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Celtic & Traditional Lullabies is a sleeper hit
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By Dan MacDonald

I’ve mentioned the CD Celtic & Traditional Lullabies From Our Cape Breton before but have never given it the proper time that it deserves.

With 40 plus musicians mixing and matching on 23 different cuts, this is a very different recording. It certainly has some of the most unusual combinations of musicians that I’ve ever run across, not just on the CD as a whole but on some of the individual cuts as well.

Lullabies was the brainchild of Eileen Brennan, and she is perhaps the only one who could have envisioned the concept and have the determination to pull it off.

Most people who had any background in the music business would have said that the idea wouldn’t work. It would be too unwieldy and far too difficult to co-ordinate.

Eileen wasn’t aware of all this and plowed (successfully) ahead. Recorded at Lakewind Sound Studios, the CD contains Mi’kmaq, French, Gaelic and English songs. There are fiddle tunes and piano solos. Pipes, whistles and harps pop up in the most unexpected places. You’ll find hymns, classical pieces and well-used campfire songs among the cuts, as well as tunes and songs the get their first commercial airing.

But however unusual things may seem, the combinations work and work well. This is one of the most listenable and enjoyable recordings to come along in ages. From the opening notes of Too Ra Loo Ra Loo Rah to the close of Rock-a –Bye Baby almost 80 minutes later, this is something that you’ll listen to over and over again.

(Dan MacDonald (BA Celtic Studies, Cert. Heritage Studies)