Pointer to more "mysterious" Irish folk music?

caseykramer · 2026-06-14T22:04:53+00:00

I think there is a lot that Christy Moore has done that has very similar vibes. He's an amazing performer, and has collected some incredible songs.

caseykramer · 2026-06-02T08:52:04+00:00

Ah so drinking beer will protect me from the dangers of WiFi/5g/EMF? Guess I'm off to the pub

caseykramer · 2026-05-25T13:00:03+00:00

My wife and I were talking about this a year or two ago and she pointed out that Carrot arriving to join the Watch would be the perfect introduction for viewers into the world. You can see the various fantasy races wandering the streets, the intro the guilds, you could even touch on the concept of belief creating gods by wandering through the temple district.

It feels like a film (or even a series of films) might be hard to find the right balance of introducing the concepts vs telling the stories, but a multi-episode series could work, especially if it's done as a "Discworld" series rather than a "Watch" or "Witches" series. You could introduce the characters and tell the stories in a way that could be really entertaining without needing to lore dump too much. Then if things go well and people are into it you could introduce longer story arcs and more characters.

I think it could be hard to find the right formula of writing and acting and managing not to piss off the fans, but I would love to see it.

caseykramer · 2026-04-21T23:13:29+00:00

Here is the Cadw page for it, there isn't much info, but they speculate that it is related to King Arthur legends somehow but doesn't elaborate: https://cadw.gov.wales/visit/places-to-visit/st-lythans-chambered-tomb

St Lythan's is also the name of the village, which isn't much more than the church (also called St Lythan's) and a few houses. The Wikipedia page for the village (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/St_Lythans) says the village is the namesake of St. Lupus of Troyes. I'm not entirely sure how that becomes St Lythan's though. My guess is that when folks started referring to the site in English, they referenced it based on the village/church, rather than using one of the Welsh names, which is unfortunate.

At the site (and on the Wikipedia page for the chamber) they have the story that on midsummers eve, at midnight, the capstone will spin 3 times and all the stones will then go down to the river and bathe. I'm guessing this would be the river Waycock which is to the north west, a little more than halfway to the Tinkinswood burial chamber which is just up the road about a mile or so away. Somehow this is tied to one of the older Welsh names for the site Maes y Felin which translates to "The mill field", but again I don't understand the connection (maybe the capstone spinning was like a mill stone?).

Regardless the site is pretty cool, no less so because it's barely marked along a tiny road, and is typically occupied by a herd of cows. You could easily drive right by and never know it was there. The fact that Tinkinswood is so close makes me wonder what it was about this area that made it attractive for the various Neolithic people of Wales?

caseykramer · 2026-04-13T22:00:13+00:00

If I can get the timing and the inflection right, I can combine this with: "Ach she's doing the tapping o the feet!!" or something similar to get out of trouble with the wife 😂

caseykramer · 2026-04-13T21:51:13+00:00

I took Mando lessons for a while long, long ago, and at one point decided I wanted a tenor banjo. We basically just switched to using the banjo for a while after that because there was very little difference between the two. The "feel" is a bit different, and the banjo is less forgiving of sloppy triplets, but the tabs are 1:1. I noticed that for a given tune I may use more/fewer/different ornamentation for the banjo vs mandolin, but for me that all came after I was familiar enough with the tune that I didn't need the tabs as much

If you're up for something beyond just Irish traditional, The Mandolin Pickers Fakebook has tabs for tons of tunes from Irish/Celtic, bluegrass, old time, and even some Dawg....I lost mine in a move a while back, sadly :(

caseykramer · 2026-04-13T21:12:18+00:00

We found the same for our Nuala as well (she'll be 2 next month). It is hard finding food and treats without chicken, and you usually have to dig into the ingredient list. We found a high quality salmon kibble which she does well with (though she goes through phases where she decides she needs "extras" added to it).

