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.