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MP3 Martin Donnelly - Earthbound
12 MP3 Songs
FOLK: Gentle, NEW AGE: Celtic New Age
Details:
Martin Donnelly Singer and Songwriter
Born in Crumlin Co. Antrim he grew up in a family with a tradition of singing at family gatherings and sang at an early age on stage with his older brother and sister in the parish hall in variety concerts. His musical journey went from learning to sing and play guitar starting with the compulsory ''House of the rising sun'' to the songs of James Taylor and Leonard Cohen. The traditional bug bit in his teens and he added the fiddle and bones, Rock and roll, American country and bluegrass finally led back to his own songs and his own voice and guitar.
''I loved it all from the traditional singing of my uncle Alec Donnelly through the songs of the likes of Leonard Cohen and James Taylor to Hank Williams who I discovered later. I loved the fiddle playing of Brendan Gunn, Andy Dixon and Deirdre Shannon all living in Belfast. At the same time I was singing rock and roll. With The TV Dinners, Belfast''s benefit band of the 1980''s, and bluegrass with the
Black Mountain String
Band. I eventually found my way back to myself and began to paddle the uncharted waters of writing and singing my own songs something I had often said I''d never do.''
Martin is a powerful and experienced performer and has toured extensively in Germany, England, Scotland and Ireland , also in Holland and Norway. The venues have included a diverse range of folk clubs, arts centres Steiner schools and Camphill Community halls and also folk music and arts festivals
Martin has recorded two beautifully crafted CD. ''Stone and Light'' on the Round Tower label 1995, and ''Earthbound'' available through Outlet Distribution. 2002. Over this last year Martin has made two CD singles, the first commissioned by the National Trust called ''Spirit of Place'' the second, by the Wildfowl and Wetland Trust called ''Brentsong'' These CDs feature some of Irelands finest musicians who create with Martins songs and singing, music of great beauty and humanity. The songs reflect his life-long connection with the land, sea and skies with the north of Ireland and yet the themes and the images created by the lyrics have a universal quality which transcends borders, islands, nations. The spirit of the music is such that it has moved the serious pagan and the devout Christian to write to him to thank him for his songs ''The Green Man'' and ''Caolaidh''s Song'' are available in sheet music arranged for choirs from Earthsongs in Oregon USA.
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Review of Earthbound will follow soon. MD.
Review of Earthbound from ''New View'' Spring 2002
On first hearing Martin Donnelly performing some of his own songs at a gathering in Wales I experienced "Among the Ashes" as a kind of "Working Class Hero" for the spiritually conscious. For John Lennon''s "They hurt you at home and they hit you at school / They hate you if your clever and they despise a fool" Martin Donnelly sings
" I have borne the piercing satire
That cut me to the bone
Wounds of initiation
Before a leaden throne"
To his own acoustic guitar and singing his own songs, Donnelly wove a wonderful magic between the audience and the performer.
Now there is a whole CD of such songs, written and sung with immense soulfulness, and with a rich and varied backing accompaniment, with John Billing among others, sharing his gifts on the ''New Celtic Lyre''.
The journey of the songs, as the title suggests, is earthbound-
From a blissful Celtic pre-dawning, to the inevitable loss of this, connected appropriately with Columba. "I had to leave Ireland behind/ The old ways must go/ Until a future time/ When we again must know/ The mysteries here below."
The lowest point is reached in the second to last song ''Longing to belong Again'' and as can mercifully happen, this darkest point proves to be the point of renewal, and in the final song ''Robin'' new future seeds are borne in Midwinter.
Donnelly is an extremely gifted songwriter, with a joyful and serious spirit. This is a rich soul-warm, journeying collection of songs I could imagine every one of these songs, performed, working deeply between performer and audience.
The final song ''Robin'', perhaps the fruit of the whole journey, is accompanied only by Martin Donnelly''s own guitar, allowing this tender song to be born from the "deepest Holy Night."
Richard Ramsbotham
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