Music Week: Gaelic Storm

On Wednesday, I promised some music that is a bit more "rowdy" and "raucous". After some unavoidable delays, I deliver with the group Gaelic Storm. You may be saying to yourself "Self, I've never heard of this group". Well, there's a good chance you have heard their music and just didn't know it. You see, they had a small part as the "steerage band" in a little movie called Titanic, playing the music to which you see Leonardo DiCaprio and Kate Winslet dancing with the other Third Class passengers. So now that you've going "ahhh", I'll let you know a little more about them.

Gaelic Storm is a California-based based, playing mainly Celtic infused music. They use many traditional Celtic instruments (pipes, whistles, bodhrán) and some instruments that from far outside the Celtic tradition (djembe, didgeridoo). They started out playing in a pub managed by band member Patrick Murphy, and their songs are best described as pub music. They play a few drinking songs, some jigs and reels, and other music that would fit right in an any Irish pub. They've even translated "Scalliwag" - one of the songs from their last album, Bring Yer Wellies - into Simlish.

Here are a couple of examples of their music. This "video" (you hear the music and get to watch the album cover for their best of collection, Special Reserve do nothing) is of "Johnny Tarr". It's a song about a hard-drinking man who put away the booze like other men breathe. When he finally dies (in a bar, of course) the doctor pronounces "It's not what you're thinking; this man died of thirst!" They often perform this live pretending to be someone else singing it (like Kenny Chesney or Michael Jackson).

Another of their fan favorites is the traditional song "Beggarman". I couldn't find a YouTube video of "Beggarman" that was descent and did not feature the videographer singing along (usually poorly, I might add). But you can go to their website and see most of the song as they perform it live on the ESPN show Cold Pizza.

BONUS! For those of you still reading, and just in time for St. Patrick's Day, you can download their song "Kiss Me I'm Irish" for free. Click here for the download.

Tags: Gaelic Storm, Celtic, Pub, Titanic

Music Week: Two for one Celtic music

Today's musical offering is coming from the Celt/Folk genre. As an added bonus, today and today only you get two musicians for the price of one! Well, there's a good reason for that. John McCusker and Kate Rusby were married for several years, and John has produced and played on almost all of Kate's albums while she has often added vocals on his albums. Thusly, for me at least, their music is strongly tied together.

For those of you unfamiliar with the work of these two, I'll give you a small introduction. John McCusker is a Scotsman, virtuoso fiddler, and manages to play cittern, whistles, and piano skillfully. He spent a decade playing with The Battlefield Band before striking out on his own, paying homage to traditional songs as well as composing original music for his albums. He's produced a spate of successful and highly praised folk albums in the last few years. This year he is touring with Mark Knopfler (of Dire Straits fame). Oh, and he sports a spiky mohawk - how many virtuoso fiddlers can pull that off?

Here's a YouTube clip of John McCusker playing with Michael McGoldrick (himself a renowned Celtic musician) and a few others (not sure the song). The beautiful sounds are more than worth listening to, and you can simply lose yourself in music for hours.

Kate Rusby is an English folk singer whose voice and music have won her great acclaim. Her voice is not perfect, yet it is those slight imperfections which make it all the more enthralling. She has raised folk music back into the spotlight in the UK. Playing fiddle, guitar, and piano as well as vocal, she is a one-woman band; but she commonly has a group of excellent musicians who collaborate with her. With 10 albums (solo and with others) and numerous guest appearances, she has been quite busy the last decade.

Here is a clip of her singing "Sir Eglamore" from her first solo album, Hourglass. Look behind her and you'll see the spiky mohawk of John McCusker playing fiddle. Again, simply beautiful music.

Today's musicians may be considered a bit bucolic; well, most of their music is definitely at a slower pace than what many people like to listen. I'll be correcting that tomorrow with a group that is perhaps best described as "rowdy" or "raucous". Tune in for Thursday's music!

