Celtic Cafe

Celtic Cafe- Irish, Flemish, French and Scottish tunes

Celtic Café is Irish, Flemish, French & Scottish music from the cultural crossroads of Europe. There are many very interesting tunes on this CD which celebrates the one institution that’s done more for the development of folk music than any other, the café- or its Irish cousin, the pub! Karen and Paul said in their liner notes:"Our best recollections are the times, usually late nights,sessioning with old and young musicians, and hearing the legends and lore of the buskers (street performers). We invite you into our café where music fills the air,old and new, Celtic and Coninenal, brought together because a Belgian and an American Irish musician fell in love" It's romantic and also a great combination to hear Irish tunes and French, Belgium and Breton tunes. Also an impressive set-The Napolean Suite. Belgium musican Paul Oorts says in the liner notes: The battle that took place in 1815 in Waterloo, a little town just south of Brussels, like many of the pan-European conflicts of the last centuries, engaged armies filled with conscripts from the outposts of the clashing empires. These armies traveled with professional musicians who played them into battle, and these migrating instrumentalists carried their arsenals of folk tunes across borders, allowing musical traditions to cross-pollinate. But such momentous battles also inspired the creation of commemorative tunes and songs. A Scottish folk song collector wrote: “"The twenty years that ended with Waterloo have left more traces on our popular minstrelsy than any other period of our history." Napoleon's defeat there dashed the dreams of the Irish hoping France would help liberate them from the British. It also led to the creation of Belgium as a buffer country between surrounding European powers.See,www.maggiesmusic.com to read more about the recording artists and their cds and the complete liner notes.

# Posted on October 28th 2002 by tilythehon