Soul of a Harper "Celtic 101" Review

Saw Memories of Middle Earth and Soul of a Harper were briefly reviewed in the Austin Chronicle today. Slight mis-quote which adds humor to the past two days blog.

"We're not really 'Celtic,'" explains Marc Gunn of the local Brobdingnagian Bards, and he's right; the duo is more lo-fi English folk with a distinct Gaelic twist. Yet their simple autoharp-and-recorder music is remarkably diverse ("Hobbit's Dance," "The Psychopathic, Chronic, Schizophrenic Gollum Blues"), as Memories of Middle Earth (Mage Records) displays. Gunn's own debut, Soul of a Harper, is only available on the Internet, the place where rebel Celtic music thrives – the Bards' MP3 hit, "Tolkien," racked up well over a million downloads in cyberspace. Harper is a delightfully homespun collection of instrumentals and songs about dwarves and elves, rebels and Ireland, and trad a capella such as "My Love Is Like a Red, Red Rose." (Gunn also oversaw the Celtic MP3 collection Coventina's Well, featuring Ed Miller.)

More than anything I was saying, Memories of Middle Earth was not quite 'Celtic'. Ah well. It's good publicity.

Read the whole Celtic 101 review at the Austin Chronicle website.