Tags: John McCusker, Kate Rusby, Celtic, Folk, Gaelic

Finally, a definitive answer to Kat's favorite question

Here you go, Kat. 21.

21

HT: Erin

Music Week: GLAD

True to my word, I continue Music Week here at Euphrony Rambles. Today, I focus on one of my all-time favorite groups, GLAD. They've been around since the late 70's and are perhaps best know for their tight vocal arrangements and jazz leanings. Listening to their lyrics, which often are simply scripture put to music, frequently encourages me and reminds me of things I too easily forget.

As I said, they're vocal arrangements are amazing. They began, early in their career, to include one a cappella song on each album. They were popular enough that they released a whole album of vocal music, The A Cappella Project. This lead to an alternating of "vocal" and "band" albums - a pattern they follow to this day. Other special projects include The Symphony Project, recorded with the London Symphony Orchestra, and A Cappella Gershwin. Their a cappella arrangements of some ancient hymns ("And Can It Be" and "Be Thou My Vision") are the standards by which I compare any version of these songs.

Here are a couple or their classic songs:

"Be Ye Glad" - Their signature song; just five guys around a piano. The video may be lacking, but the music is beautiful. To this day, this song remains one of my absolute favorites.

"Variations on a Hymn" - Often just called that hymn thing, this is their shtick giving a history of how contemporary Christian music got started. They trace back to Martin Luther and Charles Wesley, and how they would set lyrics to bar songs and use them in worship. They take the same lyrics and then translate them to how they may have been written in the 1940's (jazzy big band), in Appalachia (bluegrass), on a 1960's beach (surfer), and today. It's a longer song (about 10 minutes) but is pretty cool. There is a YouTube video of "Variations on a Hymn", but I could never get it to load. Here is a link to the full audio of the song.

Are you familiar with Glad's music? What do you think of the songs? They're not on many radio station playlists these days, but they are in constant rotation on my iPod. If this is an introduction for you, I hope you find their work enjoyable!

Tags: GLAD, A Cappella, CCM, Jazz, Pop

Music Moday: Covers

Here we are on Music Monday again, and Kat has challenged us to find some good cover songs. I've heard a few covers that I've really liked over the years, and more than a few that I could just do without. A lot of these not-so-great covers have been found on tribute albums, where the newer artist emotes to an obnoxious degree while trying to "honor" the original artist's genius. But about three years ago I heard about the tribute album for Wes King, recorded to help him raise money for cancer treatments.

I really like Wes's music, and by many accounts he is a great guitarist and musician. (I heard a deejay talking once about how, in an interview, he asked if Wes could play one of his songs. Wes said he used a capo for that one, but didn't bring it. The interview continued, and a few minutes later Wes said he could play it now - he had transposed the song to another key in his head while talking to the deejay. To me, that's impressive.) I decided to give a listen to some clips from the album, called Life is Precious, which has a mix of established artists (Phil and Cheri Keaggy, Scott Krippayne) and new artists (downhere, Addison Road).

One new artist, whom I had never heard of before, was Luminous. Since they were covering "The Robe" - one of Wes's most popular songs - I felt I had to check them out. I was impressed. They took a good song from a soft pop sound and turned it into a power rock styling . View the video they made and you'll see what I mean (I had issues getting anything embedded here - sorry). The beautiful scenery for the video is their backyard - they're based in Hawaii, play some in the U.S. and Europe, but spend a lot of time in Australia and New Zealand

If you liked Luminous' style, they have just released a new album, which you can find out more about on their site.

(Tip: This post begins a music-focused week here at Euphrony Rambles. Stay tuned for more tips and tidbits that might interest you, or your third cousin's second neighbor's uncle on his mother's side!)

Tags: Tribute Album, Cover Song, Wes King, Luminous

Oops!

Brant really cracks me up. I mean, who else do I "know" who has personally hung up on Barack Obama - not once, but twice! I hope he doesn't expect any calls from the Democratic party to fill a ticket anytime soon.

