Who are your favorite harpists?

Subject: Who are your favorite harpists?
From: Sandy/DE
Date: 18 Jan 00 - 05:24 PM

I wonder if this informative group would be so kind as to recommend some harpists (and specific CDs) to listen to. I am especially interested in celtic music, but also American folk and hymns. Any thoughts? Thanks

Sandy from Delaware

Subject: RE: Who are your favorite harpists?
From:
Date: 18 Jan 00 - 05:43 PM

The one in DT's #192

Subject: RE: Who are your favorite harpists?
From: Sorcha
Date: 18 Jan 00 - 06:01 PM

Anne Heyman!!

Subject: RE: Who are your favorite harpists?
From:
Date: 18 Jan 00 - 06:48 PM

Alison Kinnard - Various recordings. See Temple Records

Ardyth Robinson and Jennifer Wyatt Celtic Harpists

Maggie MacInnes - Singer and Harpists Eilean Na Mara

Hope those are useful.

Subject: RE: Who are your favorite harpists?
From: Mbo
Date: 18 Jan 00 - 08:14 PM

Definately, DEFINATELY get William Jackson, a Scottish harper & composer who plays both straight Celtic and Celtic/Classical fusions, all of which are simply beautiful. Good CD's by Billy Jackson are "Inchcolm," "A Scottish Isle," and "The Wellpark Suite." Also, the Welsh triple-harper Robin Huw Bowen is excellent! A good one by Robin is called (at least in English, I believe) "Sweet Harp of My Land." Good stuff!

--Mbo

Subject: RE: Who are your favorite harpists?
From: Dave (the ancient mariner)
Date: 18 Jan 00 - 08:17 PM

Anything by Emma Christian (from the Isle Of Man)

Loreena McKennitt CD's Elemental Parallel Dreams The Visit The Book of Secrets To Drive The Cold Winter Away The Mask and Mirror My favourite single is the Mummers Dance

Classical Harp Allan Stivell

I can rcommend Emma's live performance, she is a wonderfull singer musician... Loreena McKennitt is also an excellent performer but I enjoy her music professionally recorded for listening pleasure more than her live stuff.

I hope you will enjoy these musicians too. Regards. Yours,(the ancient music critic)Aye. Dave

Subject: RE: Who are your favorite harpists?
From: Mbo
Date: 18 Jan 00 - 08:41 PM

**SLAP** How could I forget THE MAN himself, Alan Stivell? And Loreena is a personal favorite of mine, too. I've only heard Emma Christian do one song--a lullaby called "The Little Redbird." It's absolutely beautiful. Thanks for reminding us, Dave! UNDERSTAND EACH OTHER.

--Mbo

Subject: RE: Who are your favorite harpists?
From: Art Thieme
Date: 18 Jan 00 - 08:45 PM

Liz Ciafani (I know that's spelled wrong.)

Carol Rohl(works with hubby G. Bok as (are ya ready) Bok 'n Rohl.

Subject: RE: Who are your favorite harpists?
From: jeffp
Date: 18 Jan 00 - 09:16 PM

Carol Thompson is a wonderful Celtic harper. Also Sue Richards. Carol teaches at Irish Week at the Augusta Heritage Center and has several CDs out. Sue plays frequently at the Maryland Renaissance Festival. I have heard both of them many times and can recommend both. Derek "Ding Dong" Bell of the Chieftains is also an excellent player and is featured on their Celtic Harp CD with the Belfast Harp Ensemble. A wonderful CD for reflective listening.

Subject: RE: Who are your favorite harpists?
From: Matt
Date: 18 Jan 00 - 10:24 PM

The late Nicanor Zabaleta was the Segovia of the harp. He is a classical maestro, the maestro of all time.

Subject: RE: Who are your favorite harpists?
From: sophocleese
Date: 18 Jan 00 - 10:32 PM

Ruth Sutherland from the Hamilton, Ontario area (though she may have moved) area has a CD called rantin' and rovin'. Which I love to listen to, some crossover with african beats in it.

Subject: RE: Who are your favorite harpists?
From: margaret
Date: 18 Jan 00 - 10:41 PM

You might enjoy the Scottish harp duo, Sileas; they've got lots of energy and they do some nice singing too.

Subject: RE: Who are your favorite harpists?
From: emily rain
Date: 18 Jan 00 - 10:53 PM

another vote for derek bell. also philip boulder of magical strings. he's awesome.

Subject: RE: Who are your favorite harpists?
From: Mbo
Date: 18 Jan 00 - 10:56 PM

Ooooohh, Derek does a bang-up job on "The Blackbird" on the Celtic Harp album!

