phenomeNEWS - This Month's Music Review

This Month's Music Review
by Greg Ozimek
music@wwnet.net

TIPS ON BEING IRISH

Are you Irish? Want to be? How ‘bout for a day?

Put an apostrophe in your name: O’zimek!

Put an ‘O’ in front of your name: O’Fontaine

Speaking Irish in Ireland: Good luck, it’s the Gaelic language.

That’s the crack: Craic (Gaelic) means good/cool/fun but also good times, as well as scandal/gossip/goings on: Last night was great craic!

Punt (Irish pound): They’re gone. Now you must use Euros.

Leprechauns: Sprites who make shoes for elves, but only one shoe, never a pair. Catch one and never look away and you get his pot-o-gold. And don’t ever kiss one (there are no tooth brushes on the astral plane).

Blarney Stone: Kiss it and acquire the gift of eloquence, but you should know that the location of the stone makes it very, very difficult and life threatening to kiss.

The stone is believed to be half of the Stone of Scone which originally belonged to Scotland. Scottish Kings were crowned over the stone, because it was believed to have special powers. The stone was given to Cormac McCarthy by Robert the Bruce in 1314 in return for his support in the Battle of Bannockburn.

SHAM ROCK “The Album”
Square Biz Records
Malaco/Select-O-Hits

This CD, SHAM ROCK “The Album” is so much fun that it quickly got transferred to my iPod, ‘nuf said.

Well, OK then, here’s more.

If you’re beginning an Irish CD collection just buy this CD and be happy, no worries. SHAM ROCK “The Album” is a fair and good example of fine, rollicking, happy, wild Irish music sprinkled with slow, centering ballads like Danny Boy and Mother’s Song sung by Anne Barrett whose silky voice brings the eons of lush Irish landscapes to the fore.

Definitely Irish cross-over of Trad (classics) and contemporary music.

Funnily, there are songs some of us grew up with which are now presented with the distinctive Irish/Sham Rock style!

Take, for example, The Battle of New Orleans. The Sham Rock version is zooming, almost like the old 45 RPM single played at 78 RPM. (Remember RPM!? Remember 45 singles? No? Go google it!). Maybe some lyrics will jolt you and make you pull out your Davey Crocket hat and musket from the attic (I know I’m going to receive calls for those lyrics, so, here you go):

In 1814 we took a little trip

Along with Colonel Jackson down the mighty Mississip.

We took a little bacon and we took a little beans

And we caught the bloody British in the town of New Orleans.

Chorus:

We fired our guns and the British kept a’comin.

There wasn’t nigh as many as there was a while ago.

We fired once more and they began to runnin’ on

Down the Mississippi to the Gulf of Mexico.

Fits right in with the Sham Rock style, it does!

Of course the SHAM ROCK “The Album” version is distinctly Sham Rock! and as toe tapping as their lead tune, Tell Me Ma, which was on the UK pop charts for 17 weeks, selling over 200,000 singles (in UK) and was included in a compilation album which sold over 3 million in the UK and Eire.

Also included in SHAM ROCK “The Album” are tunes that popular line dances are performed to: Ballymore Boys, Whiskey In The Jar, Donegan’s Reel and Carnival.

SHAM ROCK “The Album” is crack, a wild Irish ride!

Casualties of Retail CD
Enter the Haggis – Live DVD
Enter the Haggis

Oh, yes, ETH: Celtic music meets Celtic rock meets Ireland meets electronica meshed with hip lyrics, bluegrass-fusion singalongs.

The DVD Enter the Haggis: Live at Lanigan’s Ball aired on PBS affiliates through out the US and Canada in June of 2004. The documentary/ performance was filmed at Plattsburgh, New York’s Hartman Theatre, in December of 2003.

Although the CD’s songs (on Casualties of Retail) are primarily a fusion of Celtic, bluegrass and rock, elements of Latin, blues and funk can be heard throughout the recording.

It’s craic and the craic is mighty!