eIrish.com Celtic Jeweler - Irish Importer

The highly-acclaimed traditional album is a unique collection of Irish and English songs, as interpreted and arranged by Susan McKeown. Special guests; Johnny Cunningham, Andy Irvine, and Seamus Egan. "A dramatic and sophisticated expansion of Celtic music." - The Christian Science Monitor Personnel: Susan McKeown (vocals, guitar); Hassan Hakmoun (vocals); Greg Anderson, Larry Campbell (guitar); Andy Irvine (mandolin); Johnny Cunningham (fiddle); Tom Zajac (hurdy-gurdy); Akira Satake (mandocello); Seamus Egan (whistles, bodhran); Jerry O'Sullivan (Uilleann pipes); Chris Speed (clarinet); Don McGeen (bassoon); Mick McAuley (accordion); John Clark (French horn); David Bargeron (tuba); Jamshied Sharifi (keyboards); Skuli Sverrisson (bass); Samir Chatterjee (tabla, tambura); Nikki Matheson (background vocals). Producers: Jamshied Sharifi, Akira Satake, Susan McKeown. Engineers: Scott Noll, Dan DiPaola, Eric Helmuth. Recorded at D.K. USA Studios and PotaPota Studio, New York, New York. Includes liner notes by Susan McKeown, Cynthia Pierce and Tess Mangum. Irish-born, New York-based Susan McKeown is a singer/songwriter based in Irish folk and Gaelic history/tradition. While some interpret the more traditional (and more boisterous, in some cases) aspects of Irish music, McKeown mixes elements of jazz, Indian and North African music and the atmospheric, cosmopolitan sounds of Peter Gabriel, Laurie Anderson and Dead Can Dance into her sonic Irish stew. Her singing is melodious yet bittersweet in the vein of Delores Keane and Sandy Denny--sounding forever young and eons wise at the same time. BUSHES & BRIARS features instrumental contributions from a diverse cast of characters--jazz players Chris Speed and John Clark, as well as Irish folk pros Andy Irvine and Seamus Egan (the latter from the fine group Solas). If you like Enya or Clannad but find them too understated and airy, or if you wish Dead Can Dance did a Celtic album, check out BUSHES & BRIARS.