My first celtic song...

Dianne made this picture for me tonight - made me laugh out loud - because there was also a cartoon balloon saying: "I love these guys!" And it got me to thinking about my first Celtic song...

Remember: I grew up at a time when assimilation was essential and valued - ethnic festivals and pride wasn't on the horizon - so I never learned any of the Scottish or Irish tunes of my ancestors. No, my first Celtic song came from Van the Man Morrison in the form of "Gloria!" And I didn't even know he was a Celt back then because I heard it first in the garage band version by the Shadows of the Knight!

I guess I knew about Van Morrison and Them - I certainly did by the time I formed my first band - but not at first. In fact, the first time I heard this was in a gym at an 8th grade dance. So much for cultivating the tradition of my elders, heh?

Through Bob Dylan, Joan Baez and Jean Ritchie I began to listen to some true Celtic/Gaelic songs - and Pete Seeger (who will turn 90 this summer) helped a lot - but mostly I was a rock and roll guy in the early days. I played folk music, too, but my heart sang to the big beat. To be sure, Van Morrison's mystical sounds intrigued me - and I was smitten by Cat Steven's experiments, too - and I loved Pentangle, Steeler's Wheel and Fairport Convention in spades - sometimes the Incredible String Band and Donovan, too. (He helped me make the connection to both Bert Jansch and John Renbourn whom I have continued to appreciate for years.)

It wasn't until seminary in 1978,however, that I began to reconnect with my roots in Ireland and Scotland - and I fell hard. And it has been 30 year love affair even though I favor bending the genre like Pentangle more than some purists like - hell I love the Gaelic reworkings of Beatles songs! So sometimes I find myself in a groove with Julie Fowlis from Scotland - too kewel for school.

And sometimes I get down with Loreena's genre bending stuff, too:

The poet, John O'Donohue, who died way too young (52) put it like this in "On the Death of the Beloved"...

Though we need to weep your loss,
You dwell in that safe place in our hearts,
Where no storm or might or pain can reach you.

Your love was like the dawn
Brightening over our lives
Awakening beneath the dark
A further adventure of colour.

The sound of your voice
Found for us
A new music
That brightened everything.

Whatever you enfolded in your gaze
Quickened in the joy of its being;
You placed smiles like flowers
On the altar of the heart.
Your mind always sparkled
With wonder at things.

Though your days here were brief,
Your spirit was live, awake, complete.

We look towards each other no longer
From the old distance of our names;
Now you dwell inside the rhythm of breath,
As close to us as we are to ourselves.

Though we cannot see you with outward eyes,
We know our soul’s gaze is upon your face,
Smiling back at us from within everything
To which we bring our best refinement.

Let us not look for you only in memory,
Where we would grow lonely without you.
You would want us to find you in presence,
Beside us when beauty brightens,
When kindness glows
And music echoes eternal tones.

When orchids brighten the earth,
Darkest winter has turned to spring;
May this dark grief flower with hope
In every heart that loves you.
May you continue to inspire us:
To enter each day with a generous heart.
To serve the call of courage and love
Until we see your beautiful face again
In that land where there is no more separation,
Where all tears will be wiped from our mind,
And where we will never lose you again.