Celtic Woman
Like the material heard on theA Woman's Heartseries, the selections included onCeltic Womanrepresent the contemporary yet introspective side of Irish music. It includes a fair sprinkling the high, creamy, ethereal sopranos typical of the Celtic Twilight esthetic made famous by Anuna, Enya, and Clannad. But there are also a good many chesty altos and big-voiced pop belters. Rita Connolly packs a clarion-like mezzo of the stripe that has made Mary Black a household name, Áine Furey¹s loosely-raveled pipes sometimes channel Stevie Nicks¹ yeasty growl, while Marian Bradfield could easily become the Irish Patsy Cline. In fact, the tunes themselves often harbor haunting parallels with American old-timey music, which was after all descended from imported Scots-Irish traditions that got land-locked in the Appalachians. With so much high-end diversity on tap, the album has a remarkably broad appeal and should delight fans of modern Celtic styles, country pop balladeers, singer-songwriters or any combination thereof. --Christina Roden