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 The
United States is the biggest Celtic country in the world,
and IONA is the premier pan-Celtic group in the United States.
Most Americans can boast some ancestry from the British Isles,
Brittany (France), or the Celtic cultures of Northern Spain
(Galicia and Asturias). This heritage is evident in the music
of Appalachia, the Welsh and Cornish mining communities in
the northern states, Cajun culture in Louisiana, the Asturian
and Galician settlements in New York, not to mention country,
bluegrass, old timey, swing, and many other styles. In BIRKEN
TREE, their seventh album, on the Barnaby Productions label,
IONA brings the rich musical traditions from which our American
music has evolved together . This Washington, D.C. based quartet
has toured internationally to promote its high energy, intricately
interwoven arrangements, garnering rave reviews at festivals
and concerts everywhere.
Named after a Hebridean Island off the West coast of Scotland
that has been synonymous with Celtic culture for three thousand
years, the group IONA is one of the few bands in the world
that performs songs in all the Celtic languages. Conceived
in 1986 by Barbara Tresidder Ryan and Bernard Argent, IONA
has evolved to include the world class piping, on both the
Scottish great pipes and small pipes, of Robert Mitchell,
and jazzman Nick Smiley's deft handling of mandolin, cittern,
acoustic bass guitar and bowed standing bass on this album.
Lead vocalist Ryan combines her training as a linguist and
her expert knowledge of vocal technique to present the songs
of the diverse traditions as they've never been heard before;
her hard driving bouzouki, guitar and bodhrán (Irish
drum) accompaniment provide the rhythmic base for the group.
Argent's lyric wooden flute and spirited whistle leads are
a striking complement to Ryan's vocals and Mitchell's piping,
while his doumbek drumming provides a jaunty Middle Eastern
counterpoint to the bodhrán.
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