Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #38835 in Music
• Number of discs: 1

Customer Reviews

A Celtic Masterpiece
Alan Stivell is Britanny's finest musician and this is his finest album, although there are many others which could claim that title (e.g. 'Before Landing', 'A L'Olympia', 'Renaissance Of The Celtic Harp', etc.). This album is defiantly pan-Celtic with songs from Ireland ('Susy MacGuire'), Scotland ('Oidhche Mhaith') and Wales ('Can Y Melinydd') as well as Britanny.

Astounding musicianship from Stivell and his recruits. He's famous for his harp playing but check out the bombarde on 'An Dro Nevez' and the bagpipes on the storming 'Ian Morrisson Reel', truly one of Stivell's triumphs. Those who appreciate the strains of Celtic nationalism that pervade Stivell's work will enjoy the sentiments expressed here: "hep Brezhoneg Breizh ebet" - "without the Breton language there is no Britanny".

Traditional folk elements are augmented with an at times substantially heavy rock component. The two styles make for an album of great diversity, range of mood and tempo and the all-round virtuosity of Stivell makes this a must have.

My mate here beside me who has furnished us with the cultural information in this review has implored me to not be too snotty about the previous reviewer. However, we must point out that folk-rock was born some time earlier ('Liege & Lief' [1969] and 'Basket Of Light' [1969] can both claim to have invented the genre of traditional folk-rock), but in providing us with the pleasure that is 'Chemins De Terre' Stivell has simply done a sterling job of providing us with another indispensible artifact of this style of music.

This is the album which invented "folk-rock".
In the sterility of today's music charts, it is astonishing to recall that this CD was voted "1974 album of the year" by the leading 1970s pop-music newspaper Melody Maker. But maybe it's not so surprising when you appreciate how little this record has dated. "Ian Morrison's Reel" remains a great dance track. "Suzy Macguire" and "Kimiad" are slow ballads of such mournful beauty that they make the "Titanic" film soundtrack sound crass and clumsy by comparison.
Alan Stivell is one of the very great impresarios of Celtic World music. This was the album that made him.