Board Thread:Off Topic/@comment-10502460-20180214001815

I've never left the US, but as a kid I became a fan of traditional Irish, Scottish, and other "celtic" music. Over the past couple years, I've started getting heavily into it again.

British Isles traditional music is quite varied and can't properly be considered just a single genre, but I like to think I'm familiar with an eclectic range at least on the casual listening level. As a kid, I started out listening to the fantasy-type pseudo-gaelic relaxation "celtic" albums (anyone remember those Lifescape kiosks they used to have at Target and some gift shops in other places?), then moved on to Irish ballads and Riverdance. Then a little later I got hooked on Scottish bagpipe marches, then traditional British marches.

In middle school I eventually got bored of British Isles music (as I call it), but started to get back into it in college. My favorite Irish Groups I'd say are The Clancy Brothers, The Dubliners, and The Bothy Band. I'm also developing an appreciation for the Irish Rovers that I didn't quite have as a kid (I liked them, but didn't think they were anything special). Among the "rebel songs", I tend to prefer the more somber and less politically charged ones like The Minstrel Boy and The Foggy Dew, though the more rowdy Republican songs are a guilty pleasure of mine. On the Scottish side of things, I'm more into the pipe and drum bands like the Blackwatch rather than the folk ballads and bands, though I do think the Ian Cambell Folk Group is good.

One type of British Isles music I started getting into in high school is sea chanties due to being exposed to them in choir, though I found that for some reason there are very few sea chanty albums and groups out there compared to other types of British Isles folk music.

I've never really liked Celtic Thunder. I do give them credit for giving exposure to some Irish songs that don't get featured a lot by other acts (not that any Irish folk songs besides Danny Boy are well known in America, but even compared to the rest of Irish music Celtic Thunder does a lot of songs that are hard to find on albums by other groups even if you dig deep), but beyond that I find them quite bland and they always seemed like a Disney imitation of what Irish music is. Not that I'm one of those people who obsesses over "authenticity" and "roots" like some folk music junkies, but with Celtic Thunder you can really taste the commercialization. The singers are all supremely talented of course, but the producers in my honest opinion are hacks.

Anyway, is anyone else here a fan of British Isles folk and military music, and if so, what country are you from? Or is this long-winded post just going over everyone's head? 