folk Music Database. Here are the words to some of your favorite Irish Pub Songs, and here is a searchable database of great Irish Songs. Here is the mother lode of lyrics to Irish and Celtic favorites.
Like good, rollicking Celtic music? Here in Atlanta, don't miss The Buddy O'Reilly Band or Emerald Rose .
Here's singer/songwriter Loreena McKennitt's homepage, and here are pages for Altan, De Dannan, The Roundstone Buskers, and The Tannahill Weavers, some special favorites. Clannad now has a very nice Web site. Natalie MacMaster is astonishing. Kelly Stewart harps like a goddess. Mary Black! Sheoda has a very nice, pleasant sound that's just grand for listening at home on a comfortable evening.
Robin Williamson is the last Celtic Bard. Well, so far. Archie Fisher belongs on the shelf next to Stan Rogers. The music of Eric Bogle and Tommy Sands has done almost as much for peace as that of the legendary Pete Seeger himself.
To be honest, I have to many Celtic favorites to list. But don't worry: this page may well be the ultimate source for Celtic music on the 'net.
On a related note (note... get it? note!), if you've ever wondered just what those cool sounding Latin lyrics in Carl Orff's Carmina Burana are all about, click here. If you don't know the story, the words were found in a Benedictine abbey about sixty miles south of Munich in 1803. Since they were found it an abbey, the discoverers thought the poems, dating back to the 12th Century, must surely be holy. However, they aren't quite as sacred as the finders thought. In fact, they're quite bawdy. And rather witty, too.
In Atlanta, my favorite spots for live music include Eddie's Attic in Decatur and the Variety Playhouse in Little Five Points.
Richard Repp is a good friend and an excellent musician.
What does music look like? The Shape of Song is an attempt to answer this seemingly paradoxical question. The custom software in this work draws musical patterns in the form of translucent arches, allowing viewers to see--literally--the shape of any composition available on the Web. The resulting images reflect the full range of musical forms, from the deep structure of Bach to the crystalline beauty of Philip Glass.
Renaissance Music! In the 15th through the early 17th centuries, music began to be printed and sold. Musical themes spread rapidly throughout Europe, particularly those developed by the troubadours of Provence in earlier centuries. With the coming of the Renaissance, the Church lost some of its power to control ideas. The notion of courtly love, so despised by the clergy, was celebrated once again. Of course it was hardly taken seriously, but its imagery was still powerful and it sounded good. There is a long standing debate over whether England’s King Henry VIII did, in fact, write “Greensleeves,” one of the most celebrated, and certainly most frequently performed, love songs ever written. It’s doubtful whether we can ever know for sure. This much we do know . . .
For music (and literature, folk roots, art, and more) reviews and news, you can't beat Rambles or the Green Man Review. There's some rivalry between the two, but frankly, I like them both. The music scholars among you may appreciate this exhaustive Database of Recorded American Music.
