winterbadger | music (Reply)

In Which Jan Splurges on CDs.

So, it had been a while since I ~~went music-mad~~ bought any CDs, and I wanted a few Billy Bragg CDs of my own to share with Amy so she could decide if she wanted to come to his concert at the Birchmere with me (thanks again to

vatoengland and

poliscidiva for introducing me to him!)

So I wandered into Borders thinking I'd get one or two CDs.

Evil, evil people that they are, they were having a "buy three, get one free" sale. And I was ~~not in my right mind~~ feeling expansive, so I ended up with

Life's a Riot With Spy vs. Spy by Billy Bragg. A lot of the early BB CDs that I borrowed from policsidiva are out of print; I could get them used online, but I wanted one or two in my hot little hand. This one has two tracks I particularly like: "The Milkman of Human Kindness" and "A New England".
Brewing Up with Billy Bragg
Chasing the Sun by Karan Casey: I've had her Songlines for a while now, and like it, so I know that I like her work.
The Rough Guide to Scottish Music. The Rough Guide to Bhangra was pretty good, and I know several of the artists on here, so I figured it would be a good intro to others. I see they have Irish and Scottish folk CDs too. Hmmm.

Then I started getting adventurous...

In Play with Liz Carroll and John Doyle. I've heard a great deal about John Doyle, so I thought a fiddle and guitar combo would be irresistibly good.
Se by Lunasa. A group I've heard of (I *think* also heard...) that looked good.
Local Ground by Altan, another famous group I've not heard before. Picked because it had some tracks in Gaelic (OK, it's not Gaidhlig, but...)
Fit? by Old Blind Dogs. Includes a selection of good trad folk tracks by another group I'd heard of but not heard. And
The Farthest Wave by Cathie Ryan. I was speculating about several other artists they had there, and then I noticed this album was produced by John McCusker, and that sold me on it instantly.

Assuming I like these all, I can see other artists beckoning, like Solas, Danu, Susan McKeown... And, of course, the collector in me wants to add to my store of recordings by Dougie McLean, Tannahill Weavers, Silly Wizard, Andy Stewart, Planxty, the Bothy Band...