I wish I could say I've hung up on someone important. The best I can do is a recording of Laura Bush. But that's a recording, so it doesn't really count, does it? I did show up an hour late to an interview, once, and still got the job; but that still isn't measuring up to Brant's claim to infamy. Oh well, maybe someday I can dis a potential future leader of the free world. I'll keep hoping. (Oh, yeah, I also once tripped and made a fool of myself while walking away from serenading a girls tent with some other guys at summer camp. But that's still not in the same league.)

What about you? What are you're biggest goofs (that you're willing to own up to)? Go ahead - we all need a good laugh every now and again. And I promise not to snicker too much at your discombobulation. Honest!

There's a new sheriff in town . . .

. . . and we're a headin' for a shootout.

For the last four-odd years, the Euphrony family has lived under the rule of a benign dictator. As despots go, you can get much worse. She's little, cute, and more likely to use a tear in her eye than torture to get her way. Mrs. E and I have, perhaps, indulged her too much; she persists in thinking she's the boss, while we pull the strings behind her back.

But Lil'E has a rude awakening heading her way. There's a coup in the making. Liler'E is finding his voice, and he's posting notice: I'm the boss, now! He looks a little like Al Capone, and though he's still young his heavy hand (or teeth, actually) is being felt.

It's tragic, really, watching such a benevolent dictator realize her rule is beginning to crumble. At first she just didn't realize what a new child in the house would mean; but after a while she caught on. More time for Liler'E meant less time for her. The backlash has mostly occurred at bedtime and at 3 am as "bad dreams" make her want to sleep with mom and dad (who are truly the innocent victims in this). Now, though, little brother has started making his opinions known.

"EEEHHNNNNHHNNH" (translation: I'd like to see you try and make me eat anything except fruit and turkey hot dogs today.)

"UUUGGGGHHNNNH" (translation: Sister, get out of my face! Seriously, haven't you heard about personal space! I am not your little doll, I am a LIVING BREATHING PERSON!) - usually accompanied by a stiff arm that would make any football coach proud

"MAMAMAMAMAMAMAMAMAMAMAMAMAMA" (mostly self-explanatory, but often a message that dad just don't cut it)

Non-verbal communication is also big. For example, Liler'E knows the signs for "milk" and "more" - but he only uses "milk" as an all-purpose message to get me what I want, now! Also prominent is the thrown toy (Lord help us when he learns accuracy) in a fit of temper. This dictator, like many under the age of five, would prefer a naturalist society - clothing banned.

But big sis still has her say. Being more mobile, she has the ability to determine what little brother wants to play with next and rush to it first, thus claiming priority when they fight over the same toy. She oft employs the phrase "no, no, no" when talking to Liler'E and uses her above-stated dexterity to cut off access to anything that, in her estimation, is inappropriate for a 12 month old to get into. All of which are activities she deems fitting her self-proclaimed status of "Little Mother"

Luckily, love has conquered all and the family is still mostly happy through the power struggle. My biggest fear: that the Little E's will form a junta and overrun the real power-center of the family. Yep, the teen years are on the horizon and mom and dad will be in a true struggle for control of the family - ah, the joy of anticipation.

So, how are your little tyrants?

Hello old friend, I hope this isn't goodbye

Isn't is bizarre how blogs can bring people together again, when you haven't see or talked in years. That happened yesterday, as Mrs. E was following blog links from one friends blog to another. All of a sudden, she found that she was reading about a guy with whom we went to church while we were at Texas A&M. He is several years younger than me, so I didn't know him that well. I knew that he had (has) a big mouth and bigger personality. He is boisterous, where I am reserved, and loud to my quiet; thus, we weren't slated to be best of friends. In fact, at times he downright annoyed me. But, I got to know him better and came to realize that while we were different Brad was still a good person and very passionate about God. We've crossed paths once or twice in the last decade, but I had not heard anything about him in years until yesterday.

And now I find that hello may be goodbye.

