I’ve just uploaded 9 new tracks to CM from a delightful English folk singer, Kate Rusby. “The Barnsley Nightengale” has earned her reputation through her 7 CDs. Her most recent release, Awkward Annie, being the source of the new tracks. She has a sweet waifish voice, befitting a folk singer, great instrumentals and arrangements.

I know this is like totally short notice, but there is a Celtic music festival in Oakland California on Saturday, March 22 from 2PM to midnight. I’ll be there as will several bands on CM such as Avalon Rising and Culanns Hounds. Check out http://www.sanfranciscocelticfestival.com/.

Every year, say about March 17, I see a huge spike in listeners. When Celticmelt was on iTunes, my max listener count was typically 300 (that is 300 at the same time!), about 11 AM Pacific time. When CM had to leave iTunes, that figure dropped to about 60. Today it peaked at 205! I don’t know how many are new listeners who just found us by hunting around, but welcome. And some may be old listeners just coming back for a visit. Welcome back, and stay awhile.

 Happy St. Paddy’s day anyway. And have a pint of Smithwick’s Ale while you’re at it.

First off, may I wish my listeners a good and prosperous, and musically sound New Year.

Thanks to one of my listeners, I was tipped off to a wonderfully odd Canadian group Dehli2Dublin. They fuse Celtic and Indian music together with a touch of electronica tossed in for good measure. It can be pretty strange, but very fun and interesting. And remember, CM has both Celtic and “Celtic Inspired” tracks, which is why you may hear tracks that don’t always inspire a spontaneous jig.

 Secondly, more Baka Beyond tracks have been added from their 2005 CD, the Rhythm Tree. I don’t know why I hadn’t seen that one before, but  four tracks have been added as well.

 Thirdly, the Christmas tracks should be removed by now. If you hear a Ho Ho Ho, or Silent Night coming from CM World Headquarters…oops.

 Cheers all!

Ever been on the bus and felt the sudden onrush of a jig…your toes start tippy-tappin’, arms start flappin’, but you had no music? Well, you can now sleep easier Bunky, for if you have a Windows Mobile cel-phone you can take Celticmelt with you where ever you go. Live365 has just released Radio365 for Windows Mobile 5 and 6 (and maybe even 7). You can fetch it from http://www.live365.com/downloads/radio365-mobile-win/index.live. I’ve been working on this thing for about 9 months now and home there are going to be a few CM users able to give it a shot.

 Enjoy!

Yes, I have succumbed to all of the jolly-this and joy-that and HoHoHo-ing of the holiday. But here at Celticmelt World Headquarters I have issued a memo to the staff that NO Christmas music is to be played until after Thanksgiving. None of this “getting in the Spirit around Arbor Day” piffle. No-sir-ee.

 So I have now officially went to the vast Celticmelt archives, pulled out the various Irish Christmas mp3s and loaded them up. Your welcome.

 Unfortunately some of the Christmas tracks have not the word “Christmas” or “Noel” at all in the metadata making them hard to track down when the official Dec. 26 Christmas music ban goes into effect. So if you’re listening on St. Swithin’s Day* and something about snow and tinsel and magical stars pops up. Sorreeee! Either that or consider it my impish good humor that secretly wishes it to be “Christmas all year long!” Bah!

 *’St Swithin’s Day, if it does rain
Full forty days, it will remain
St Swithin’s Day, if it be fair
For forty days, t’will rain no more.’

I’ve just added 18 tracks by the Seattle based Contra group: KGB. From their Website:

 No security clearances are required to enjoy Seattle’s KGB. With fiddle, mandolin, guitar and piano, KGB creates subversive music, lulling the unwary with traditional New England contradance tunes, then jumping off into Balkan modalities, tango riffs and bluesy jigs. Claude slides from growling grooves to impossible high notes on the fiddle. Dave creates percussive energy and dazzling riffs on anything with strings. Julie explores the emotional range of the keyboard from majestic to down and dirty.

And yes, in order to keep with the alleged premise of this station, they do have the occasional Irish jig, and some music termed “Baltic Celtic”.

Three CDs are featured: In from the Cold, Volga Notions, and Contra Intelligence. All available from CD Baby.

 You can visit their website at www.kgbmole.com

I have just uploaded 15 (!!) new tracks to Celticmelt. These are from the wonderful midwestern Contra dance band Contratopia.

The four member Contratopia has been around since 1999, performing primarily in the Minneapolis/St. Paul area, and sometimes daring to take tours across the vast mid-Atlantic region.

 What makes them particularly delightful is that most of their music is original. So not only are they good, they are really good in stuff I’ve never heard before instead of doing yet another version of “She Moves through the Fair”.

 You can get more info and see if they are performing in your area from www.controtopia.com.

I have just uploaded about 10 new tracks to Celticmelt. The first is from a CD I recently received called “Dreams and Visions” by an artist named simply Mary-Kathryn. This is a little out of the realm of Celtic, but the instrumentations I just loved so had to include 3 of her tracks. The second CD is an oddball compilation called eMotive. It is produced by a group called NonProfitMusic. The proceeds of the CD go to Doctors Without Borders. As with the first CD, some of these tracks are much more World Music then just Celtic or by Irish artists. But you guys get enough jigs, don’t you?

 These artists include Gnomusy, Grundman and Eduardo Laguillo.

I have just uploaded 7 new tracks from the soundtrack of one of the best SF films in the past many years. Namely, Joss Whedon’s Serenity. (check it out, and don’t say “I don’t like science fiction!”, that’s not a good enough response).

 The soundtrack by David Newman, is not a great one as far as soundtracks go, but it has its moments. And works very well for the film although die-hard Whedon fans would still have prefered Gregg Edmondson’s lyrical music from the TV show that the movie is based upon.

In the meantime, rent Serenity, pop some popcorn and see what Star Wars could have been. Then of course you’ll have to rent DVDs of the short-lived TV series the movie is based on, and when you’ve finished the 12 episode you’ll curse Fox, fist shaking in the air, for cancelling one of the best things on TV, years before its time. 

 These new tracks now bring the total trackcount to my main playlist up to 1561, or over 101 hours of music.