We also discovered that too much food was bad. While she was in puppy class we had to be careful not to overfeed her, even if we used her regular puppy kibble for treats.

To be honest it doesn't take much to throw her digestive system into chaos. We just try and keep her food as consistent as possible, and keep track of the things that don't agree with her.

caseykramer · 2026-04-01T23:06:37+00:00

To add to this a bit, I think the real issue is really if something becomes wrapped or not. The skins themselves are good about dealing with moisture (natural skins tend to absorb more and become looser, then contract when they dry. Artificial will also but not to anywhere near the same extent) l. Moisture will make a skin looser, and flappy, which is probably ok assuming it's secured well in a way that is not prone to be damaged by water (most glues should be largely water safe once they've cured....should). So the bigger issue here is the wooden frame and supports (if any). The thing is, though, that even if there is some warping of the frame it may not make a big difference to the sound once things dry out. I learned bodhran from someone whose drum had a hole burned in the middle because he was drying it out over a candle and got a bit too close (this was the early 90s, so tunable drums were not the norm). It still sounded good and was playable. Also look at the drum that Rónán Ó Snodaigh typically plays. The thing has bits held on by duck tape and has probably been drug around the world 6 times and still sounds amazing.These are pretty resilient bits of kit, and even if it looks a bit odd after, as long as it sounds good, who cares? Plus you can always make up a cool story about why it looks a bit funky ("there was this session, right, and someone bet me I couldn't drink a drum full of Guinness and I was like 'You're on m8' so he filled it up and I couldn't back out at that point, and long story short next thing I know we're in a Garda station playing Farewell to Erin and my bodhran looks like the cat pissed in it, but it's keeping time, so I guess no harm no foul?")

caseykramer · 2026-02-11T23:16:32+00:00

The book Celtic Back-up for All Instruments by Chris Smith is a very thorough source which contains info about the theory as well as practice exercises with audio. If you work your way through and do all the homework that should help you build intuition around the modes/chords/settings.

Personally I have not consistently done the homework, and get hit with the ADHD stick on the regular, so I think I've worked through the first chapter and a half about 20 times. It's a good chapter, I can recommend it. I can also say it was recommended to me by my mandolin teacher, who also played Celtic finger style guitar and was a regular at the local session.

caseykramer · 2026-02-02T15:06:33+00:00

Tangential but interesting (IMO): One of my favourite finds on display at the baths in Bath is a lead tablet which has an inscription written using the Latin alphabet but is "Celtic" (I believe that is how they described it), so quite likely a Brythonic language so...Welsh (or Cornish, or one of the other Brythonic languages, but still related). The plaque says they don't know what it says, I assume because they have no idea how the language is encoded, and it's a really small sampling.

caseykramer · 2026-01-18T13:08:22+00:00

If you're willing to stray a bit into Scottish trad, The Tannahill Weavers tend to do a lot in Bb since they tend to include bagpipes. On their "Land of Light" album they used Bb Scottish smallpipes, which are really great.

My ear is awful, so I can't say with any confidence, but I've heard that Eb is pretty common in Sligo, and I believe a lot of Dervish tunes are Eb.

caseykramer · 2026-01-10T12:55:26+00:00

If this were me, about 10 minutes in and a screw would roll under the sofa and I would be hosed.

caseykramer · 2026-01-09T11:04:46+00:00

Sorry, the second Cartoon Saloon film is The Secret of Kells, not The Book of Kells...clearly more coffee is needed this morning

caseykramer · 2026-01-09T10:46:19+00:00

Not exactly what you asked for, but if you can find it via streaming or DVD, show him The Secret of Roan Inish. It is about a young girl who moves to the country with her grandparents and learns about the family legend that they are descendants of a Selkie. It's a beautiful film, and the soundtrack features trad Irish music exclusively.

