Well, the Nerd has finally gone from spring chicken to fall turkey. My twenties are over. My feathers are falling out, I can’t fly as fast as I used to, and I’m plump enough to begin fearing Thanksgiving! But, as I enter the dreaded thirtysomethings, at least I can continue to share the latest crop of Celtdom with you, my loyal readers. Here goes....

The best of the small label productions this month comes from Newfoundland’s SingSong records. It’s Battery Included [SingSong 02-50750 (1998)], the second CD from the top local band Tickle Harbour, who play a mixture of Newfoundland music and standard Irish tunes. This disc is a real departure from their first album The Brule Boys in Paris, in several respects. For one, the band’s lineup has almost entirely changed, with only guitarist and arranger Don Walsh and flute and whistle player Gerry Strong remaining in the band’s six-member lineup. For another, the addition of two first-rate vocalists (Vonnie Barron and Fergus O’Byrne) means they’re more than just a tune band nowadays. In fact, Battery Included contains almost as many songs as tune sets, most of them unusual and beautiful Newfoundland ballads. Barron’s versions of "Maurice Kelly" and "The Valley of Kilbride" have the relaxed vocal quality and tempo I associate with the great Newfoundland singers like Anita Best, while her reading of "The Pretty Ploughboy" is more lively; O’Byrne sings a good version of the bittersweet "Banks of Newfoundland," but his triumph is on the quick and humorous "The Warlike Lads of Russia," which chronicles Napoleon’s flight from Moscow in delightfully ungenerous detail. His version of the song comes ultimately from Nic Jones (by way, I suspect, of the Black brothers), and his rollicking hearty chorus of guests features Great Big Sea’s Sean McCann, O’Byrne’s former bandmate Dermot O’Reilly, and his current touring partner Jim Payne. The result is a rare animal indeed: a great singalong that also happens to be a great song.

As for the instrumental side of Tickle Harbour, their new lineup finds them altered but not diminished. In addition to Walsh, Strong and O’Byrne (who plays concertina and bodhrán as well as singing), the new band stars Patrick Moran (of the Punters) on fiddle and Francesca Swann on cello. To this base of flutes, strings, guitar, concertina and drums, they’ve added many sounds offered by top musicians from both Newfoundland and Ireland: uillean piper Paddy Keenan (formerly of the Bothy Band), percussionist Jim Fidler (formerly of Pressure Drop, now the well-regarded leader of his own band), fiddler Seamus Creagh (a former Tickle Harbour member, but better known for his duets with Jackie Daly in the 1970s), melodeon player Frank Maher (a former member of Figgy Duff), guitarist Sandy Morris (who used to play with Newfoundland’s Wonderful Grand Band), and several others. This fills out the arrangements very nicely, and makes them sound like even more of an instrumental powerhouse than they actually are. The addition on two tracks of a brass section of sax and trumpet shows they’re open to experimentation; indeed, their set of three polkas finds them using not only the horns but also the cello and the human voice to add layers of textured harmonies around their tunes — as spirited and contemporary a use of traditional music as anyone could ask for. [SingSong Productions/ P.O. Box 6371/ St. John's, NF A1C 6J9/ Canada; singsong@nfld.com; www. singsong.nfld.com]

Next we’ll go from the far north to the deep south with Navan [Frozen Hole Productions] by the Mississippi/Louisiana quartet, Legacy. Two of Legacy’s members, Justin Murphy (flutes and whistles) and Beth Patterson (bouzouki and vocals), are in the sought-after New Orleans Irish band The Poor Clares. The other two members are Valerie Plested (fiddle) and Don Penizen (guitar, vocal, whistles), and were unknown to me before this disc. Still, there’s nothing like discovering new talent ( They’re new to me.) and this band fits the bill; there are strong performances from every quarter. Murphy’s flute and Plested’s fiddle, which lead almost all the tunes, are naturally the most important ingredients in Legacy’s sound. Both use a delicate combination of full-speed-ahead attack and subtle finesse. Murphy is particularly impressive for his slow simmer on the air "maid of Coolmore," Plested for her slow take on the reel "Castle Kelly’s," but both show they can rock out on sets of mostly widely-known Irish jigs and reels. The accompanists, too, are excellent, providing the lift and the drive that propels these tunes along. In addition to all the great tunes, Patterson sings three traditional songs from off the folk revival’s beaten track, always a nice surprise on a scene that tends to recycle songs a little too often. If there are any complaints to be made, they are the following two: that the tunes are by and large so common (though there are some less obvious ones including two new ones); and that the overall sound quality is a little low since this was recorded live in concert, and both the mix and the general background noise make it sound a bit tinny. Still, I’d listen to it before I would the vast majority of small-label Celtic product. [Frozen Hole Productions/ P.O. Box 4772/ Jackson, MS 39296; penz@bigfoot.com]

