It is February, and love is in the air. And as always, that means love of Celtic music! It also means love of Celtic adventure. And if you are a lover of Celtic music and adventure…
Celtic Invasion of Scotland
…Get set for the Celtic Invasion of Scotland! For the past week, Marc's blog has featured day-by-day posts describing what travelers to Scotland will have in store during the week of June 15-22.
The trip will lead travelers across Scotland and back, from the Lowlands to the Highlands–possibly as far North as the Orkneys–then back to Edinburgh.
I can't think about the high points of the trip without thinking of Diana Gabaldon's Outlander series. On my own blog, Booknotes from Literacy-chic, I have been blogging about anything that strikes my fancy as I reread Outlander, Dragonfly in Amber, and now Voyager, working my way through the series in anticipation of Gabaldon's next Outlander novel, Written in My Own Heart's Blood, in Fall of 2013. For those who are not familiar with Outlander, the novels center on the Scottish Highlands. Wherever characters travel, Scotland–the Highlands, and Inverness in particular–functions as an anchor, defining characters' identity in powerful ways. The honorable yet outcast hero, Jamie Fraser, is well-beloved, over 6-feet, with rippling muscles, flaming red hair, and a fascinating history, while the love story between Jamie and Claire–who hails from the 1940s (yes! time travel!)–has beguiled countless readers (as numerous fan pages attest). Readers will be familiar with Inverness, the Culloden battlefield–site of the definitive defeat of Bonnie Prince Charlie and the Highland Army, and Edinburgh (of course). Who could help but relish the sights of standing stones and landscapes that inspired the novels? (The novels make good travel reading, by the way!–particularly on a Kindle or other eReader… They're thick.)
Fans of history, of Scottish-themed films and figures, of historical fictions of Scotland (including William Wallace of Braveheart fame), of gorgeous scenery and outdoor activities, and of great Celtic music–especially those who are not fans of tour buses and large groups!–will find this the ideal vacation. If this sounds like your ideal vacation, hurry! The deadline to put your deposit down for the trip is February 20, 2013.
CDs, MP3s, and Thou
If you've been following the release, chart-climbing, and special events surrounding Marc's CD Not Every Day is St. Patrick's Day, you will be excited to learn that the CD has embarked on a whole new stage of its voyage. It is now being played on Celtic Radio! Listen online for free to Celtic music, and hear–or request!–songs from Not Every Day is St. Patrick's Day.
Also in CD news this week, Marc has re-released his 2007 album A Tribute to Love under his early pseudonym. You will find the CD–a very special CD of love songs, dear to Marc's heart–on CD Baby, released under the name Ichabod Zeuss, re-titled Love Actually. It is available to download from CD Baby and iTunes, and should be up on Amazon soon. Marc does not plan to re-release the CD in physical form, so partake of music in digital form today!
Fans of physical CDs will be interested to know that Marc's Celtic Music CD Store will no longer carry physical CDs–except for possible rare occasions when autographed copies are available. You can continue to buy albums for download from the store, as well as t-shirts and other accessories, but Marc's physical CD sales will be moving back to CD Baby.
The Celtophilia Tee Company has announced a kickstarter campaign! Make a pledge of $20 or more to support the launch of the new tees, featuring Marc Gunn, The Celtfather, and Irish and Celtic Music Podcast designs (and many more), and be rewarded with a tee shirt of your choice (more for higher pledges!) and that warm fuzzy feeling that you get from buying from an awesome independent business (or listening to awesome Indie Celtic music).
And speaking of adventure, do you have any favorite Celtic songs of adventure, or Celtic songs of amorous adventure? I'm a fan of “St. Brendan's Fair Isle,” myself, but amorous adventure? There are too many!