--Mbo

Subject: RE: Who are your favorite harpists?
From: Alice
Date: 18 Jan 00 - 11:01 PM

Mary O'Hara!!!!! Definitely. You can find her CD's on the internet and her autobiography "The Scent of The Roses" on used book websites. Reading her life story in her own words is inspiring for anyone, musician/singer/harpists especially. Here is a thread discussion we had awhile back.click here

Alice

Subject: RE: Who are your favorite harpists?
From:
Date: 19 Jan 00 - 12:00 AM

Oh! You might look around for a video called Celtic Harps. This was shown on Pledge Week on WGBH last spring. I tried to find it as a video when I was in LA in May, but no luck.

Subject: RE: Who are your favorite harpists?
From: Helen
Date: 19 Jan 00 - 06:41 AM

I vote for Derek Bell, especially his playing of O'Carolan tunes, and for Sileas - I have two of their albums and love both of them. They are raucous, a great selection of songs and tunes, and obviously havign a lot of fun while they are playing - very inspiring.

Helen

Subject: RE: Who are your favorite harpists?
From: GUEST,emily rain at the U Dub
Date: 19 Jan 00 - 05:23 PM

oh, Alice, your mention of Mary O'Hara reminds me of Graine Yeats, another old style soprano harper/singer. she, too, is awesome. i don't know how readily available her stuff is outside of ireland, but she's worth searching for.

Subject: RE: Who are your favorite harpists?
From: Jon Freeman
Date: 19 Jan 00 - 05:31 PM

Maire Ni Cathesiedh ?sp gets my vote

Jon

Subject: RE: Who are your favorite harpists?
From: Wesley S
Date: 19 Jan 00 - 05:40 PM

So how come no one has mentioned Patrick Ball yet?? I thought for sure he would be on this list somewhere. He's a great storyteller also. Same thing for Robin Williamson.

Subject: RE: Who are your favorite harpists?
From: GUEST,Mbo
Date: 19 Jan 00 - 07:05 PM

Jon, I had forgotten about Maire Ni Chathasaigh too! She does good stuff with her husband, guitarist Chris Newman--not to mention her sister Nollaig Casey & brother-in-law Arty McGlynn...

--Mbo

Subject: RE: Who are your favorite harpists?
From: black walnut
Date: 19 Jan 00 - 07:40 PM

SHARLENE WALLACE is an absolutely amazing harper! (and i'd say that even if she wasn't my harp teacher.) check out both sites...one is old, one is new. http://www.interlog.com/~sharlene/oldhome.html http://www.interlog.com/~sharlene ~black walnut

Subject: RE: Who are your favorite harpists?
From: black walnut
Date: 19 Jan 00 - 07:45 PM

re: above.

i'm not sure why my spaces get lost sometimes.

please know that "~black walnut" was only my signature, and not part of sharlene's website.

~'nut

Subject: RE: Who are your favorite harpists?
From: Harald Schmidt
Date: 19 Jan 00 - 08:57 PM

Groucho Marx :-)

Subject: RE: Who are your favorite harpists?
From: Alice
Date: 19 Jan 00 - 08:58 PM

Emily, I found Graine Yeats mentioned in a Thistle and Shamrock program note for 1997 ...Here is a copy and paste of the notes about that particular protram... "Carolan's Concerto - ........ We feature the music of this enduring character, with the harps of Maire Ni Chathasaigh (pron: Moira Nee Ha-ha-seek), Graine Yeats (pron: Granya Yates), The Chieftains' Derek Bell, and Sue Richards. "

I'm sure I can find Graine's recordings from Music Imports. I have a link on my website for them, and they list all the Mary O'Hara recordings as they were released in different countries around the world.

alice

Subject: RE: Who are your favorite harpists?
From: fox4zero
Date: 19 Jan 00 - 09:07 PM

Harald:

Don't you mean H---o Marx? G-----o had the cigar and moustache, and C---o was the pianist. Regards PARISH

Subject: RE: Who are your favorite harpists?
From: Jon Freeman
Date: 19 Jan 00 - 09:45 PM

Here is a link to Old Bridge Music (Chris Newman's site)http://ourworld.compuserve.com/homepages/obm/homepage.htm

I used to have "Out of Court" (lost it on loan) and Maire however she is spelt does things with the harp that I hadn't realised were possible. Chris Newman is also amazing on the guitar...

