'Irish Voice' Writer: Ten Years of Music Heaven

Irish Voice music Critic, Mike Farragher, writes:
You can’t file over 500 columns in the nation’s premier Irish American newspaper without one thing — great albums to review. As I mark a decade slinging ink for this fine periodical, I wanted to share the music produced by both Irish and Irish American artists that gave birth to (and continually nurtures) my love of Celtic culture.

9. Van Morrison, Hymns to the Silence:

Everyone raves about his romantic beatnik poet beginnings that were sprinkled with Celtic fairy dust, but I prefer the modern day Van, steeped in his deep love affair with American blues, gospel and soul. The voice was just taking on a world weary growl at this point back in the early nineties, and the instrument was at its peak during a reading of Charley Pride’s “I Can’t Stop Loving You,” a country thriller with the Chieftains on pipes in the back room, and the lonesome mourn of “Carrying a Torch.”

“Ordinary Life” is a wicked blues lick praising the simple things, and the giddy Wurlitzer waltzing with the sax on “So Complicated” was a rare smile on this reflective double disc.