By Art Ketchen
Celtic Beat Magazine
Volume 5, Number 5 Nov/Dec '98; Page 4

THE PAN CELTIC SET

The Sounds of Iona, the newest offering from that Pan Celtic quartet Iona from Virginia does a remarkable and skilled job of bringing those traditions together. Right from the start, with the opening set, Iona draws you in with skilled singing, instrumentals and pipes. I enjoyed "Brewers Lament"/"Queen Among the Heather"/"The Ate is Dear" with a modernized pibroch and dramatic treatment. Haunting - indeed chilling, and an appropriate tune for this time of year is the combination of "Lark in the Morning" with "Wild Geese at Night" bringing back to mind the dark and terrible days of the Penal era. Iona skillfully weaves back and forth between, grimness and gaeity, Brythonic and Gaelic, as when they move from a rolling Welsh tune "Y gwcw fach/nyth y gog" to a lonely Highhland pipe tune to the 19th century "pop" anthem "Paddy's Green Shamrock Shores." to "An Alarc'h" a grim Cornish song, about 3 knights which has nothing in common with the 3 knights song of by Liam Clancy.

An appropriate finish is provided by the too seldom heard Nolwenn Monjarret of Brittany. The Breton tune "The Month of May," a kan ha diskan tune, is combined with an andro (dance) and finished with a laridenn collected by Nolwenn's father. Nolwenn's clear, beautiful voice is here complemented by those of the band members, with a finale by Robert Mitchell(chanter) and Bernard Argent(bombarde) which is rousing. For a good musical meeting of Celtic nations Sound of Iona is tops.

© Copyright 1998 Celtic Beat Magazine

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