Jon

Subject: RE: Who are your favorite harpists?
From: John in Brisbane
Date: 20 Jan 00 - 08:12 AM

I endorse Australia's own - Andy Rigby.

Subject: RE: Who are your favorite harpists?
From: kendall
Date: 20 Jan 00 - 08:37 AM

Actually Harpo Marx could only play in one key A.. My vote goes to Carol Rohl, Derek Bell, Annie Muir and our own Julia Lane.

Subject: RE: Who are your favorite harpists?
From: GUEST,emily rain at U Dub
Date: 20 Jan 00 - 04:12 PM

only play in one key? how does that work? he was a classical harpist; all ya have to do is kick the pedals.

parish: i wonder to myself, Cisco Marx? shows how much i know. : )

i'm betraying my age, here.

Subject: RE: Who are your favorite harpists?
From: kendall
Date: 20 Jan 00 - 07:34 PM

That was the story Groucho told..I dont know anything about harps, but the few I've seen had no "pedals" to kick

Subject: RE: Who are your favorite harpists?
From: GUEST,emily rain at the U Dub
Date: 21 Jan 00 - 03:51 PM

kendall: a classical harp (the huge ones with the straight pillars that you see in orchestras) have seven pedals around the base. each pedal corresponds to a note (a, b, c, edc.). when you push the f pedal into the lower position, all the f's are sharped; in the upper position, all the f's are flatted; in the middle position, all the f's are natural. this way you can change keys or play accidentals without using your hands to flip a lever.

groucho said that, eh? then there must be a punchline. i find it pretty unlikely when taken as a serious statement on harpo's limitations.

Subject:
From: Tam
Date: 21 Jan 00 - 05:23 PM

Mmmmm...David Hauze of Crawford, CO. He has a lovely CD available locally of traditional and home baked sweetness. The name of his CD is "We All Have Wings."

Subject: RE: Who are your favorite harpists?
From: Peter Kasin
Date: 22 Jan 00 - 01:03 AM

Maire Ni Cathasaigh is a wonderful Irish harper. For accompanying other instruments, Northern California's own Maureen Brennan. She's a fine soloist, as well.

Subject: RE: Who are your favorite harpists?
From: Peter Kasin
Date: 22 Jan 00 - 01:09 AM

Maire Ni Cathasaigh is a wonderful Irish harper. For accompanying other instruments,though, Northern California's own Maureen Brennan. She's a fine soloist, as well. Seems like every tune she touches turns to gold.

Subject: RE: Who are your favorite harpists?
From: Brendy
Date: 22 Jan 00 - 03:41 AM

Talking about Chris Newman.
He did an album once with Fred Wedlock (English Folky kind of singer with an underlay of humour) called "The Oldest Swinger in Town", oh, way back at the end of the '70's.
But his version of 'Nuages' is one of the best I've ever heard.
He also does an interesting rendition (multi multi tracked) of 'Soldier's Joy'
B.

Subject: RE: Who are your favorite harpists?
From: GUEST,The Burren Ranger.
Date: 22 Jan 00 - 06:25 AM

When it comes to Irish harpists...def. Maire Ni Cathasaigh as mentioned above...but has anybody mentioned the awesome Laoise Kelly(with the group The Bumblebees)? The Burren Ranger

Subject: RE: Who are your favorite harpists?
From: roopoo
Date: 23 Jan 00 - 03:26 AM

I'm not well up on harpists, but I have a cd by a lass called Hilary Rushmer that I bought a few years ago. She plays a mixture of Celtic music from Scotland Ireland and Wales. Mine is the sampler album, "Celtic Mist" on Swallow SWS CD2637.

mouldy

Subject: RE: Who are your favorite harpists?
From: GUEST,John Wood
Date: 23 Jan 00 - 10:44 AM

One exceptional celtic harpist is THOMAS LOEFKE.<
Based in Germany,he has a group called NORLAND WIND.
They usually tour with just three members,but the first time I heard them was in Oslo about 4 years ago.....then there were 8,including the Duggan brothers(from Clannad).
Greetings John.

Subject: RE: Who are your favorite harpists?
From: katlaughing
Date: 23 Jan 00 - 12:09 PM

Alison Kinnaird, for sure, esp. the CD re-release of her 1978 album, The Harp Key

If you want to sample a whole CD by Sileas, click here for Green Linnet's sample page. There are two full cd's of Sileas available.

katlaughing

Subject: RE: Who are your favorite harpists?
From: Peter Kasin
Date: 24 Jan 00 - 05:58 AM

Help! First time posting a message, and I end up posting two of practically the same back-to-back, thinking I was adding to the first one. Maureen Brennan's artistry bears repeating, but that was not the way I had in mind! Anything I can do to erase my first message, Mudcatters? Thanks for any help given.

