sarahillis's blog

Yes, I'm back yet again this Sunday with another three hours of the best in Celtic music from around the world. There's no particular theme this week. There's just awesome music as usual.

It's chilly and wintry still here in my part of Canada, but the Spring Equinox is coming whether the weather knows it or not. So, in order to encourage hope that this winter really will end someday soon, I'm going to pack this week's Celtic music show full of Spring things!

We're beginning the St. Patrick's Day festivities a little early this year, but then, it's really never too early! Actually, I'm amazed I've held out till now!

This week I finally decided to get to work on a new promo for Come By The Hills, but even though the promo is all new, the show is still the same, or nearly so at any rate. Because next week is going to be the St. Patty's day episode, I decided to keep this week's episode pretty low-key.

St. David's Day is coming up on March 1, so as I've done with other Celtic national cultural days, I'm going to do a mostly Welsh music episode of Come By The Hills this week. St. David was a monastic of the sixth century who founded a community at Glin Rhossyn (the valley of roses) in what is now Pembrokeshire in Wales, and he has been taken as the country's patron saint in a similar manner to how St. Patric (himself probably also a Welshman) was adopted in Ireland.

The Celtic Music show is back for another week, and as well as playing lots of great Celtic artists and groups from around the world, I'll be paying attention to Loreena McKennitt, who celebrated a birthday on Friday. We've got a "Celtic Cover" involving her as well as a set of her "almost-instrumental" tunes in "Fiddlin' Around," and we'll be sprinkling her music liberally throughout the show.

Well, of course it's true that Mushroom FM's best Celtic Music show--wait, I guess it's Mushroom FM's only Celtic Music show, but never mind that now--always leaves its listeners hungering for more folky favourites even though it's three--count 'em!--three hours long, but this week, there's a bonus! Yes, we have a partially unsolved mystery to deal with in our "What's That About?" feature.

Celtic music is filled with songs which are as long or perhaps longer than the best Prog Rock anthems. Alright, so we have no equivalent to Jethro Tull's Thick as a Brick, but we do have some pretty lengthy entries. I thought it was high time we showcased some of these amazing songs with an episode dedicated almost entirely to them.

We've had a lot of departures from our normal format lately on Come By The Hills, but never fear. It's business as usual this week. We've got all our usual features, and of course, there's the usual mandate to play the usual three hours of the usual best in usual Celtic music from around the world. (Hmmm... I think I got carried away for a second.)

January 25 is Robby Burns day both in Scotland and among the Scottish diaspora. Indeed, many people have taken this farmer poet to their hearts, and Burns Nights are held all over the world nowadays.