Last year, Brad was diagnosed with a rare form of bone cancer. The doctors felt this cancer was treatable, though the road would be difficult. Then, late last month, the prognosis changed. That "rare cancer" that "rarely metastasizes", went from his leg to his lungs and is "uncharacteristically" spreading more quickly than previously documented in other cases. Their original treatment plan is out the window; Brad's cancer has no known successful treatment at this time.

He and his wife face two options. First, they can do nothing for now, facing a 6 month - 2 year prognosis. The other choice is to try an experiment chemo drug which could slow the cancer, have no effect, or speed it's growth - they don't know which. One ray of hope may be in the collective knowledge of several experts. One of Brad's oncologists is at a conference today, taking this opportunity to present his test results before a panel of doctors. Maybe they can glean some hope from this.

Please pray for Brad. Go to his wife's blog and let them know that your are praying. And pray for his little boy and girl - both about the same ages as the Little E's.

It's like a live concert, from a distance

Shaun Groves is a hard-working man. He travels the country (the world, even) playing shows to crowds of 50 to 100 (or more, or less even). For someone who was once topping the Christian music charts, that may seem a demotion. But Shaun takes it all with great aplomb. He doesn't care so much about the music as what he gets to do when he takes a break from playing. He talks about Compassion.

By many measures, his talking about Compassion at his concerts has been a great success. People listen, and are moved to help out. They choose to sponsor a child - even the poor college students manage to find $32 a month they can give up. For this tireless work, Shaun definitely deserves some respect.

But that's not all, folks. You see, Shaun (for some reason) loves his fans (even those of us who don't have the sense God gave a mule when it comes to restraining ourselves from posting on certain topics). He talks to us crazy people on the internet, in actual two-way conversations. He treats us with respect. And he tries to give us all kinds of little goodies. Like his newest endeavor - SGTV.

Starting in the last few days, Shaun has been streaming live broadcasts of his concerts. He posts a small viewer on his blog the day of the concert, or you can go to www.Mogulus.com/SGTV to watch it on a larger screen. You get to hear him live nearly every night, and I understand that the camera even points at him and not a pretty lamp sometimes.

Shaun has some pretty good music that he's made over the last few years; more importantly he has some good things to say. Worth listening to and thinking over, at the very least. Go check out his next show. And if you haven't already, consider getting involved with Compassion or another group (read about some others on Inspired to Action).

Tags: Shaun Groves, Live Music, Concert, Internet, Compassion International

New Post Label

In light of last week's highly controversial Gender Blogging post, I am creating a new post label. You see those down there, don't you. There's the word LABELS, followed by a colon and a bunch of words and phrases descriptive of the post. Well, here is a new one for you.

Things I should have run by Mrs. E first

As the label implies, it is something that I should have bounced off of my loving wife before posting, thus helping to avoid the potential necessity of hiding in a secure bunker from people I offended. Also, as the label implies, I did not first have her review the content before posting. Therefore, it is an example of my willfully seeking trouble.

For my inaugural post with this auspicious label, I present this picture. It is a picture of the bathroom sink where Mrs. E gets ready every morning. She has a habit of grabbing a drink in the morning out of the fridge, drinking less than half of it, and then forgetting to put it back in the fridge before heading out of the house with the kids. As it is hidden away in our bathroom, Mrs. E is not all that concerned about them piling up. This was actually one of the lowest points.

The astute eye will notice that there are 13 Caffeine Free Diet Coke bottles and 4 bottles of Aquafina sitting there. Mrs. E was unaware, until this moment, that I had taken this picture; but it was too perfect to pass up.

I allow Mrs. E these indulgences of messy areas. It's easier than fighting over it - there are much bigger issues in life than half-drunk cokes. It's hard for me, as my obsessive compulsive nature wants to pick the up and throw them away before she's even half done with the current drink.

Which are you? Do you have secret junk piles laying hidden from the common visitor's sight? Or, like me, do you have the kitchen cleaned and pots and pans washed and put away before you finish cooking and get dinner on the table?