I am going to post about my Minnesota adventures tomorrow, but seeing as today is Tuesday and I'm supposed to post about Ballad (according to my own schedule) and I also promised Celtic music and because I feel like being evangelical about Twilight with Cheeseburgers, I decided that today's post will be a massive linkspam post to those who are truly looking to kill time/ stalk me/ find more Celtic music/ watch hilarious Twilight spoofs.

Sound good?

Good.

(if you said "no", I'm choosing to interpret that as "yes").

First of all, a couple Twilight favorite things, something both Twihards and Twihaters can enjoy. They are not new. But they are brilliant.

First, the insanely funny Twilight with Cheeseburgers, spoofing the trailer.


And cleolinda 's hideously funny rundown of Twilight (she does all of them and they are all bed-wettingly amusing).


Okay. Celtic music. Recommending Celtic music online is hard because it requires rather more faith than I'd prefer; it's hard to find places to listen to it before you buy it. I am a total geek for it, having played in a band all through college, grown up with it, and written two books steeped in it. I really, really want to do this long music-geek post about how the joy of Celtic traditional music is that there are four hundred versions of every single song and tune and how there are the gateway drugs to Celtic music, like Clannad, and then there are the hardcore Celtic bands for those well-endowed in the Irish dept., like the Bothy Band, and there are the ones that have a certain charm, especially when two sheets to the wind, like the Wolfe Tones. (There are also unforgivable sins like Flogging Molly who I prefer to pretend don't exist).

But I won't. Because you guys would glaze, and I hate it when you glaze. So instead here's a playlist (I'm sorry, it's long -- I was going to trim and imeem is not flexible that way) of good places to start. Annoyingly, several of my favorite bands are not on imeem or playlist or youtube. Because some people are just so cool only I know about them. Actually, it's probably a good thing. Because otherwise this post would fall over under the weight of its own links. So. Playlist.

Oh, before I post this, the usual preamble. If you love anything on a playlist, please do the music industry and musicians a favor by buying the track on iTunes or wherever, rather than just hitting repeat on it 800 times. /end rant



Ballad Celtic Music

(i pretty much listened to "Fir Bolg" and "Seo Mo Leaba" in rotation for Nuala's trips to the faerie dance, if anyone's wondering)


If any of you are converted by the playlist -- which is embarrassingly not sorted for maximum listening pleasure, I die of the shame of it -- here is a list of bands to check out.

Victoria Police Pipe Band (rockin' pipers) - try "Hellbound Train"
Lunasa - (excellent instrumental, flute driven Irish band) -try the album Otherworld first
Susan McKeown - (strong female vocalist) - try "Bushes & Briars" and the album Lowlands
Ashley MacIsaac - (totally insane Cape Breton fiddler) - try early stuff before he went totally crazy
Old Blind Dogs - (solid Scottish band with some funky rhythms) - start with The World's Room album
Battlefield Band - (hugely prolific Scottish band that covers a lot of trad favorites) - try Home is Where the Van Is album.
Silly Wizard - (a classic Scottish band. Just the standard.) Note the favs in the playlist.
The Chieftains - (a hugely important and now hugely commercial Irish trad band) - older albums super traditional, newer have celeb guests
The Rankin Family - (a Cape Breton family that sings lush close harmonies) - try "An Innis Aigh"
Nomos - (Irish band with fun vocals and wicked drumming) - try "Set You Free" and the creepy "I Love the Trees"
Carlos Nunez - (totally talented, plays in the Celtic/ Gallic tradition - great Spanish sound) - try Brotherhood album
Cran - (lovely small Irish band, hard to find) - try "Newry Boat Song" the saddest song ever.
Sileas - (great Scottish harp duo with nice harmonies) - I have the Play on Light album.
Solas - (Irish powerhouse band, traditional on steroids) - I like the self-titled album a lot. (in playlist)
Altan - (a classic Irish band with nice female vocals) - Runaway Sunday is a nice album to start
John Doyle - (great singer/songwriter) - Evening Comes Early is a great album (in playlist)
Capercaillie - (a sort of wishy-washy Scottish band ... dangerously new agey in spots). Try "Ailein Duinn"
Deanta - (fantastic Northern Irish trad band with harp and flute) - entire album is good: Whisper of a Secret
Leahy - (crazy-good Cape Breton group that does traditional and wildly not traditional.) Self titled album is still my favorite.
Natalie MacMaster - (Amazing Cape Breton fiddler who's now married to lead fiddler from Leahy, last I heard) - try Compilations album
Kila - (awesome fusion band) - you can't buy a bad album of theirs
The Bothy Band - (old Irish trad band from the 70s. Still rocks.) - "The Maids of Mitchellstown" is great.
Planxty - (accordians. Irish people. Trad. Go for it). - Check out the playlist for my favs of theirs.
Andy Stewart - (lead singer of Silly Wizard, went solo) - try "Dublin Lady" & "Take Her in Your Arms"
Seven Nations - (a long-running Scottish trad/ rock band that used to be cooler) - try self titled album
Wolfstone - (fun Scottish band with some funky stuff going on) - try "The Piper & the Shrew" for a taste of their sound

Um. I kind of got carried away. I'm backing away from the computer now.