Celtic Voices: Music and Song from the Great
Tradition
Topic TSCD 702; 60 minutes;
1995
Irish Voices: The Best in Traditional Singing
Topic TSCD 701; 61 minutes;
1995
Few of the Irish traditional albums
recorded during Topic’s golden period are currently available in CD format
(indeed some have never been reissued at all) so it is always worth trying to
track down the label’s compilation albums. These two CDs were part of a series
of samplers issued in 1995 and Celtic Voices is by far the more
interesting of the pair despite its title and trite cover image. 
The reason is twofold. Firstly, its
nineteen tracks comprise music and song from the following: Packie Duignan and Séamus
Horan; Margaret Barry and Michael Gorman; Paddy Tunney; Willie Clancy; Len
Graham; Festy Conlan; Joe Heaney; John Docherty; Arthur Kearney; The McPeake
Family; Séamus Tansey and Reg Hall; Geordie Hanna; Pat Mitchell; Sarah Makem;
Séamus Ennis; Mary Ann Carolan; and, Seán MacDonnchadha (or ‘ac Dhonncha as he
was known in Connemara). That list alone guarantees sheer quality and, despite
the familiarity of some of the recordings (Heaney’s The Rocks of Bawn or
Séamus Ennis’s The Wandering Minstrel, for example), the compilation
provides a wonderful overview of the glorious music recorded by Topic during
the 1960s and 1970s.
Secondly, though the author of the line
notes, John Crosby, provides little information regarding the singers and
musicians themselves, he does give details of the source of each song or tune.
The second album, Irish Voices, is,
contrastingly, something of a disappointment. Subtitled, ‘The Best of
Traditional Singing’, it does include some singers from Celtic Voices
(Graham, Heaney, The McPeakes, MacDonnchadha, Tunney, Makem) and Willie Clancy
gets a song here too. Also present are Sarah Ann O’Neill (Geordie Hanna’s
sister), Tom Lenihan, Tómas Ó Neachtain, Frank Harte and the wonderful John
Reilly, plus the Irish Country Four. However, the album’s emphasis leans
somewhat heavily towards songs in the English language which form fifteen of
the seventeen tracks compiled here which in itself seriously diminishes its
claim to be the ‘best’. 
Moreover, despite my own fondness for Ron
Kavana’s work he would hardly describe himself as a traditional singer and the
same goes for Four Men and a Dog’s countryfied version of High on a Mountain.
The jury’s out too on the album’s opening track, Patrick Street’s The
Humours of the King of Ballyhooley for the simple reason that it is not
traditional singing.
Disappointingly too, this time John
Crosby’s liner notes provide a brief overview of the tradition and mention of
the singers included on the album but offer no information on the genesis of
the songs. One whole page of the liner consists of an enigmatic image with just
three lines of text so it’s a shame that the space was not put to better use,
particularly as Tómas Ó Neachtain receives no mention at all and sings a song, An
Sgeilpín Droighneach (‘The Thorny Ledge’), that I have not been able to
track down anywhere else.
Nevertheless, this still contains several
valuable recordings, such as John Reilly’s The Raggle Taggle Gypsy and
Sarah Ann O’Neill’s (coincidental) John Reilly, making it well worth
acquiring should you come across a copy.
This is an original review by Geoff Wallis.
More details about the Topic label and its releases can be
found at www.topicrecords.co.uk.