8 years ago this year, on July 28, 2005, Marc Gunn released the first episode of the Irish & Celtic Music Podcast. And the rest, you might say, is history! Since that time, the Irish & Celtic Music Podcast has twice won the “Best Podsafe Music” Award in the People’s Choice Podcast Awards (in 2009 and 2010). As I write, it is #30 on the Top Music Podcasts chart on iTunes. But the cold facts don’t even begin to describe the importance of Irish & Celtic Music Podcast!
I’ve been listening since 2006 myself, and it remains awe-inspiring each time I hear the voices and words of subscribers and listeners from around the world giving their accounts of what the podcast means to them—and to all of us! What an awesome community of Celtic music lovers we belong to as fans of this podcast! So if you're reading this, think back to the first time you heard the podcast, or your favorite podcast songs and memories, and share them in the comments below! If you’ve ever written or blogged about the Irish & Celtic Music Podcast, put a link in your comment as well!
I’ll start…
As someone who likes tunes and folk music, rock and alternative, one thing I have always appreciated the range of music included in the Irish & Celtic Music podcast—from jigs & reels to the real hard Celtic rock like Black 47. Looking back on a blog that I wrote from roughly 2007-2009, I found these memories:
I've been listening to an incredible podcast sporadically for several months, and I just had to spare some words for the Irish and Celtic Music Podcast. For those of you in Austin, it's done by Marc Gunn, who is in your neighborhood! I met him once at a Sci Fi, etc. “con” at the university where I currently exist, signed up for his band's (The Brobdingnagian Bards) email list, until Yahoo! kicked me off because I hadn't checked my email in, oh, years. . . So imagine my surprise to learn that he has an awesome podcast! At the time, I was wondering how I could discover new cool music with an utter absence of decent radio stations in my area. Problem solved! The Irish and Celtic Music Podcast is currently in the top 25 podcasts in iTunes, so check them out if you like Celtic music.
Just to get you started, the “new year” podcast was a collection of listener favorites from last year, and is quite a nice mix. It is #29 and was released on January 4, 2007.
Many of my favorites from the last year are included on episode #29, but some other favorite songs/artists have been:
Podcast #25 -“Old Carrion Crow” Michael William Harrison
Podcast #25-“The Scottish Song” Seamus Kennedy (MacBeth in a nutshell–a must hear!)
The Brobdingnagian Bards have a number of amusing songs, and of course, the ones that make you spit out your coffee in the car are the easiest to remember (include in this category “The Scottish Song,” above). So from the Bards:
Podcast #24- “Now It's Time to Go” (from Memories of Middle Earth)
Podcast #17- “The Orange and The Green”
Podcast #16- “The Unicorn Song”
Podcast #15- “Jedi Drinking Song”
Discover the Irish & Celtic Music Podcast Archives!
In other posts, I’ve mentioned the annual “Best of” the previous year episode, which gets the New Year started off right. I’ve also mentioned special features like “Music of the Sea” and “Celtic Men.” If you want to peruse the archives to discover—or rediscover—favorite songs or musicians from the podcast, you might pick by random, look for special features, or look for milestones—like the 100th episode, or special occasions, like St. Patrick’s Day. In case you haven’t though to look for anniversary episodes, I wanted to highlight the July and August episodes that came closest to the podcast anniversary with a couple of notable songs each, so here goes…
#22 – July 17, 2006 – not an anniversary episode, but…
- “Old Carrion Crow” by Michael William Harrison from First Time ‘Round – One I would love to see on iTunes!
- “Do You Love an Apple” by Celtic Stone from Digital Flashbacks
#37 – July 18, 2007 – just shy of 2 years
- “Nancy Whiskey” by Murphy’s Law from Murphy’s Home Brew – to hear another version of the song that recently topped the charts as performed by Marc Gunn!
- “Chicago Trippin up the Stairs” by Boston Blackthorne from Better Late Than Ever – also from Victims of Irish Music
- The #1 from June, played at the end of show #37, was “The Devil Made Texas” by Ed Miller from The Edinburgh Rambler
#54 – August 12, 2008 – Three-Year Anniversary
- “My Cavan Girl” by Tara MacKenzie from Simple Irish Ballads And Songs For Singing – with awesome vocals and a lilting, melancholy tune
- “Tippin’ It Up to Nancy” by Finn’s Fury from What About Ya? occupies practically the other end of the spectrum!
#86 – July 11, 2010 – Close to the 5-year mark (okay, #87 was closer…) – Feature on Celtic Women
- “The Maiden And The Selkie” by Heather Dale from The Green Knight – a great song from an awesome artist
- “The Lass of Aughrim” by Beth Patterson from Hybrid Vigor – apart from the musical stylings of Beth Patterson, this song is of interest to me because it is mentioned in James Joyce's short story “The Dead”
- “Weave the Yarn” by Mary Knickle from Weave – a fun song that tells a fun story
#108 – July 28, 2011 – Six-Year Anniversary
Simply a great one to listen to from start to finish, especially…
- “Soho South: Soho South, Moolah Rouge” by Colin Farrell (great tune!) from On the Move
- “Fig for a Kiss (Na Ceannabhain Bhana, Gaire Da MBan)” by Abby Green from Fig for a Kiss – lovely Gaelic
- “Broken Token” by Vicki Swan & Jonny Dyer from Stones on the Ground – one of my new-found favorites, this duo has amazing vocals and this song tells an awesome story as well (albeit a familiar one in Irish music)
So go… explore the podcast, and come back to report!