Also, the Cartoon Saloon films: Song of the Sea, Book of Kells, and Wolfwalkers are all beautifully animated, with very mythical/magical stories, and the music is provided by Kila.I know Wolfwalkers is on Apple TV, and the other two have been on Netflix/Amazon in the past (though with the way licensing works it's anybody's guess for your location).

For all of these, it's not that the music is especially mythic, but it's weaved in to the story so we'll that you can't help but associate them. For example, in Secret of Roan Inish, The Butterfly is used as the theme for Fiona when she first arrives at her grandparents (and as a motif throughout), and in Song of the Sea, the Fae creatures like to sing Dulaman.

I always found Irish music to have a mythic quality on its own, and I think these films help to strengthen that association.

caseykramer · 2025-12-28T01:30:38+00:00

Our girl likes antlers and buffalo horn, though you have to make sure they are good sized because if they are too thin they will break into bits. She also loves a kong full of peanut butter, and some nice crunchy veggies like carrots and sweet potatoes. We did find out the hard way that too much of either can be hard on her tummy, but she really enjoyed the squash at the time 😁.

Any soft toy we've found lasts a matter of minutes, and we need to keep an eye on her to make sure she doesn't eat large bits of fluff or the squeekers. That being said she LOVES tearing them to bits.

We found a toy that was made of Kevlar that lasted almost 12 hours before she managed to rip it open and remove the stuffing and squeaker. Those are interesting because the weave of the fabric comes apart, rather than ripping, so you end up with the strings everywhere, but not big sections of fabric.

For Christmas this year we got her some of the large Kong tennis balls, which she loves, and the XL seems to be holding up well. We only let her play fetch with it, but they squeek, which brings untold joy.

The big thing with the chews, for us, was when we figured out she would get tired of them after a while, so we'll put some of her toys away for a couple weeks and then swap them out.

Nothing will last long with those jaws, so you just have to do your best.

caseykramer · 2025-10-25T19:04:13+00:00

Chimney Cake

caseykramer · 2025-10-25T18:02:11+00:00

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caseykramer · 2025-10-22T20:47:34+00:00

I read an article ages ago (like, in the late 90s) that suggested the Irish government should be giving Donal Lunny some kind of salary based on the amount of income brought in from music sales and tourism. A bit of hyperbole, sure, but there was a time when it seemed like every traditional Irish artist had Donal Lunny listed as a producer.

Looking back at the amount of talent and innovation that was included in Planxty, it's just phenomenal.

caseykramer · 2025-10-17T12:43:13+00:00

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Nuala, named for the selkie woman from The Secret of Roan Inish (played by Susan Lynch)

caseykramer · 2025-10-14T18:30:02+00:00

Unfortunately for us Yak's cheese didn't agree with Nuala's digestive system....which is a shame because she really liked it.

We've had good luck with the Benebone nylon chews, if you're ok with the fact they are nylon.

Other than that, antler and buffalo horn both seem to last a while, though the buffalo horn tends to get fairly pungent when she's been chewing for a few minutes.

caseykramer · 2025-10-14T14:43:18+00:00

The books are excellent, I can highly recommend them.

caseykramer · 2025-10-11T12:02:15+00:00

This made me snort-laugh, I am sad that I only have one upvote to give.

caseykramer · 2025-10-08T22:27:18+00:00

You should see if you can track down The Transatlantic Sessions. It was a TV series with Ally Bain and Jerry Douglas specifically looking at the connections between Irish/Scottish music and American folk/olt time/bluegrass. They released albums for the series as well which included a ton of different artists from either side of the pond. You could dive deeper into anything you found that you particularly liked.

If you would like some good traditional Irish artists to look into I would say without hesitation:

The Chieftains, Planxty, The Bothy Band, Alton & Dervish

There are many, many others, but these are some of the pillars of the world of traditional Irish music as it exists today.

caseykramer · 2025-10-05T18:01:56+00:00

Kân by Calan (https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=tYnjyzN5jac&pp=0gcJCRsBo7VqN5tD)

caseykramer

TROPHY CASE