Travel Ireland, Scotland and Beyond with Celtic Invasion Vacations

In county Antrim on the northeast coast of Northern Ireland is the giants causeway. What one Radio Times poll named the fourth greatest wonder of the United Kingdom. 40,000 interlocking basalt columns line the coast, the result of a volcanic eruption millions of years ago. Now it's one of the most popular tourist attractions in Northern Ireland.

Find the complete Giant's Causeway shownotes here.

The wind was pretty fierce as bus drove us the 1/2 mile from the visitors center to the Giants Causeway. We were excited.

At first glance after exiting the bus, it was beautiful but disappointing. There were a bunch of people milling about on the rocks in a very small area. A big sign and guard halted people from climbing up further on this national wonder.

Then I found a passage through the rocks that was overlooked by many of the visitors. On the other side, like crossing through the thin veil, we saw the true majesty of these rocks. Plus a long path along the coast where you could get a better view.

When we got back to the visitors center, One of my Invaders told me about the singing rocks they found.

That was all cool but what got me excited most about this trip was the legend behind it--Finn MacCool.

Finn MacCool was a giant living on the north coast of Ireland. On a clear day you can see the island Staffa in Scotland. There lived a Scottish giant named Benandonner. They taunted one another from afar until finally Finn MacCool tossed long pillars of stone into the water all the way to Scotland, creating a long causeway between the countries.

When Finn arrived, he was surprised to find that Benandonner was a lot bigger than Finn. He fled back home and told his wife Oonagh, who came up with a plan. She told Finn to dress like a baby and climb in a crib.

When Benandonner knocked on their door Oonagh told him that Finn was out hunting. When Benandonner saw the size of the baby that belonged to Finn and compared it to the human sized Oonagh, he realized Finn must be even bigger than he. So he fled Ireland destroying the Causeway between the two countries.

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If you enjoy this episode, then please post a review on iTunes or your favorite podcatcher. Subscribe to the show at www.celtfather.com where you can join my mailing list to download a free album of my Celtic Geek music. Special thanks to my Patrons. You can support my craft for as little as $1 per month. Become a Patron at www.marcgunn.com/patron Post feedback in the shownotes, use the hashtag #celtfather on social media, or email me [email protected]

I had a good show last night on Concert Window. It was great to be back. It was awesome to see all of the names who popped up in the chat room. 

Read the full shownotes here.

All in all, it was a successful concert. The next one is scheduled for Thursday, March 10th. I hope you can join.

Oh! And listen to the podcast for more details about the show.

Become a Patron of The Celtfather at www.marcgunn.net 

Visit www.Celtfather.com to subscribe to this podcast.

Some weeks I want to podcast some new and exciting episodes. Other weeks, I just want to share some news. That's the case for this week's podcast as I talk about a new compilation CD, my first Concert Window performance of the year, Celtic Love Songs and of course the third annual St. Patrick's Day Internet Music Festival.

My first Concert Window show is tomorrow night. That's Wednesday, February 9th at 7:30 PM Central Standard Time. Next one is Thursday, March 10th.

"Name On My Soul" video is posted for NPR Music's Tiny Desk Concert Contest.

The Celtic Invasion of Cornwall deadline is next Monday, February 15th. Contact me as soon as possible if you wanna join me on this year's Invasion.

I  made updates to the St. Patrick's Day Internet Music Festival and I'm still accepting submission for new bands to perform in the festival.

Celtic Love Songs are on this week's Irish & Celtic Music Podcast.

You can hear me hosting the latest Renaissance Festival Podcast: Celts at Renaissance Festivals. 

I'm finishing up my latest compilation CD which is officially called Celtic Geek... for better or worse. 

You can find complete shownotes here.

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An Taisdeal (pron.: An Tahshdel, Scots Gaelic for "The Journey") is a Celtic Folk project from Germany. Originally founded by Rüdiger Reinhardt in 2002 with Anna Molitor on the fiddle, the project was put on ice, as he moved away in 2005, and playing together was no longer possible.

"The Journey" can be seen as a journey through the celtic countries, where the songs are originated, through history, which is told in the songs, and also as a journey for the audience, on which the listeners embark at a gig.

The songs are in English, Irish Gaelic, Scottish Gaelic and also Breton language.
An Taisdeal is not a real band, but rather a project with friends as occasional guest musicians. You never know who you might meet on your travels.

Some recordings of the songs on the "home recordings" album are more than 10 years old, but never really made their way into public.

