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Summary: Another great collection.
Comment: The story of Irish coming to America told in song. A very moving collaboration by Phil Coulter and James Galway. The vocals as usual are outstanding.
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Summary: A Must for all Galway and Coulter Lovers
Comment: I was introduced to Galway and Coulter via this CD. This music haunts me in a very positive way. I purchased the CD as one of my "New Christmas CD each year" projects several years ago. I moved 4 times after the purchase and in 2005 when I finally landed in my current (hopefully permanent) location I found I had lost the CD. This Christmas I was determined to find it or replace it because I needed this music to truely feel "home".
Customer Rating:
Summary: A must have!
Comment: What a beautiful collection! These are not your traditional Christmas songs. I was not familiar with any of the tunes. Very Irish flavor. The collection is a blend of ballads played with that unique Galway sound along with jigs. The collection is also available in sheet music form. Personally, there is nothing that has helped my sound more than listening to Galway and then playing the same thing I heard on the recording.
Customer Rating:
Summary: Another Wonderful Coulter/Galway Collaboration
Comment: WINTER'S CROSSING is the second collaboration between two of Ireland's best known musicians: Phil Coulter and James Galway. The two create a musical tribute to the men and women who left Ireland in the nineteenth century to escape famine and poverty and find a home in North America. The music commemorates Irish history and the treacherous crossing of the cold Atlantic waters. In the music, the artists create a combination of at times opposites. The music can at times have a hard and harsh feel to it, yet it's also hopeful. There is a twinge of sadness but there's also great optimism in some pieces. We get a glimpse of Irish history in some pieces, and while we sense the hardship, we also know it's a new beginning.
Upon listening, I fell in love with certain pieces. "Farewell to County Antrim" is infectious. "Grand Banks Newfoundland" has a nautical appeal to it. "The Belfast Polka/Pennsylvania Railroad" is a medley the two artists seem to just enjoy and listeners do too. "Christmas Eve Ellis Island" and "Home Away from Home" are both beautiful and haunting, of people trying to make the best of a place they'd rather not be.
The disc was released not long after I returned from a trip to Ireland, so I was a bit more aware of my Irish heritage and a bit nostalgic as well, longing for good, authentic Irish music. Perhaps that's why I love this disc so much. People who enjoyed LEGENDS will love this set. The arrangements are similar to the first set, and like LEGENDS, Coulter and Galway work well together, always performing in a way that compliments the other. For me, it's perfect winter listening that helps me recall my heritage while listening to great music at the same time.
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Summary: Truly Special
Comment: Once in a while, you find a CD that really is "moving" and special. I knew that "Winter Crossing" was one of these CDs the moment I put it in my CD player and pressed "play.""Winter Crossing" is the "musical" story of Irish immigration. The fact that this CD is a "story" is one of its many unique aspects. Often, we listen to CDs that are simply a series of "pretty" or "cool" music, but these CDs aren't trying to tell us or show us something. Yet in "Winter's Crossing," it is apparent that by choosing certain songs in a chronological order, the makers of this CD were seeking to capture the many emotions-anticipation, anxiety, nostalgia, fear-of an Irish immigrant.
Galway, Coulter, and their orchestra not only tried to capture these emotions and "make" us feel them as well, they succeeded in their attempt. "Winter's Crossing" opens with a haunting ballad, "Steal Away." Complete with "throaty" Irish pipes and soulful Irish voice, this song captures the feelings that many Irish must have had when they decided to leave their native country. Other moving "farewell" songs include the bagpipe/Irish pipe duet "Farewell to County Atrim," and the poignant narrative-set-to-music, "Thousands are Sailing." The next "phase" of "Winter's Crossing" shows the Irish experience on the actual journey (via ship) to America. Perhaps my favorite of these "journey" songs is "Gartan Mother's Lullabye," which uses the tones of Galway's calming, angelic flute to capture the sounds of a mother singing her baby to sleep amidst the squalor of the ship. The final "phase" of this CD deals shows us how the Irish adjusted to their new life in America. This final section opens with nostalgia (in the form of ballad "On the Shores of Amerikay") and ends with joy and triumph ("Appalachian Roundup")
Galway, Coulter, and the orchestra involved in making this CD certainly deserve thanks for creating such a moving "work of art." When a piece of history is so wonderfully told, who needs the textbook?
