Ireland

How many of you have been to Ireland? What were your favorite experiences on The Emerald Isle? How were the natives? What places would you recommend? Did you like the music? How about the food? Please discuss and encourage others to discuss.  Did you know that North Carolina has a rich Scots-Irish heritage?

While you think about these questions I hope you will view our latest music/photo essay. Chreagain features the photography of Irish native John Hall. John is a talented landscape photographer who captures Ireland's rugged beauty with wide angle lenses and extremely long exposures at dusk. It is an honor to collaborate with John on this essay. My music is an ancient Celtic tune I learned from legendary Irish guitarist Micheal O'Domhnaill.

Chreagain is a song that brought me to tears when I first heard Micheal and the Irish group Nightnoise perform it in concert. The vocal version of the song is in Gaelic and speaks of a churchyard dream where a beautiful young maiden entices a poet to leave his native region and travel west to a honey-filled land of beautiful music.

Chreagain is the third track on my Simple Beauty album and includes the remarkable piano arrangement from Asheville's Bill Covington. I hope you enjoy it and how the melody is enhanced by John Hall's wonderful images of Ireland.