Artist	Song
Van Morrison and The Chieftains	Star Of The County Down [Irish Heartbeat] (2:43)
Mßnus Lunny	The Exile Of Erin / I Mo Sheasamh Ar An Trß (As I Stand On The Beach) [At It Again] (5:41)
Bob Dylan	Restless Farewell [The Times They Are A-Changin'] (5:34)
Afro Celt Sound System	Lagan [Further In Time] (4:04)
Andy M. Stewart	The Gaberlunzie Man [Man In The Moon] (3:56)
The Clancy Brothers, Robbie O'Connell, Tommy Makem	When The Ship Comes In [The Bob Dylan 30th Anniversary Concert Celebration, Disc 1] (4:23)
Sirocco	Weary Maid / Dance To Your Shadow [Voyage] (5:03)
Allen Ginsberg	Wales Visitation [Holy Soul Jelly Roll, Disc 3: Ah!] (6:49)
BTla Fleck and the Flecktones	Star Of The County Down (instrumental) [Flight Of The Cosmic Hippo] (4:22)
The Chieftains and the Rolling Stones	The Rocky Road To Dublin [The Wide World Over] (4:17)
Silly Wizard	The Fisherman's Song / Lament For The Fisherman's Wife [Wild & Beautiful] (8:33)
SinTad O'Connor	Troy [The Lion And The Cobra] (6:34)
Van Morrison	For Mr. Thomas [The Philosopher's Stone, Disc 2] (4:15)
Brian Byrne	The Parting Glass [The Essential Irish Folk Collection, Disc 1] (3:21)

Comment:

All about Celtic music, and how its tendrils have spread practically everywhere in the musical world these days...

We start off with a rip-roaring reading of the traditional "Star Of The County Down" by the one and only Van the Man, backed by superstar Irish ensemble The Chieftains, and Irish folk is as true as it ever was... next a seemingly standard Irish ballad, but it's, Mßnus Lunny's performance of his own setting of poet Thomas Campbell's "The Exile Of Erin" from shared album with Andy M. Stewart no less...

Bob Dylan's certainly not a Celt, but the Clancy Brothers inspired him greatly, and there's probably not a soul who minds Dylan's theft of meat of the traditional "The Parting Glass" for his beautiful, third-album-ending wanderer's lament... Speaking of Celtic cross-fertilization, maybe no one's more serious here than the dance-ecstasy-committed Afro Celt Sound System, whose "Lagan" from their third album clears Dylan's Proustian haze nicely... then that warm-hearted Scotsman, Andy M. Stewart, delightedly singing a tale supposedly written by, and also starring, King James V of Scotland himself...

"When The Ship Comes In" is of course the Dylan tune also featured on The Times They Are A-Changin', without much obvious Celtic ancestry compared to his other tunes of the time, perhaps, but when the Clancy Brothers pay Zimmy back for the recognition he gave them in this live recording, you'll swear this tune's hundreds of years old... Sirocco is an Australian folk ensemble committed to engulfing the entire circle of the world's folk traditions into its measly four members, who combine to play over 40 instruments and sing on the Voyage album alone; both "Weary Maid" and "Dance To Your Shadow" are traditional tunes from the Hebrides Islands north of Scotland...

Allen Ginsberg's drone-enhanced poem "Wales Visitation", at the center of the mix, owes the least here to traditional Celtic music, but nevertheless his hippie-era-Arcadian depiction of the Welsh countryside still feeds into the mystical Celticism of such luminaries as Dylan Thomas and W. B. Yeats... and then we come down onto the soft hillside of revisitings: the Flecktones, for all their pretensions to be serious a jazz ensemble, are really strictly for fun, and their "Star Of The County Down", compared to this mix's opening track, demonstrates just how far apart two interpretations of the same tune can be... just as soon as the new wordless Star runs down, the hearty Chieftains themselves return with, of all groups, the Rolling Stones in tow, and the Irishmen manage to completely envelop the Englishmen in the traditional "Rocky Road To Dublin"'s high sound-fusion diplomacy... whereupon that modern Scottish hero, Andy M. Stewart, makes a glorious return under the aegis of his original band and star vehicle, Silly Wizard, on a reading of his own heartbreakingly adagio "Fisherman's Song"...

SinTad O'Connor, who really after everything was said and done still had to be on this mix, breaks the mood brilliantly, then, with the coiled-up intensity and fire she brings to her most traditionally Celtic song on The Lion And The Cobra... When Van Morrison makes his triumphant return with "For Mr. Thomas", circles complete themselves: it's the tribute to Dylan Thomas -- Ginsberg says "ding!" -- by that other Irish folk bard of legend, Robin Williamson of the Incredible String Band... and now there's nothing left to do but drink the "Parting Glass" itself.

... ah, poetry. hmm... i made this when i thought i might be starting to go out with a lovely Irish girl of my acquaintance, and though eventually our friendship turned more towards exploring the music from the rest of the world than loving amangst the heather, i feel like i might have very well captured some of the moment's magic right here. humor me, okay?

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