Kevin & Maxine’s Celtic & Folk Music CD Reviews

4 street musicians playing flute, concertina, guitar and banjo

Mission

This web site is devoted to reviewing celtic music CDs, UK folk music CDs, and folk music CDs and making these reviews available to the public. I maintain this web site to benefit both celtic and folk music singers and songwriters (so they might sell more CDs), the celtic and folk music buying public (so they might make informed buying decisions) and to give something back to the celtic and folk music communities.

The Author

My name is Kevin. I’m a celtic and folk music aficionado. I avidly listen to celtic and folk music radio shows and CDs, regularly attend live local performances, and frequently follow and contribute to related Internet newsgroups. I have a journalism degree and have published many reviews of celtic and folk music CDs. I maintain this web site for the benefit of the performers (so they might sell more CDs) and the celtic music and folk music buying public (so they might make informed buying decisions). This is also my way of giving back to the music and performers I enjoy so much.

I also write about a variety of other subjects. Some of my recent folk music publications include:

My Ireland travel article, "An Anecdotal Report Pedaling through Ireland, the Land of the Silent ‘H’," was published in The Mid-County Post on March 12, 2002.

A film commentary, "A Kiss is Just a Kiss--Except When it’s Not," was published in the Monterey Bay Manifesto in September, 2002.

The first production of one of my plays, "The Party," was held July 10-14, 2003 at The Fritz Theatre in San Diego, CA.

This is my blog on Western Athletic Conference basketball.

These are my college basketball writings.

I am the SpartanHoops News message board moderator and content provider and Spartan Rebounders news writer.

This is my political and current events blog.

This is my blog on ‘Brian Schweitzer for President’.

Dai Woosnam, celtic and UK folk music reviewer I am now being more-than-ably assisted by veteran folk music writer Dai Woosnam. (The surname rhymes with ‘wood’ and not Fu Manchu; he says he has no Chinese blood in him!) Dai was born in Wales in 1947 and has written for various publications over the years. In 1993 (the year it was first published), he began writing a column called "The Tizer Test" for The Living Tradition. (This is Britain’s leading print magazine on the subject of British and Irish traditional music.) After that column, in later years he moved on to writing "DAIGRESSING," which became their flagship column. It was widely acknowledged to be the most thoughtful column on the UK Folk Scene. Unfortunately, his views proved too individualistic, and attempts were made to muzzle him. Not one to put his name to somebody else’s words, he resigned his column in March 2005. He now lives on the East Coast of England.

Please see the complete list of Dai’s reviews and Dai’s review criteria.

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How to Submit a CD for Review

I am involved with other writing projects at present (playwriting, blogging, high school and college basketball writing), and my time for writing CD reviews is extremely limited. As an alternative resource for getting your CD reviewed, please consider these other CD review sites:

Here is how I currently decide which CDs I review: As quirky as it sounds, if I hear a song on one of the folk and celtic music radio programs I listen to that catches my ear/head/heart, I follow up by listening to music clips on the performer’s web site or other web sites where the CD is available.

If my interest continues to be piqued, I then contact the performer and request a review copy of the CD.

That’s it. Again, my time is too limted to do it in any other fashion. I wish it were otherwise.

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Legal Notices

  • Ownership, copyright and title of the celtic music, UK folk music and folk music CD reviews published on this website belong to me, Kevin McCarthy.
  • Ownership, copyright and title are not transferable or assignable to you or other parties regardless of how or if you or other parties use, copy, save, backup, store, retrieve, transmit, display, publish, modify or share the CD reviews in whole or in part.
  • You must both request and obtain my permission to use, reprint, or quote parts of, or an entire CD review in any way. My permission must be granted before you are entitled to use, reprint or quote parts of, or an entire CD review in any way.
  • I reserve the right to revoke such authorization at any time, and at which time, upon written notice from the author (me), you shall immediately discontinue all use of the CD review(s) within 24 hours.
  • Web sites that contain inappropriate and/or pornographic information are not permitted to use my CD review(s).
  • You are not entitled to modify the contents of a CD review in any way other than to use, reprint or quote a part of a CD review as described in #3 above.
  • You are required to give me credit for all reviews, as well as create a link to this website (http://www.icogitate.com/~celticfolkmusic/index.html) wherever you use, quote or reprint a part of, or an entire CD review.
  • The CD reviews represent my opinions only.
  • I do not warrant the CD reviews for any purpose or use whatsoever.
  • I am not liable for any damages, direct or indirect, punitive or consequential, that the CD reviews may cause you or other parties, including but not limited to loss of profits, assets, and/or reputation.
  • I reserve the sole right to determine whether or not I will include a review of a CD on this web site.
  • CDs that I do not choose to review and/publish on this web site, will not be returned to the sender.
  • I am not responsible or liable for any damage that occurred to the CD before I received it in the mail.

How to Contact Me

I can be reached through email. Please read the section titled "How to Submit a CD for Review" above before inquiring about CD submissions.

Please report problems with this website to me as well. (Note: If, after you increase the text size in your browser, the top horizontal menu appears on two lines or some items on the page are not positioned correctly, click your browser’s Reload button to refresh the display.) Thank you.

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