Susan McKeown's World Celtic Sounds

03/29/2004 01:50AM

Burbank, California, USA - World Village has released Sweet Liberty, the latest album by Irish vocalist Susan McKeown. She assembled a small group of extraordinary musicians. One of McKeown’s specialties is reviving rare songs that have yet to be explored in the current Celtic revival. Her arrangements of these songs sometimes employ traditional instrumentation but are as likely to surprise the listener with instrumentation not expected on an album of Celtic songs. “Oró Mhíle Grá” (A Thousand Times, My Love) is a fascinating collaboration between McKeown and Ensemble Tartit, a group of Tuareg musicians from Northern Mali. "There was very little arrangement beforehand: we met in the studio in Manhattan, sat down in a circle and began to sing, and it was as if we were singing the same song", says McKeown.

Mariachi Real de México provides a rich, nostalgic accompaniment to the English folk song “Eggs in her Basket.” Traditional Irish colors are also very much in evidence. The album opens with McKeown leading the instrumental quartet Flook in “The Wee Birds All Have Come and Gone.”

"Listening to Irish traditional music and song for me is like listening to stories coming down from the past which have relevance in the present", explains McKeown. "Perhaps people feel a deep connection to Irish music because it expresses deeply felt emotions to which we can all relate."

World Music Central
http://www.worldmusiccentral.org/article.php/20040327135055151