Availability: Widely available online and off.
Average Price: $14.98
Product Link: Celtic Dreamland
Rating:

Putumayo’s “Celtic Dreamland” focuses on the soft tranquil side of celtic music from Ireland and Scotland. Americans have come to associate Irish music with all of the dancing and hoofing troupes that have made their way across our land over the past decade or so. Celtic music has a sound that goes beyond these clichés.

However, speaking of Celtic music it becomes hard not to find yourself beginning to think in other clichés. Listening to “Celtic Dreamlandâ€? we begin to think in terms of “soulful” and “heartfelt”. There is an ancient quality to the music that makes one feel you are listening to the wisdom of the ages. It evokes rolling green hills, dew covered trees and misty skies. The music relaxes the listener with images of simpler times, friendly villages and cozy lifestyles of those living closer to the earth.

THE TRACKS

The CD contains a total of ten tracks, each by a different artist, and produced by and licensed from a different publisher. Despite this variation, the music speaks of a similar voice and thus the disk works very well as a single volume. This means the music is very comfortable to listen to completely in a single session, with few thoughts of skipping tracks.

Each song has a single lead singer, a mix of both male and female lead tracks. Some also have additional background vocals but on the whole everything is kept simple. The same simplicity is seen in the instrumentation, which is generally kept to either single instruments or small intimate grouping with elegantly simple orchestrations. Most tracks feature a guitar or similar stringed instrument, or piano accompaniment. The recording quality is excellent throughout, with clear voices and crisp sounding instruments.

While each track is wonderful with few if any letdowns, there are a few tracks that really stand out and perked our ears up on each playing. One was Karen Matheson’s “An Fhideag Airgidâ€? (“The Silver Whistleâ€?) which is sung in Gaelic. Another memorable track was Mary Jane Lamond’s “Cagaran Gaolachâ€? (which translates to “Lovable Little Darlingâ€?).

The complete list of tracks can be seen by following the “product link” at the top of this article. Samples from the CD are available in Real and Windows Media Player formats.

THE STYLE

This music is not the “simplified for the kiddies� style of CD. All tracks are intelligent and will be as entertaining to the parents as they will be soothing to the children. The relaxing sounds and calming voices on this disk make it an ideal sleep-time music choice.

THE PACKAGING

It is packaged in a beautiful and durable cardboard CD container which is fully illustrated with playful cover art by Nicola Heindl, and comes with a full liner notes book built in. We highly recommend this one!