Buy it now from Amazon

Live Wizardry

Silly Wizard

Green Linnet

• List price: $15.98
• Lowest new price: $93.17
• Lowest used price: $31.74

1. Queen of Argyll
2. Mrs. Martha Knowles
   Pitnacree Ferryman
   New Bob
3. Parish of Dunkeld
   The Curlew
4. Valley of Strathmore
5. Miss Shepherd
   Sweeney's Buttermilk
   McGlinchey's Reels
6. Ramblin Rover
7. Blackbird
8. Scarce O'Tatties
   Lyndhurst
9. Banks of the Lee
10. Donald McGillavry
11. Golden, Golden
12. Humors of Tulla
    Toss the Feathers
    Saint Anne's Reel
    Lexy ...
13. Broom O' the Cowdenknowes

Average customer rating:

Very fast shipping and great condition

The CD is in excellent condition as indicated on the marketplace and shipping was very fast. No complaints at all. :)

Something special...

The other reviews here pay justice to a truly beautiful album. There is very little in modern Celtic music to match the beauty and sheer exile's pain of Andy Stewart's vocal on "The Valley of Strathmore." He had recorded this with the band earlier on "So Many Partings" but the earlier recording comes nowhere near the power and poignancy of the work that the group puts into this. In short, this is one of those very special recordings like Tommy Makem singing "Four Green Fields" or Shane Macgowan's "Fairytale of New York" that will stay with you forever. It's that real and that much in touch with the loss and displacement of the past two centuries. Buy a copy, or burn one from a friend. I believe this (sadly) is out of print like so many of Green Linnet's extraordinary catalogue.

The best work of a genre

I grew up with Silly Wizard. My earliest memory of any kind of a concert was as a young boy, probably in '85 or so, dancing in the aisles of a small hall while Silly Wizard played. I remember the band cheering me on, and shutting down the old woman who was insisting to my mom that she keep me in my seat. "This music was meant to be danced to, I wish more people would remember that" they scolded.

That being said, this album is perhaps the greatest single collection of their music assembled for one quick dose. The CD covers their entire range of music, from the slow and haunting "Banks of the Lee" which always gives me chills as the utter sadness of the last verse mingles with the piano, to the incredibly upbeat and nearly out of control reels (there are several of them on the CD, and all are excellent), the music is simply a joy to behold.

Friends have listened to the album, and have complained that the songs don't "sound right". As it turns out, they had spent years listening to more modern bands and their interpretation of many of the same songs. They can keep their versions. I can't listen to Silly Wizard without remembering what it was like to be a young boy dancing to what I thought was wonderful music.

It's hard to find this CD nowadays. I believe I ended up paying nearly 40 dollars for a mint condition copy. Thankfully, a new CD is in the works, Live Again, and it is the concert that this CD was made from, in it's entirety, remastered to sound even better. If it is out by the time you read this (as of November 2007 it isn't), then you owe it to yourself to find a copy of it, otherwise, Live Wizardry is worth every penny you spend to find it.

Beyond fabulous--a great intro to Silly Wizard

Full disclosure: I had an Irish roommate in college who played Celtic and Gaelic music non-stop. I thought for years I didn't like anything remotely like this music because I was so sick of it by the end of my year living with this roommate. After a break of many years, however, I discovered Silly Wizard and realized I'd been wasting time avoiding the music that'd once driven me crazy! This is a GREAT, great album with every song a winner. Particularly wonderful is their original composition "The Ramblin' Rover," which alone is worth the price of the entire CD. Listen to the lyrics carefully--it's a hoot! This is a wonderful CD to put on at a party--it really gets the mood lifted and happy. Good stuff!

A true classic!

"Live Wizardry" is the best collection of Silly Wizard's music that I know of. All my favorite songs are here, displaying the band's most appealing traits: the intensity of crowd favorites like "Queen of Argyll" and "Donald McGillavry", the humor of "Parish of Dunkeld" and "Ramblin' Rover", the plaintive poignancy of "Blackbird" and "Valley of Strathmore", and the rollicking fun of their instrumental dances. As with many traditional Celtic groups, the work of Silly Wizard is great singer-songwriter material--the tales are well told, the melodies evocative, the harmonies engaging, and the sound is down-to-earth and real. Phil Cunningham's fiery accordion playing is amazing, Andy M. Stewart's folksy, honest voice has a winning charm, and fiddler Johnny Cunningham and guitarists Martin Hadden and Gordon Jones round out band's sound with expert flair. Although this CD was recorded live, the audience was either well-behaved or generally screened out by directional mikes, as their applause and cheers are not intrusive throughout the songs, only cropping up at the beginnings and ends. If you buy only one Silly Wizard album I'd say this is the one to get, though all the rest are certainly enjoyable and worth hearing as well. If you enjoy the music of Silly Wizard, especially their touching ballads, you might also like the work of Relativity (also featuring Phil and Johnny Cunningham) and the laid-back reveries of Nightnoise. Try "Gathering Pace" and "The Parting Tide" respectively.