Average Reviews:
(More customer reviews)Sharon Shannon and her group play updated version of standard Irish folk music that will win over the stoniest heart (although my wife's cousin Ruth didn't like her --she said it's "monotonous"). The heart of the music is Shannon's virtuosity on several instruments --accordion, hammered dulcimer, fiddle-- but the Woodchoppers create a propulsive rhythmic groove, regardless of tempo, that draws in the listener.
Living in central California, until two years ago my image of "Celtic music" was a watered down New Age, pallid music that relied on dulcimer and harp and featured vocalists who sound like Joan Baez with weak lungs. Then we rented a cabin in county Kerry, in the southwesternmost tip of Ireland, and I got to hear heavy doses of contemporary Irish popular music --and fell in love with it. I came out a convert -- to Kila, Lunasa, Christie Moore (long may he live!), Mary Black.
And also to Sharon Shannon and her Woodchoppers. No one plays accordion better than Sharon does and the Woodchoppers create unpretentious, joyous music that disguises the virtuosity in their playing of it. I don't know quite how to categorize this record --it's traditional and modern at the same time. Whatever it is, it's very good.
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