Various Artists - Celtic Woman 3 Ireland

What the hell? This isn’t by Celtic Woman! It’s from a separate compilation series, also called Celtic Woman, run by the private label of long-running Berkeley, CA radio show Hearts of Space. And it somehow has songs from some fairly big names in the Irish music sphere. Good ones!

I bet my Old Lady bought this thinking it was the band (or did she buy the band, thinking it was the comp?). The only real stinker is “The Star of County Down” which sounds more like a cheap Mando-pop song from the 90s. Of the traditional songs, “Down by the Sally Gardens” is quite powerfully performed, “The Green Fields of Canada” shows me where Lankum’s schtick is more traditional than I thought, and “Oro Mo Bhaidin” is genuinely moving for something I can’t understand. The rest of the songs kind of fade into the over-reverb trap that cinematic pseudo-celtic music does. Well, further into the trap. The standout is “Little Look” by Eleanor McEvoy. Just three vocal overdubs and a bass guitar. It stands starkly against the rest of the record, and it may not work great in that context, but as a solitary song it’s the one I like the most.

The graphic design is more legible than Celtic Woman, though still very 00s. It is also missing bios and lyrics. The songs on this compilation convinced me to check out some old 1960s and 1970s artists from the second Irish traditional music revival like Paddy Tunney, Planxty, and Moving Hearts. Should I feel bad that this stuff moves me? As a member of the Irish diaspora who has more ties to his comparitively miniscule Italian and Syrian heritage, a little. As a man, the macho side of me encourages to say yes. But fuck it. The sequencing is only OK, but I like most the songs here. This album sounds great on headphones. I’d listen to it again.

Celtic Woman 3 Ireland is a bad compilation, but I like it.