In my youth I exhibited an acumen for music and was told by my parents that I was to do it all “to the glory of God” (1 Cor. 10:31). Though I studied classical music I was sort of sending energy to the Most High while I played it. My favorite composer was Bach, who […]
Music for fun vs. music for religion Read More »
Greengrass, Volume 8 on Spotify There are a couple of new tunes on this playlist, but most of the tracks in this set are old favorites that have been in my collection a dozen years or more. The Tossers – “221B/The Sneaky Priest (The Gloria Scott)”The second tune on this track also goes by the
Greengrass, Volume 8 (a Spotify playlist) Read More »
Here’s the seventh installment of my bluegrass/celtic Spotify playlist series. Sorry I don’t have time for track-by-track commentary this week! I’ve been busy researching other subjects. Hopefully the tunes will speak for themselves. Hamish Moore – "MacGregor’s Search" Olivia Korkola – "Morning Dew/Tom Ward’s Downfall/Star of Munster" Sara Watkins – "Jefferson" Natalie MacMaster – "Butcher’s
Greengrass, Vol. 7 Read More »
This week’s Spotify playlist is a mostly-fiddle-driven instrumental set. Although the orchestration is somewhat focused in this regard, the scope is quite diverse, both geographically—with tunes from America, Ireland, Scotland, and even Norway—and temporally, running the gamut from ancient traditional tunes to contemporary acoustic. “N.M.I.” – We begin with an instrumental from Sean Watkins (of
Greengrass, Volume 6 (a Spotify playlist) Read More »
I’ve gone all-celtic for this special St. Patrick’s Day edition, which includes a lot of punk rock to boost your energy for those all-day & all-night college-town parties. We’ll start off with "Shipping Up to Boston" by Boston’s own Dropkick Murphys. This tune was a big hit for them, and was used in a couple
Greengrass, Vol. 5: St. Paddy’s Edition Read More »
This one is bookended by “MacCrimmon’s Lament”. This is a tune I used to work into Scottish-inspired sets when I played church music in Malibu. The first version is by award-winning fiddler Alasdair Fraser. “Paddy Fahy’s”, etc. (Tim O’Brien) – Great tunes. Tim O’Brien’s take on them are slightly different (I wouldn’t pick the same
Greengrass, Vol. 4 Read More »
I have a considerable collection of celtic music, as I’ve been a fiddler for like a generation or something. But thanks to Spotify, I’m a few weeks into a new wave of music discovery. Generally any time you see an album with “celtic fiddle” in the title, it’s pretentious. One notable exception is Alasdair Fraser’s
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“Tin Roof” (Steve Martin) – This week’s playlist inludes a couple more tunes from Steve Martin and the Steep Canyon Rangers’ inaugural (and Grammy-winning) release, The Crow. Later we’ll also hear an instrumental version of “Calico Train.” “Oedipus Rex” (Open House) – A silly folk tune by Mark Graham, played by Portland Irish group Open House
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This is my second installment in the Greengrass Spotify playlist series. (I think I’m getting pretty good at this, if I do say so myself). One of this week’s artists, Martin Hayes, was also featured last time, so I won’t need to write much about him. Most of the others are new appearances, however, though Chris
As promised yesterday, here’s my first installment of my Greengrass playlist series on Spotify. “First Light/Dawn Rant” (Alasdair Fraser) – We begin with the opening track to Alasdair Fraser’s Dawn Dance. This is one of my favorite albums, and one of my seminal influences into celtic music. Unfortunately, there aren’t many works quite like this
Greengrass, Volume 1 Read More »