There are few albums I eagerly await to hear. The Tea Merchants have one of them. It's called Gaslight Snaps. It's been out for months. But it just became available digitally today.
The Tea Merchants are one of the best trad Irish groups in the Southwest. The group features Chris Buckley on fiddle, Charlie Branch on bouzouki and Michelle Hedden on bodhran. Each is a top notch musician in their own right.
Chris Buckley rocks out the fiddle fast and hard. He's played with a number of the top Celtic bands in Texas. He even recorded on a few of my albums. Charlie Branch too has performed with a number of bands in Texas. He also composes a number of the tunes played by the band. What compositions!
Michelle Hedden is the newest addition to the group. I met her years ago in Missouri. She was playing a variety of drums at the time. But her personality and skill had me thinking of adding her to the Brobdingnagian Bards. In fact, she played with us for numerous gigs when we toured up there. When she visited Austin in 2004, she was playing bodhran quite a lot… and damned good, I must say. I asked to record on Irish Drinking Songs for Cat Lovers. She has the solo in “The Mining Ship the Red Dwarf”. She only got better when she finally moved to Austin in 2008. She was so awesome she performed with Cedric and me for an official release of the Whiskers in the Jar. That turned into a live CD that was critically-acclaimed by CD Baby. Shortly after that event, I helped get her hooked up with The Tea Merchants. The rest is amazing musical history. She is the perfect addition to the band.
I loved going to see The Tea Merchants perform when I lived in Austin. While I say “trad”, it's not quite, only in that they are an entirely instrumental group. They band features a lot of original tunes. The music is fast and rocking. And it's a helluva lot of fun.
For that reason, I've played them a LOT on my Irish & Celtic Music Podcast. I also added one of their tracks to my Victims of Irish Music compilation.
Now I must confess, I haven't listened to this album yet. In fact, I just bought it on CD Baby right now. But the band is one of the best Celtic groups in the world. I have complete confidence that this album will rock!
If you need one album for this year, get this. You'll not only love the band, but you'll also continue to help support indie Celtic music.
