My favourite Celtic album is Off the Map, a live recording from 1985 by Archie Fisher and Garnet Rogers, and it’s nice to hear it in High Fidelity after so long.
I was introduced to this recording by my guitar teacher back in the late 80’s, but all I ever had was a crummy cassette version (Sam’s didn’t have the LP and there was no CD version at the time). I digitized the tracks from the cassette as MP3’s sometime ago, but the quality left something to be desired, so recently I bought the LP version on Ebay, and the record arrived yesterday. I used my Art Accessories USB Phono Plus (a great little audio interface that has a proper phono pre-amp) and Audacity to digitize the record this morning, and it is amazing to hear the details and the sound I was missing.
The recording is now available on CD, and if you are looking to hear some great, heartfelt Celtic music I cannot recommend it highly enough. Fisher’s tune “Ettrick” is both beautiful and heartbreaking. The light-hearted Mallie Leigh, and Rolling Home are also highlights. Altered guitar tunings are frequently used, and as a result the guitar parts have an extra special ring and shine. Throughout the recording, the innate musicality of Fisher’s deep Scots brogue and the intimacy of the performance are impossible to miss.
This recording is worth tracking down. Trust me.
Tags: Celtic, Archie Fisher
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