Celtic / Traditional Acoustic Playing

thomasross20

Just came across this:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jOG-jzoinSA

I've been doing a few "Scottish" songs myself but nothing like the above. 
Love it. Do many folk on here play this style?

stimpsonslostson

I love Kris Drever

He's a brilliant guitarist & singer. 

And the more experimental stuff he does with Lau. 

earwighoney

No guitar, but this song is superb.  An Irish folk song

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OCEN82Y3a6s

He plays guitar on his album though, which is superb.

earwighoney

One more

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M3dJHy7mDck

TimmyO

thomasross20 said:

I've been doing a few "Scottish" songs myself but nothing like the above. 

500 miles? :-) 

thomasross20

Not that one lol
Will check those out next week at work!

blobb

Funny, I'm trying to put together my own version of Martin's version of Sovay. His tuning is a strange one to work with but his rhythm style is brilliant. Mine, not so!

Anyhows, link to another similar thread. What tuning are you using?

BahHumbug

For some reason Celtic music doesn’t appeal to me greatly.  The OP video tune is really pleasant and I’d be tempted have a go at it, but it doesn’t really light my fire.

+1 for Kris Drever though, his work in Lau (and his last solo album ‘If Wishes were Horses’), writing, singing great and playing, is absolutely breathtaking.  Lau take the idea of Celtic music and turn it into something quite different.

Rocker

Horslips did something similar way back in the 1970s.  Worth checking out...

MagicPigDetective

Gareth Bonello aka Gentle Good is a very good fingerpicker in a traditional Welsh stylee

https://youtu.be/_Jlxs07QBxY

https://youtu.be/ygVzc1QrUiY

I’d like to get into this style but it would take a lot of fingerpicking practice

earwighoney

One more, one of the older examples of solo Celtic playing by the guy who is accredited with inventing DADGAD

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a9XkWbKBs80

thermionic

MagicPigDetective said:

Gareth Bonello aka Gentle Good is a very good fingerpicker in a traditional Welsh stylee

I love Gareth Bonello’s playing, but is there such a thing as a traditional Welsh style for this kind of thing? In the same way as Irish or Scottish? I’ve listened to Welsh music of all sorts all my life, so I probably can’t see a uniqueness that somebody unfamiliar with the music might.

Also, shoutout to National Treasure and all-round legend Meic Stevens, who is clearly a big influence on Gareth Bonello:

https://youtu.be/vPxPQwcEXvM

TimmyO

thermionic said:

MagicPigDetective said:

Gareth Bonello aka Gentle Good is a very good fingerpicker in a traditional Welsh stylee

I love Gareth Bonello’s playing, but is there such a thing as a traditional Welsh style for this kind of thing? In the same way as Irish or Scottish? I’ve listened to Welsh music of all sorts all my life, so I probably can’t see a uniqueness that somebody unfamiliar with the music might.

Also, shoutout to National Treasure and all-round legend Meic Stevens, who is clearly a big influence on Gareth Bonello:

https://youtu.be/vPxPQwcEXvM

I'm no expert, but I think it's one of those styles that as you get back that far the influences merge - there's stuff in French (Breton) music that you'd swear was a gnats width away from being what we'd call Scottish or Irish so I suspect that the migration patterns of those influencing the music of the time were quite different to what we think of today. 

Similar (but different music) to the similarities between the fife and drum stuff in the US that has obvious sounding connections to later American styles yet sounds so different to the Malawian music that parallel developed from the same source. 

VimFuego

thermionic said:

MagicPigDetective said:

Gareth Bonello aka Gentle Good is a very good fingerpicker in a traditional Welsh stylee

I love Gareth Bonello’s playing, but is there such a thing as a traditional Welsh style for this kind of thing? In the same way as Irish or Scottish? I’ve listened to Welsh music of all sorts all my life, so I probably can’t see a uniqueness that somebody unfamiliar with the music might.

Also, shoutout to National Treasure and all-round legend Meic Stevens, who is clearly a big influence on Gareth Bonello:

https://youtu.be/vPxPQwcEXvM

it's a good question, and during the various folk revivals there's been a lot of attention paid to English, Scottish and Irish trad music and styles, and they all are fairly recognisable, but not a lot paid to Welsh music. Part of me wonders if it's due to Wales being the longest conquered nation and having suffered a longer cultural oppression. Then coupled with the industrial revolution, where large numbers of rural people were concentrated in the new industrial areas which led to an abandoning of traditional music (something that also happened in England). I do know that those areas in England that retained traditional music until the modern era for the collectors like Cecil Sharpe and Baring Gould, were the NE and the SW (oddly enough, you also see little Cornish music being collected, possibly due to the Cornish diaspora). Maybe the collectors didn't think Wales was worth their efforts.
With all that said, found this which has some really nice tunes and top notch playing: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3AkyNJZp_Rs

MagicPigDetective

Interesting discussion, I’ll try to give my take on it later....

earwighoney

VimFuego said:

thermionic said:

MagicPigDetective said:

Gareth Bonello aka Gentle Good is a very good fingerpicker in a traditional Welsh stylee

I love Gareth Bonello’s playing, but is there such a thing as a traditional Welsh style for this kind of thing? In the same way as Irish or Scottish? I’ve listened to Welsh music of all sorts all my life, so I probably can’t see a uniqueness that somebody unfamiliar with the music might.

Also, shoutout to National Treasure and all-round legend Meic Stevens, who is clearly a big influence on Gareth Bonello:

https://youtu.be/vPxPQwcEXvM

it's a good question, and during the various folk revivals there's been a lot of attention paid to English, Scottish and Irish trad music and styles, and they all are fairly recognisable, but not a lot paid to Welsh music. Part of me wonders if it's due to Wales being the longest conquered nation and having suffered a longer cultural oppression. Then coupled with the industrial revolution, where large numbers of rural people were concentrated in the new industrial areas which led to an abandoning of traditional music (something that also happened in England). I do know that those areas in England that retained traditional music until the modern era for the collectors like Cecil Sharpe and Baring Gould, were the NE and the SW (oddly enough, you also see little Cornish music being collected, possibly due to the Cornish diaspora). Maybe the collectors didn't think Wales was worth their efforts.
With all that said, found this which has some really nice tunes and top notch playing: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3AkyNJZp_Rs

Not had a chance to listen to the ones for Wales but the Alan Lomax Archives are exceptional

Here's the one for Wales
http://research.culturalequity.org/get-audio-ix.do?ix=recording&id=WL&idType=countryCode&sortBy=abc

Woodandwires

Check out if you haven't already, Pierre Bensusan.

thomasross20

Yeah Pierre bensusan is great. 
Clive Carrol. 
Etc. 
I go through phases, it's just the first time I thought .. it'd be cool to have a showpiece of this type

Chris_J

Has anyone mentioned Tony McManus yet?

Some beautiful arrangements of Celtic tunes and technique and musicality to die for.

BigLicks67

There's an old Richard Thompson tab book that features a lot of Scots/Irish stuff such as Banish Misfortune, McClouds Reel, Maggie Cameron, Strathspey & Dargai might be worth getting hold of.

blobb

thermionic said:

I love Gareth Bonello’s playing, but is there such a thing as a traditional Welsh style for this kind of thing? In the same way as Irish or Scottish? I’ve listened to Welsh music of all sorts all my life, so I probably can’t see a uniqueness that somebody unfamiliar with the music might.

Try Ar Log. Hang on, that sounds like the whole band name and it's not. Ar Log, that's the group - try them. Try Ar Log. Does that make sense?

B*llocks, here you go....

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UciFCfdNZHw