Coming Soon:
July 21: Stephen Fearing, "Industrial Lullaby"
August 18: Chuck Brodsky, "Radio"
Various Artists, "Treasures Left Behind: Remembering Kate Wolf."
David Wilkie & Cowboy Celtic
"Cowboy Ceilidh"
RHR 117 * available on CD and Cassette
What could be more natural than blending traditional Celtic melodies and
instrumentation with good old Cowboy music from the American west?
It sounds like an unlikely mix, but as David Wilkie proved with "Cowboy
Celtic" and now with its follow-up "Cowboy Ceilidh," it results in
intoxicating and very imaginative music. On the album, Wilkie, who has been
called Canada's premier mandolin virtuoso by western and folk music critics,
explores the melodic link that developed between the Old and the New World.
The cowboys of the nineteenth century were often immigrants from Scotland and
Ireland, and on the western plains Gaelic melodies drifted through the evening
air at many cowboy campfires and during lonely shifts at night guard. These
melodies came to be known as cowboy music, but their foundation was in
traditional Irish, English, and Scottish folk music. The songs were brought
over from the old country and often refitted with lyrics to suit the singer's
new occupation. When you're in the middle of nowhere, nothing lifts your
spirits more than a familiar tune from home.
A Ceilidh (pronounced kay-lee) is a gathering with song, drink, dancing, and
good times, and "Cowboy Ceilidh" has the spirit of such an event. It also has
the melancholy air associated with Celtic music, which gives the album a rich,
bittersweet tone. The CD was recorded on both sides of the Atlantic, in
Ireland, Scotland, Canada, and the United States, drawing on exceptional
musicians in each location. The songs range from foot stompin' to mesmerizing
with a mix of traditional cowboy and Celtic tunes ("The Cowboyís Lament," "The
Water is Wide," and "Buffalo Skinners,"), and a few surprises (such as a
Celtic-style version of the familiar theme from "High Noon"). Also featured is
the haunting "Farewell to Coigach (Mo Shoraidh Leis A íCoigach)"--possibly the
only surviving North American cowboy song in Gaelic. Finally, "Cowboy Ceilidh"
includes more of Wilkie's own compositions and more vocals than the previous
outing, including a guest appearance by America's foremost cowboy singer,
Michael Martin Murphey.
"Cowboy Ceilidh" melts the rolling hills of Ireland into the dusty trails of
Texas; the rugged Scottish Highlands into the majestic Alberta Rockies; and
the gentle English chalk streams into the roaring rivers of Montana. With this
elegant and beautiful recording David Wilkie once again drives a herd of
western classics back to the Celtic home range.
"An intoxicating meld of Old and New world sounds, enough to make you shake
the trail dust from your jeans and wash it down with a jug of Irish Whiskey."
--Vancouver Sun
"Hauntingly beautiful, it is easy to get lost in these rich and wonderful
combinations of sounds."
--Cowboy Magazine
"If anything, the melancholy beauty and earthy, romantic moods are even more
striking [on 'Cowboy Ceilidh']."
--Calgary Herald
"Sometimes rollicking and footstomping, elsewhere displaying majestic, solemn
beauty, this is rich melodic music to treasure."
--Folk Roots
"This is what the Chieftains might sound like playing around a great plains
campfire."
--Brum Beat
"A perfect marriage between the dry, dusty North American heartland and the
rain-soaked, misty Scottish Highlands."
--Sing Out!
Contact: Megan Rubiner Zinn or Emilie Liepa
Red House Records
P.O. Box 4044
St. Paul, MN 55104
800-695-4687 or 612-644-4161
612-644-4248 (fax)
rhrpub@aol.com (Zinn)
RHRRadio@aol.com (Liepa)