One of my favorite parts of our preparation for Ireland has been discovering new music. James and I already had an array of Irish and Irish-inspired musicians in our collection – on CDs, on iPods and on our smartphones. I personally own almost every album U2 has ever put out (excluding some rare limited releases.) I have a few Cranberries CDs, a couple of The Pogues and The Corrs albums, James has a few Dropkick Murphy’s songs (an American-band with a Celtic-rock sound) and we both have a bit of Van Morrison.
We discovered Pandora to be a great resource in discovering new music. We added a Chieftains “station” and got lots of traditional-sounding music. That station led us to the Dubliners, which led us to Flogging Molly and other American Celtic-rock bands.
Some of our favorite new songs we’ve discovered since planning the trip include:
- Seven Drunken Nights by the Dubliners
- Rocky Road to Dublin by various artists – This version is by the Dubliners
- Drunken Lullabies by Flogging Molly
- Dublin Reels by the Chieftains
- Who Will Sing Me Lullabies – by Kate Rusby (she is English, but her songs came up in the mix and I really like them)
James has joked that our apartment sounds more Irish than Ireland will sound when we arrive in September since we’ve been playing so much of this music lately. James even downloaded a “Celtic rock” pack from RockSmith, a video game that helps him learn new songs on his guitar, so he could play some tunes himself.
James and I are hoping we will continue to discover new music – or hear old traditional music for the first time – on our trip. We will be scouting out pubs in Dublin that play live music. We are also staying in Doolin and Inishmore (on the Aran Islands) for one night each in hopes of hearing some traditional music.
The I discovered when I was in Ireland as a student turned out to be the best souvenir I brought home since I can still enjoy it today. I hope we’ll have the same experience on this trip.
Andersons+Ireland 