Capercaillie is one of the best Celtic bands around. You could call them the hottest thing from Scotland (I do!) because they are. They are to Scotland what The Chieftains are to Ireland, except they are not totally traditional. They take their songs and give them a distinct modern feel, add the heavy textures and wonderful sounds of Karen Matheson's voice, and you have the ingredients that made them so popular around the world. They feature one of the best-known and popular musicians Manus Lunny with Karen Matheson as their main vocalist. The complete list of members in the band Capercaillie are (founding members have a * by their name):
On the album cover near the title an explanation is given of the name of the CD: "Secret People" comes from the word "Keltoi" [BC] and refers to the Celts' religious prohibition against setting down in written form their knowledge. Their culture, philosophy, and working ways have been kept alive by oral traditions.
Karen Matheson continues the oral traditions beautifully on this album. Of the 5 Capercaillie albums I have this is one of my favorites. The songs that remain my favorites are "Bonaparte", "Tobermory", and "Stinging Rain". They're just beautiful. Not to say I don't love every single Capercaillie song ever released because I do :) Overall this is a great CD that contains the original tracks that many of the songs on their self-titled album comes from. So it should come as no surprise these two CDs are my favorites.
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The album with the pretty eyeball on the cover and the weird accents all over their name. So I don't have ALL the accents to do the name. I tried :) This has got to be one of the best albums they've put together (I think so anyway, out of what I've heard.) It has the very best version of "Bonaparte" on it, a pretty "Tobermory" without the spiffy drums in the beginning (that's the only thing I miss) and of course "Stinging Rain" is lovely as ever. One of the very best (and the longest) tracks is "When You Return (Widescreen Mix)". I love it! Whether called "When You Return" or "Breisleach" this is probably the most redone song by Capercaillie aside from "Alasdair Mhic Cholla Ghasda" (which is another song I LOVE). I like to put this CD in the player, hit shuffle and repeat, and let it play all day I love hearing the songs so much. It's great! I've also been known to constantly bring my walkman in the car loaded with this CD when I go to dance class! ;)
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The cover picture of a long-haired Karen Matheson is really pretty but the picture in the back makes me laugh a lot. Why? Check out what poor Manus looks like and you'll see what I'm talking about. Sorry but it's just silly!
This is a good CD and I listen to it all the time. The best songs are "Coisich, a Ruin" and "Cape Breton Song". You can't help but love both of them! The other songs are of the typical Capercaillie high quality but as usual I tend to like the sung songs better. "Dr. MacPhail's Reel" is the coolest instrumental though. It starts out really pretty and is just a nice song. I definitely recommend this album to any Capercaillie fan who doesn't have it yet.
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<--- American release
<--- Original release
I LOVE love love love love this album! Especially the song "M'ionam". That's one of the most beautiful songs they've ever done. This album is also their most recent having been released in 1997. The very funny thing is I have two friends who live in Scotland who got the CD for me since it wasn't released here in the US until this past June. So I've had the CD longer than most Americans have! I have the one with the cover where it says "original release". I DID see the American release CD in the local Borders the other day and I wanted to get it for no reason other than I love the cover picture! :) They've really redone it for the American release but it's all the same great stuff by them.
Two African singers called Sibeba join the group for a couple songs. They're awesome too! I've read all over that they say Capercaillie really delves into the African roots of Celtic music in this album and you can tell. Not quite Afro-Celt Sound System (who are really great by the way!) but you get the picture. If you claim to like Capercaillie at all you HAVE to get this album! You'll never get tired of it.
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Last one! Until I get some new CDs that is :) To The Moon isn't one of my favorite albums as a whole but it has some of my favorite songs on it. "To The Moon" is very pretty (especially at the beginning) and "God's Alibi" is just cool cool COOL all the way! "Fear-Allabhain" and "Ailein Duinn" are very spiffy songs too. This album didn't get very good ratings. People say Capercaillie went too far in trying to be more modern and I can't say I quite agree with them but I find myself skipping past lots of songs. And someone somewhere was talking about how silly some of the lyrics are. I never pay attention to what she actually sings. The singing is just part of the music and the music makes the song. It wouldn't even matter if all she sang was "ladedadeda". That's what I think anyway. This is an ok album and I can't say I don't like it because I do, it's just not one of my very favorites. I guess I enjoy the old Capercaillie too.
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