There’s another relative youngster I’d like to mention, but she performs a more laid-back brand of Celtic music. She’s Maggie Carchrie, and her album Songs the Mermaid Sang [Mermaid (1998)] is filled with spare arrangements of traditional Scots Gaelic song. At 22, Carchrie is well on her way to being a star in the world of Celtic music. She began studying Highland dance and song in 1993, and by 1995 had won the women’s championship in Gaelic singing at the U.S. Mod. She went on to study with Catherine Ann McPhee, one of the greatest names in contemporary Celtic singing. Her album contains ballads, rowing songs, and waulking songs, but her particular specialty is mouth music, sets of dance tunes with silly words fitted to them. On the strongest tracks, Carchrie performs unaccompanied; it’s in this context that she has best learned to use her beautiful, jewel-clear voice. The accompaniments are usually steady but rather unexciting, while a few of the backup vocalists are clearly not up to Carchrie’s standard. There is still a lot to like about this album, though, and I have even higher hopes of future recordings from Carchrie. [Mermaid Productions/ 85 Camp Street/ Hyannis, MA 02601; carchrie@ capecod.net]

Another very nice showing comes from California’s Órla and the GasMen, whose debut CD is called Minding Mice at Crossroads [GasMen OATGM 901 (1998)]. Lead singer Órla Morrison has a voice with the Sinead O’Connor sharpness currently all the rage in Irish pop circles. This has mixed effects in traditional Irish music; her version of "Ta Me Mo Shui" (translated into English as "I am Awake") really doesn’t touch that of Altan’s Mairead Ni Mhaonigh. But on the other hand, a C&W-tinged version of "Once I Loved" sounds great with her inflections. She goes beyond Irish music, tackling everything from "Wayfaring Stranger" to the Stranglers’ "Nice ’n’ Sleazy," and listeners will have decide for themselves how well she carries these morsels off. For their part, the GasMen are a terrific band. Their versions of common session tunes benefit from their sheer numbers and the number of different instruments they bring to the music: fiddles, flutes and whistles, mandolin, octave mandolin, banjo, guitar and bodhrán. Their arrangements are textured, but not overly subtle; they’re trying to bring out the fun, spontaneous side of the music, and they do a fine job, tripping lightly through jigs, reels, and barndances with abandon. Great Craic! [687 5th Avenue/ San Francisco, CA 94118]

More praise is on the way, this time for Two O’Clock Courage’s CD Postcards Home [Fairy in a Teacup (1998)]. A noteworthy central Texas "AmeriCeltic" trio made up of Steve Rees (uillean pipes, Scottish smallpipes, guitar, octave mandolin, vocals), Jyl Hershman-Ross (vocals, flute, whistle, shakers) and Tom Delaney (fiddle, mandolin, bouzouki, vocals), Two O’Clock Courage concentrate on songs, from a wistful "I Live Not Where I Love" (a Mary Black standard) to the silly "Rattlin’ Bog" (an Irish Rovers standard). Hershman-Ross and Rees both have strong and tuneful voices; Delaney’s is a little less pleasant, but he only leads on one song (the Richard Thompson standard, "How Will I Ever be Simple Again?"). Their instrumental backups are deft and delicate, particularly Rees’ guitar picking, and it all adds up to a most enjoyable listen. Two criticisms they can use when they make to their next CD: first, they should look for some less common songs to sing; their album would be more exciting with some unusual material. Second, they should work up some tune sets for their next effort. The "tune interludes" on this CD are short and lack fire. They use interesting sounds like the smallpipes, so why not use them on interesting tunes? [Two O’Clock Courage/ P.O. Box 49143/ Austin, TX 78765]

