Green Linnet 20th Anniversary Collection

Various Artists - International - Europe - Celtic/British Isles

Product Details

• Audio CD (July 2, 1996)
• Original Release Date: July 2, 1996
• Number of Discs: 2
• Label: Green Linnet
• ASIN: B000005CM2
• In-Print Editions: MP3 Download
• Average Customer Review: 4.8 out of 5 stars See all reviews (11 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #131,957 in Music (See Bestsellers in Music)

  Popular in this category: (What's this?)

  #39 in

  Music > World Music > Compilations > Europe > British Isles

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com
The great Celtic-music revival that coincided with the mid-'70s founding of Green Linnet Records still gathers momentum. It has little in common with the sentimental vaudeville songs of Irish American St. Patrick's Day parties and even differs subtly but crucially from the chamber-music elegance of the Chieftains. This is a looser music, born in the pubs rather than the concert halls and aimed at dancing and singing along rather than respectful applause. The movement includes some of the world's best singers and best improvising instrumentalists. I would especially recommend the bands--Bothy Band, Silly Wizard, the Irish Tradition, Celtic Thunder, Patrick Street, Trian, Altan, and, above all, Relativity--but there's a wealth of acoustic music out there and The Twentieth Anniversary Collection is the best place to start. --Geoffrey Himes

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars A great place to find new bands in the Celic tradition, November 17, 2003

By	Christopher Culver - See all my reviews (TOP 500 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)

If you've already been enchanted by some of Green Linnet's artists, like Altan or Capercaille, for example, the TWENTIETH ANNIVERSARY COLLECTION is a great way to find out which artists to search for next.

The compilation opens with "The Rainy Day/First You Must Learn The Grip", a monologue and short piece by Seamus Ennis, whose pipe-playing was one of the first offerings by the label. Highlights of the first disc include De'anta's "Culloden's Harvest", a harrowing song about a decisive Scottish battle, Relativity's lesser-known "There Was A Lady", and Patrick Street's cover of PCO's "Music For a Found Harmonium." I was pleasantly surprised by the Milladoiro tune "A Farruqina", which shows that the music of Galicia is just as infectious as anything from the British isles. Fusion between Irish and world music is shows nicely in Eileen Iver's "On Horseback."

The second disc is, I feel, the strongest. "The Wishing Tree," Seamus McGuire's incredible piece based on the poem by 1995 Nobel laureate Seamus Heany, is one of the most touching pieces of music Green Linnet has released. Wolfstone's "Ballavanich" is one of the most powerful pieces by this "Celtic rock" band, featuring screaming bagpipes among electric guitars in a way suprisingly faithful to tradition. The British folk singer June Tabor contributes "No Man's Land/Flowers Of The Forest", a slow and moving rumination on the savagery of World War I. "Pharoah", a tune by the master songwriter Richard Thompson, is featured here covered by The House Band, who transform the original into a very distinctive form. There are two songs on the second disc, however, which alone make the collection worth getting. The first is Touchstone's "Bolen's Fancy/The Dunmore Lasses/The Maid Behind the Bar/The Glass of Beer." Touchstone, featuring Triona Ni Domhnaill who subsequently joined Relativity and Nightnoise, was a fresh combination of Irish music with traditional music of Appalachia, and deserved much more attention than it received at the time. The album's closer is the other brilliant second, "A Jig and Five Reels" by The Bothy Band (another Triona Ni Domhnaill band), which was the first great group on Green Linnet and the inspiration for many of its artists to come.

The TWENTIETH ANNIVERSARY COLLECTION also includes a thick booklet giving the background of each song and brief anecdotes by label founder Wendy Newton about each artist.

Green Linnet has suffered in recent years, with a great deal of its artists becoming discontented with its management and moving elsewhere, but the first twenty years was full of fantastic music. Green Linnet introduced authentic traditional music to a common American audience, when before there were only pop hybrids like Enya and Clannad, and it also showed the world that some American musicians such as Eileen Ivers were capable of taking on traditional music. The TWENTIETH ANNIVERSARY COLLECTION is the best Green Linnet compilation and worth getting for anyone looking for new horizons in traditional music of the British Isles and elsewhere.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Green Linnett: The Twentieth Is One Of The Best, February 23, 2001

By	Catherine Wallace "Editor, Writer,Manuscript ... (Washington, DC area) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

This is a great Celtic CD. Very well produced music, out of the ordinary, guaranteed to catch your ear and steal your heart. If you enjoy Celtic music, or would like to experience some of the better samplings of this fine style of music, I most heartily recommend adding this CD to your collection. I will play it over and over again, and it won't be one which gathers dust. A good addition for any serious Celtic music fan! Definitely not ordinary...and some of the best examples of the Celts finest musical offerings

~Catherine Wallace, Celtic Music Review

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Good to start with, better to go on with., July 24, 2000

By	Paula Berman (Phoenix, AZ) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

This is a great introduction to Celtic music, but it's also an album that longtime fans will want to leave on infinite repeat. Lots of variety: vocals, instruments; Irish, Scottish, Breton, American working in older traditions; pennywhistle, fiddle, concertina, bagpipes. Some of the best performers ever to play are here, including Silly Wizard, Patrick Street, Moloney, Keane, and O'Connell, June Tabor, Eileen Ivers, and on and on. And they're playing some of the best tunes: from trad arr. to O'Carolan to Eric Bogle.

What is lacking: overinstrumentation, music-hall "stage Irish" tearjerkers, vaguely Celtic themes adapted for elevator. This is music put together by people who know and love what they're doing. The Green Linnet Brain Trust has chosen some of the best from its 20-year catalog, and the results are wonderful.