Beginner’s Guide to Celtic

How do you avoid the inevitable clichés of ‘Celticness’? This three-CD beginner's compilation has set itself an unenviable task. BBC DJ Mary Ann Kennedy was all too aware of the risks involved, berating atmospheric Atlantic mists, red-headed women and the like for their stereotyping. And yet this release still couldn't resist wooing the punter with a little olde worlde Celtic script, some standing stones and the odd bonfire in the packaging.

No matter. Kennedy has compiled 177 minutes of great music. She manages to show off the wealth of the Celtic tradition in its many forms, with particular attention to the more neglected corners. Cornwall's Brenda Wootton and Dalla fly a flag for Kernow in the English west. Brian Stowell and King Chíaullee are the pride of the Manx old and new on the Isle of Man. There are even berths for the Asturians, in the form of Llan de Cubel, and the Galicians, in Xosé Manuel Budíño. (Though Kennedy questions the Spaniards’ ethnic claims in the liner notes, she feels the sense of seafaring kinship and the love for the gaita (bagpipes) gives them at least honorary status.)

The first CD features revivalists of the 70s, with a strong sense of returning to the purity of an earlier sound. This reverence for tradition is seen in a more contemporary context on the second disc. Both these discs are at their most sublime when highlighting the human voice, often unaccompanied. The beauty of Celtic song, in its many languages, is portrayed in Brian Stowell's lonesome Manx traditional, the iconic Bothy Band's harmonies, the sean nós tradition of Roísin Elsafty and Seósamh Ó hEanaí, and the contemporary work of Karine Polwart and Cerys Matthews.

Treats include the lilting song of Rennes-born Gwennyn, Battlefield Band's ‘The Beaches of St Valery’ sung by Davy Steele and Polwart's understated ‘Daisy’. The third CD does the fusion piece from Afro Celt Sound System to Salsa Celtica. There are also more subtle collaborations such as North Uist's Julie Fowlis and Waterford's Muireann Nicamhlaoibh, and Northern Irish meets Scots bagpipers from Jarlath Henderson and Ross Ainslie. The first two discs probably have the edge, but this is a fine Celtic grand tour.