Robert's St Patrick Day's Music Round Up

St. Patrick's Day is enhanced thanks to new music releases

With the upcoming arrival of St. Patrick’s Day on March 17, now is the perfect time to celebrate the latest albums featuring Celtic and Irish music making in all of its Emerald Isle glory.
Although the range of artists ranges from the punk-styled Dropkick Murphys to the traditional-minded High Kings and Celtic Thunder, now is the time to raise a pint and celebrate the sounds of Ireland.



Artist: The High Kings

Title: Memory Lane

You will be interested in this if you are a fan of: The Fenians, the Young Dubliners, Celtic Thunder

Tell Me More: Fans of modern-day Irish folk music are likely already familiar with The High Kings. The Irish folk ensemble, which features Finbarr Clancy, Brian Dunphy, Martin Furey and Darren Holden, offers up stunning folk-flavored versions of classics that showcase the quartet’s wonderful voices and winning skills as virtuoso multi-instrumentalists across Memory Lane. From the beautiful and haunting “The Fields of Athenry” to the galloping sing-a-long “On the One Road” and the best-known tune in the genre (“Whiskey in a Jar”), Memory Lane also serves as the perfect introduction to the genre.

Get Memory Lane Here



Artist: Dropkick Murphys

Title: Going Out In Style

You will be interested in this if you are a fan of: The American Wake, Black 47, Stiff Little Fingers, Flogging Mollys

Tell Me More: While Dropkick Murphys may not be your grandparents’ idea of Irish music, there are countless followers of the hard rocking New England troupe. Going Out In Style is not only the band’s 7th full-length release, but already seems positioned to be the outfit’s most successful. Having made its debut at #6 on the Billboard Top 200 chart earlier this month, the album is filled with punk-styled pub rock that roars and inspires.

Get Going Out Of Style Here



Artist: Celtic Thunder

Title: Heritage

You will be interested in this if you are a fan of: The Chieftains, The High Kings, Broadway music

Tell Me More: Is Celtic Thunder a group or a theatrical production? For anyone who has seen the quintet live, the answer is obviously “both.” Like a favorite musical, any Celtic Thunder performance (be it live, or watching a PBS special on television) is about both the music and the production. Listening to the five lads sing and perform traditional material across the recent release Heritage, it’s clear that an eclectic approach is what works best for this troupe. Whether singing Irish rock ("Black Is The Color," "Whiskey In The Jar"), a beautiful ensemble vocal number ("Home From The Sea") or emotional ballads ("The Dutchman," "Noreen"), Celtic Thunder proves to be at home singing it all.

Get Heritage on CD Here

Get The DVD here

Can Vinyl Save The Music?

The other week I talked to my mailing list about whether or not I should still make CDs

 

I asked: Will the CD cease to be?

 

5 years ago I said NO.

 

I predicted that the CD would decline in sales (It has)

 

That digital downloads would increase (they have).

 

I predicted that in time the CD would become a botique item with special packaging and that it would be limited in number.

 

This is certainly evidence that this is starting to happen. A lot of major artists are co-releasing deluxe editions alongside a standard edition.

 

Sometimes it is the simple difference between a CD version and CD/DVD version as with Neil Young's Fork in the Road CD.

 

But some artists have released their new albums in everything from standard CD to huge specialty packages ranging from 100 to 300 dollars and very limited in number.

 

Now my prediction was that these limited edition packages would start becoming collectible. That they would go up in value and start selling for more than what was originally paid for them and that this collecitbility would fule more sales and more artists releasing limited edition versions.

 

Now only time will tell if this happens or not, but one thing I didn't see coming is the continual growth and re-emergence of Vinyl.

 

Vinyl sales are growing, the production of vinyl players is growing, Many top selling artists are releasing vinyl versions of their latest releases and, Best Buy (one of the last few major chains in the US still carrying a decent selection) is carrying vinyl now too.

 

So I started to wonder....Could Vinyl save the music industry?

 

Right now vinyl is expensive, because production is so limited. Only a huge re-surgence would bring the prices down.

 

But could vinyl gain a kind of mainstream hipness/coolness that would accomplish this?

 

Could people start to re-discover the warmth of analog sound? Could we re-disover the tactile experience of vinyl packaging?

 

And could it happen on a large mainstream scale?

 

Current vinyl releases are $19.99 a pop? But part of this is because it takes 2 discs to hold what one CD now holds.

 

Could a shorter and single vinyl release be sold for only $9.99 then?

 

I have always felt that too many CDs where too long on tracks and not long enough on quality. In other words, just because you have room for 18 tracks, doesn't mean you should have 18 tracks.

 

Back in the days of Vinyl, albums where shorter. I think this shorter format required a lot of fat trimming so that only the best tracks made it on the album. Today we live in a world of shorter attention spans and way more distractions. So maybe now more than ever, shorter albums are needed.

 

Most of the current vinyl releases offer a free mp3 version of the album, which is smart, and creates goodwill to the consumer since you can't play vinyl in your car. Personally I think it should come with the CD in a plain envelope. This way you have a permanent high quality wave file.

 

But iregardless of their being a CD or mp3 inlcuded. If you buy vinyl you are going to play it. And you can't play it in your car, so you are going to play it in your home.

 

I feel that a large part of society has forgotten how to listen (really listen) to music. Part of this has been the promotion of generic artists over artists of substance by the industry and our media.

 

But could vinyl make us start to listen (really listen) again?......You know what I mean?........Put the vinyl on the turntable, open up the lyrics booklet and start listening the album like you watch a movie.

 

All the record industry would need to do then is give customers music that is worth listening too and therefore worth buying.

Digipak vs Jewell Case

A songwriter friend of mine said that he preferred Jewel Case over Digipak. His reasons was that digipak was more fragile. It could be damaged easier. If  a jewel case breaks you can replace it for cheap.

I felt that his reasons made good practical sense. But for me there is no contest. I prefer digipak. Yes it is more fragile, but it comes closer to what vinyl albums used to be like. They are more beautiful to look at and and there are more possibilities for different types of packaging than with the jewel case. Also the fact that it is more fragile means that you have to take better care of them (Which is what you had to do with records). It makes you value them more.

Sadly, from the indie artist standpoint of things, it is also too expensive for me to use. All of my CDs have been released in the Jewell case format. I can't afford the digipak format yet......but maybe someday..........

The Value of Records

Over at the New Music Strategies blog page there is an excellent post regarding the value of record albums vs the value of digital files . I hope they don't mind me borrowing their picture, but it was to perfect for this post.  

I've been saying for years now, that when the industry switched to the CD, they should never have lost the packaging that came with records.

All that big artwork, gatefold covers, lyrics sheets, booklets, posters, etc.

You can't download that stuff.

It would have been so easy to just put the CD in a Mylar sleeve and include it with the record album packaging.

Notice how DVDs are packaged? There are often times various versions. Some with collectible items included.

Years ago, I thought to myself.....If I was big famous music star, I could afford to do just that. Release my CD w' record album packaging. I'd make sure it had a gatefold cover with cool artwork, and a lyrics booklet with even more artwork.

I really do believe that it would have sold big time. But I am not a huge famous music star so I can't afford to do that, and I don't have the fame needed to get any press coverage for doing it. I don't even know if I can afford to make CDs any more and may have to go digital only.
 
But I do believe the music industry would be in a different place right now if they had ditched the Jewell box and kept the album packaging.