posted
You'll probably love Heather Dale. She's got a lovely voice, and some wonderful songs based on Arthurian myth, Celtic tales, and many other diverse themes.
Special favourites include "Mordred's Lullaby", from her Trial of Lancelot CD, a dark and evil song sung by Morgan le Fay to her infant son; "Sedna", from The Road to Santiago, truly haunting musical retelling of the Inuit legend of Sedna, and the origins of seals, otters, whales; "Road to Santiago", from guess which CD, a song inspired by the popular Medieval pilgrimage site, Santiago de Compostella.
Her music is amazingly good at making you feel what it must have been like, whatever it was. She's wonderful, and deserves to be known better.
Forgot to mention... On her website, for all except a few tracks on her newest CD, there's preview MP3s.
posted
Awesome, I've bookmarked it to listen to in the morning (My husband's asleep right now, I'll be a good girl and not wake him up.) I could definitely use some new music. Looking forward to it.
Posts: 24 | Registered: Aug 2005
| IP: Logged |
posted
Thanks!! I love Loreena and I always stare longingly at the girl/celtic section, not wanting to buy a different artist unless I know they're good. Now I have a recommendation!
Posts: 6415 | Registered: Jul 2000
| IP: Logged |
posted
Oh cool. The last time a hatracker recommended music by starting a new thread, I got some good stuff. Posts: 14745 | Registered: Dec 1999
| IP: Logged |
posted
I really like Mummer's Dance, but I haven't heard much else. Anyone have any favorite songs they want to recommend?
Posts: 2867 | Registered: May 2005
| IP: Logged |
posted
kojabu, buy the Book of Secrets CD. It's the one with The Mummer's dance on it, and it has some wonderful other sings. "Marco Polo" is a good one, and so is "The Highwayman". I also recommend The Mask and the Mirror, which has some great stuff. Actually, I like pretty much all her recordings, but I like those two the best. Posts: 2849 | Registered: Feb 2002
| IP: Logged |
posted
My favorite Loreena album is "The Mask and the Mirror." It's just full of fantastic stuff and her journal notes about each song really made them more meaningful for me.
My absolute favorite song of hers is on that album. It's called "Full Circle."
Another great song is on "The Visit" and it's her setting of Shakespeare's "Fear no more the heat o' the sun" speach. Wonderful stuff.
Posts: 6415 | Registered: Jul 2000
| IP: Logged |
posted
Oh, yes. Full Circle is one of my favourites of hers. Also, Santiago (especially the live version).
"Road to Santiago" reminds me of both of them. Just as Full Circle captures the monastery, the contemplation, the seeking, so Road to Santiago captures the pilgrims, the thousands of feet tramping in the dust, the fervent belief of the pilgrims.
Okay, I'm infatuated, and over-excited, because I finally got to hear some of these songs again, since I went to one of her shows and she did previews of her new CD. So pardon my extreme excitement. Posts: 2849 | Registered: Feb 2002
| IP: Logged |
quote:Just as Full Circle captures the monastery, the contemplation, the seeking, so Road to Santiago captures the pilgrims, the thousands of feet tramping in the dust, the fervent belief of the pilgrims
You captured exactly how I feel about Full Circle. Crazy, I'm sitting here in the office just thinking of the words and it's bringing tears to my eyes. I love Santiago too.
Posts: 6415 | Registered: Jul 2000
| IP: Logged |
posted
I saw Heather again just last night. She is without a doubt the coolest musician I've ever seen. (Not that I've seen all that many, but...)
She is very friendly and was willing to answer all sorts of pesty questions. She was casual and very obviously enjoyed interacting with the audience.
And she let me record the entire show on my computer. The recording is a present for someone who never gets to see her live, and as soon as I nervously mentioned my idea, she was all smiles and agreement. If I start selling bootleg copies on eBay she might get upset, but I have no intention of doing that. But I never thought she'd let me. I set up my little laptop and my crappy webcam and my even crappier mic up and sat by the speaker. After the show she wanted to hear and thought it was pretty neat and wants a copy.
I think my favourite part was "Culhwch and Olwen," in which she did her Giant voice, as well as the Eagle, the Stag, and the Salmon (none of which she does on the CD recording). Watching a professional musician sing in "Salmon voice" was pretty hilarious.
Edit: I forgot the always awesome electric double-bass-aka-whalesong in Sedna. It amazes me that Ben manages to make that crazy thing sound like a whale. So cool.
The live versions of some of her songs are totally different and I love them better than the CD versions, so I am ecstatic to have them. If only I can figure out how to separate the audio from the video and make the sound a bit louder.
And I am a big fan.
P.S. I am actually really happy to buy her music, because I love supporting her. I even snagged a very rare CD of medieval/renn dance music she did for her local SCA group!
posted
Cool, I'll check out her website. The only Loreena I know is Book of Secrets, but I listen to that over and over and never tire of it. I'm like Narnia--interested in broadening horizons but not so sure I want to invest in an unknown quantity!
Posts: 3149 | Registered: Jul 2005
| IP: Logged |
Printer-friendly view of this topic
![[Big Grin]](biggrin.gif)
Looking forward to it.
![[Smile]](smile.gif)
Now I have a recommendation!