Hmmm. Could it be...more praise? Yeah, what the hey? The Keltones’ latest album Ledge of Love [Permafrost 003 (1998)] is alternately serious and kooky, Celtic and European, acoustic and electric. The band is all instrumental (although they do import guest vocalists for some rather uninspired songs), and they include accordion, flute, guitar, bass, bouzouki, guitar, fiddle, banjo and percussion as their main sounds. At their most traditional, as on the opening of "Phelan’s Frolic/The last House in Connaught," they can be downright staid. But "Pigeon on the Gate" finds them doing the generic Ceili Band’s oom-pah rhythm section in a move that’s halfway between a tribute and a spoof, and which works mainly because of good musicianship and a strong sense of timing. "The Hawk" finds them using an old-fashioned, deeply reverberative bodhrán technique, for a similar effect evocative of old records. And on "The Musical Priest" they sound very much like a chilled-out version of Horslips, who were known for a more frenetic version of the tune in the 1970s. In all, it’s a very entertaining mix of styles presented with gusto. [The Keltones/ P.O. Box 162/ Chatham, MI 49186]

I feel more ambivalent toward David Nigel Lloyd’s How Like Ghosts Are We [Silk Purse SPCD 3405 (1998)]. On the one hand, it’s a good recording, well-played and well-sung. On the other hand, some of the songs bug me. He likes to call many of them "trad/DNL" songs because they’re traditional songs that he’s rewritten in one way or another. The problem is, the results sometimes have the feeling of a hodge-podge mixed salad of verses rather than a single, focused song. Take his explanation of "The Ballad of Roger Casement":

Non-indented words are by DNL. Words at the first indent are traditional from "The Lonely Banna Strand" or (when italicized) from "Sir Roger Casement.! (sic)." Words at the second indent are from "Roger Casement!" and (in italics) "The Ghost of Roger Casement!" by William Butler Yeats and are used with permission.

Now, does this sound like the formula for an intelligible and cohesive song? On the other hand, many of the numbers, such as "Radcliffe Highway," "Moreton Bay" and "John Barleycorn" are simply traditional songs with arrangements by DNL. On these, his nasal but spirited singing and his skillful, full-bodied playing on guitars, mandolins and something called an "octar" (it’s in the bouzouki-cittern family) are a nice combination. [Silk Purse Records/ Rt. 4 Box 695/ California Hot Springs, CA 93207]

Reels on Wheels [Big County Music (1998)] is the debut album by Scottish/Irish band On the Wagon. Both the group and the album take their names from the fact that the members travel around in a big truck towing along a portable stage-on-wheels which they call "the wagon." Unfortunately, these names are the most unusual and entertaining parts of the disc. The music, which is played on guitar, mandolin, tenor banjo, concertina, whistle, bass, keyboard, accordion, bodhrán, harmonica, and percussion (whew!) occasionally rises to a very high standard, but very often sounds like bland country-and-Western, as on songs like "Dumbarton’s Drums" and "The Teardrop of Ireland." Never does this quintet approach the sort of technique or feeling for the material that marks the greats. [Big County Music/ 32 East High Street/ Crieff PH7 3AF/ Scotland, U.K.; charleston@sol.co.uk]

Finally, we have Clan na Gael’s Keepers of the Wind [Altarwind Clan-1-CD]. I can’t say I was much impressed here. Most of the lyrics sound forcedly mystical and self-consciously Celtic, and some of them are downright nonsensical; there’s a whole song, for example, about a "sylvan wood," which prompts me to wonder whether there are any woods that are not sylvan. Sometimes the lyrics stoop to Yodaisms, those attempts to sound archaic and wring out rhyme and meter through recourse to bass-ackwards lines like "dance did we and drank we," "upon the ground he struck his staff times one and two and three," and "the treasure of the pirates that from their ship we took." Frequently, they just use the wrong words, like when Grace O’Malley refers to her vessel first as a ship and then as a boat, or when, in another Yodaism, they explain that a character "did not kin" his fate. The music is pleasant enough, a mostly acoustic, atmospheric Celtic pop, but it’s nowhere near stunning enough to make up for the silly songs. [Altarwind Records/ P.O. Box 1233/ Gardenville, NV 89410]

Well, young readers, it’s time for my nerdnap. Old nerds like me just can’t keep going like we used to. Till next time!