Personal Fact: Celtic langguage afficionado, celtic geek, but mostly harmless

Band: An Taisdeal
Homepage: http://www.reverbnation.com/antaisdeal 
from_CD: Home Recordings
Hometown: Heidelberg, Germany

Listen to An Taisdeal on Irish & Celtic Music Podcast

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If you enjoy this episode, then please post a review on iTunes or your favorite podcatcher. Subscribe to the show at www.celtfather.com where you can join my mailing list to download a free album of my Celtic and comedy music. Special thanks to my Patrons. You can support my craft for as little as $1 per month. Become a Patron at www.marcgunn.com/patron  

Post feedback in the shownotes, use the hashtag #celtfather on social media, or email me [email protected]

I’m working on a new compilation CD. You could call it a Best of Marc Gunn, but it’s not really. And I don’t think. Rather, the album features one track from each of the 20 solo albums I’ve released since I released Soul of a Harper in 2005. I tried to pick some of my most-popular recordings of songs. I confess. That got hard at times. So I then tried picking the songs that I actually enjoyed playing at shows.

Now I need to figure out an title for the album. Below I list two album titles I’m considering. Which appeals to you more? Or do you have another suggestion? 

Post your comments in the shownotes.

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I didn't actually pick these amazing bands this week. It was a lot more organic than that. This list features the Celtic bands I played most-often on the Irish & Celtic Music Podcast. I love all of these bands, but there were a few surprises that I didn't anticipate.

You can see the complete list in the shownotes.

Or visit the Irish & Celtic Music Podcast and see the original article "Top-Played Celtic Music Bands of 2015".

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If you enjoy this episode, then please post a review on iTunes or your favorite podcatcher. Subscribe to the show at www.celtfather.com where you can join my mailing list to download a free album of my Celtic and comedy music. Special thanks to my Patrons. You can support my craft for as little as $1 per month. Become a Patron at www.marcgunn.com/patron Post feedback in the shownotes, use the hashtag #celtfather on social media, or email me [email protected]

I met Robert at ShadowCon XX, and was blown away by what he’s started with his kids.

In 2009, Robert started off with five kids who needed something to do or felt like no one wanted them around, and began helping old folks out by removing pests from their homes at no charge. Before long, this endeavor had turned into a pretty solid business, and the kids started branching into different directions – now, there is a Construction Crew, Demolition Crew, Toy & Comic Sales, and the original Pest Removal Service. They’ve grown to 331 ‘Kids’, ranging in age from newborn to 93 years old. Their philosophy is that anyone who is a kid at heart deserves to be a daycare kid.

I had a rockin’ show at  ShadowCon last night here in West Memphis. I saved my set list and thought I’d like to share it. But I’ve been turning this into an audio blog, so I decided instead to talk about the show as a podcast. Hopefully, you’ll find it fun to listen to. 

Here is the final Set List that I remember:

1. Kilted
2. Slainte Mhaith
3. Mikey’s Jedi Drinking Song
4. Close Your Eyes
5. Doctor of Gallifrey
6. Reavers, Malcolm, Reavers
7. Name on my Soul
8. Mingulay Cat Song
9. Catnipped Kitty
10. Wild Mountain Thyme
11. Bring Me Home, Boys
12. Come Take a Trip in My Airship

I also played 3 encore songs:

1. A Drop of Vulcan Blood
2. Monahan’s Mudder’s Milk
3. Old Dun Cow

A few years back, I was trying to find out how to create a great set list. I found virtually no blogs or articles on the topic. I tried again last month and the results were once again poor. 

I decided to share my own tips on how I create my awesome shows. However, I do need to give a HUGE shout out to Tom Jackson. Tom is one of the only Live Music Producers I've ever heard of. The rest are on his staff. He teaches people how to put on a great show.

I reference Tom Jackson's Live Music Method a lot in this podcast because it was my starting place for finding regular success as a live musician. I bought his All Roads Lead to the Stage DVDs and learned a lot. Of course, I had to improvise and fine tune my shows because his formula didn't entirely fit my unique musical style and performance venues. But it was again, a great starting place.

I also talk a bit about performing traditional Irish music. I've seen NO blogs or articles that talk about that style. But it's important and when mixed with Tom's Method, I feel like it works even better.

Find complete shownotes in The Celtfather Audio Blog.

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A couple weeks ago, I decided to list everything I could remember that was a success and failure in 2015. It turned out to be a nice long list in one of my longer Celtfather podcasts. 

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