On Sun, 2003-01-19 at 15:50, Jack Campin wrote: > BTW, anyone who hasn't heard it should try to listen to Cynthia's > recording. There are some rough edges but it's honest traditional > stuff that doesn't try to dilute the music with other genres to make > it market-friendly, as too many harpists in Scotland are doing at > the moment - mixing up Nashville idiom with Scottish music is like > stretching sausage with GM soya.
Yes, I have a copy of her recording.. It's excellent. I'm going to have to put my thinking cap on here soon and come up with some more accurate description what makes it excellent. That recording is definately the real deal. Pretty entertaining for a solo-type recording. Very often solo-type recordings are dull and hard to listen to over and over. Especially some solo fiddle recordings! So many of us fiddlers are wanting to impress people with a barrage of notes, or playing with three flats. Most of what I hear of harp recordings is sort of quasi-"new age" stuff. I don't know better how to describe them, but they're neither traditional or an exciting amalgamation of old & new influences. It would be interesting to hear a genuinely inspired "fusion" sort of harp-playing. After all I really love the Pogues, and they've been described as "a hybrid between the Sex Pistols and the Chieftans". I even forgive them for having a piano accordion :-) I liked the Easy Club as well.. I thought they were pretty interesting. Toby Posted to Scots-L - The Traditional Scottish Music & Culture List - To subscribe/unsubscribe, point your browser to: http://www.tullochgorm.com/lists.html