Subject: RE: Who are your favorite harpists?
From:
Date: 24 Jan 00 - 09:22 AM

The quiestion reminded me of a recording I had (but not anymore) of a first-class breton harpist : Dominig Bouchaud (http://aloysius.itimpresa.mi.it/bouchaud/dbint.htm)

I also noticed that Wendy Stewart hasn't been mentioned.

But still my vote goes to Derek Bell !

Bye,

Rik

Subject: RE: Who are your favorite harpists?
From: bobby's girl
Date: 24 Jan 00 - 05:12 PM

Patsy Seddon and Mary McMaster of the Poozies play some brilliant harp, and the band as a whole are well worth listening to.

Subject: RE: Who are your favorite harpists?
From: Helen
Date: 24 Jan 00 - 09:51 PM

bobby's girl,

Patsy Seddon & mary McMaster are the duo called Sileas - hence the glowing reports of their harpistry. I haven't heard the Poozies albums - I heard they were a bit hard to get now, but I've heard really good things about them.

I'm starting to realise that there are so many types of harp music and we are lumping it all together under the title of "harp music"

Perhaps it would help to identify the music style or interest when we recommend these artists. I don't agree with categorising or labelling music & musicians to excess, but my thoughts are that I like the music & music styles of some of these harpers (non-pedal harp)or harpists (pedal harp) but not others and it tends to break downinitially into the type of music they play.

Any thoughts?

To start off: the two I recommended were Derek Bell, who plays (but doesn't sing) with the Chieftains, but also does solo work, and who plays Irish traditional music and a lot of O'Carolan music, and Sileas (Seddon & McMaster) are Scottish so they have a lot of traditional Scottish songs and tunes, and other stuff, and and they have a raucous sense of humour (I think) in the choice of songs they sing - very much from women's viewpoints, including mouth music, and they use the older "bawdier" versions and not the prettified, sanitised versions. Not the sweet & pretty stuff often thought of when the harp is mentioned.

Helen

Subject: RE: Who are your favorite harpists?
From: Jon Freeman
Date: 24 Jan 00 - 10:54 PM

One thing I really liked about Maire Ni Cathasaigh was not only her skill at Irish playing but the way she could use the harp in (using what I think they described them as) swing jazz numbers. Seems to me to be exceptionally versatile and when I saw her play I couldn't believe the way she moved the levers to change the semitones in the jazzy ones.

Jon

Subject: RE: Who are your favorite harpists?
From: GUEST,Iain
Date: 25 Jan 00 - 06:33 AM

My vote would be for Bill Taylor, an American based in Scotland, or Mary Ann Kennedy, who is a great singer as well. I think you can find out more about Bill's albums, and Mary Ann's new album with the band Cliar, on

www.highland-music.com

A third option would be Corrina Hewitt of Bachue who plays an interesting jazz/trad mix

Subject: RE: Who are your favorite harpists?
From: bobby's girl
Date: 25 Jan 00 - 01:51 PM

The Poozies, featuring Patsy Seddon & Mary McMaster are still very much available, and have a website at www.cutting-tweed.demon.co.uk

Subject: RE: Who are your favorite harpists?
From: jofield
Date: 25 Jan 00 - 03:58 PM

Paul Butterfield

Little Walter

Jimmy Reed

Sonny Terry

(kaff, snortle, chuckle...)

Subject: RE: Who are your favorite harpists?
From: Helen
Date: 25 Jan 00 - 06:36 PM

Thanks bobby's girl,

I just checked the Ladyslipper CD catalogue at http://www.ladyslipper.org/catalogs/ladyslipper/ladyslipper.p26.xtml/agaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa#6/444 (goddess, what an amazing site address!!) with lots of women's music plus sound clips, although no sound clip of the Poozies. Blue Infinity (?) is available there too.

jofield,

I guess my chickens have just come home to roost with that joke. I posted a similarly-veined harp joke into a blues harp thread but the guys there just, cyberly-speaking, turned their noses up and pretended they hadn't heard me. Oh well. LOL

Helen

Subject: RE: Who are your favorite harpists?
From: GUEST,Michael
Date: 05 Feb 00 - 12:53 AM

TO HELEN: Ive been reading some of your messages and it seems that we have quite a few common musical interests. Perhaps we could chat one on one sometime? My e-mail address is [e-mail]