Celtic Woman Forum
Everything Else => Other Musicians => Topic started by: CWazyTom on April 03, 2020, 11:13:25 PM
-
After being on my to do list for years, I finally started listening to The High Kings. Like Celtic Woman, the group operates under the Celtic Collections label. The group started in 2008 (possibly in response to rival group Celtic Thunder, associated with a different label).
Current members:
- Finbarr Clancy
- Brian Dunphy
- Darren Holden
Past members:
- Martin Furey
- George Murphy
Albums:
The High Kings (2008)
Memory Lane (2010)
Live in Ireland (2011)
Friends for Life (2013)
Four Friends Live (2015)
Grace & Glory (2016)
Decade: The Best of the High Kings (2017)
DVDs:
Live in Dublin (2008)
Four Friends Live (2015)
Thoughts on their debut album:
I listened to their first album (The High Kings) tonight. Not bad! It's definitely a more Irish sound than Celtic Thunder. The harmony was good. They had a few great fun songs. In contrast to the Celtic Woman or Celtic Thunder albums, there wasn't anything that absolutely blew me away, but it was definitely fun to listen to.
My favourites from the first album were The Black Velvet Band, The Parting Glass, The Wild Rover (Live 2007), Will Ye Go Lassie, Go. The Beggerman Jig (instrumental) and Marie's Wedding (ceili-type song) were fun!
The real shocker was The Parting Glass. I was expecting the traditional arrangement. Instead, I discovered it was basically the same arrangement that Celtic Woman used in Believe! Almost exactly the same! I've honestly never heard another group besides Celtic Woman do that arrangement. I thought Celtic Woman were the only ones that performed it that way. But given that The High Kings performed it in 2008 (years before Believe was recorded), it's possible that Celtic Woman borrowed the arrangement from their label-mates (unless CW was performing that arrangement on tour prior to 2008).
Here's a video of them performing The Parting Glass from 2008. Sound familiar? Lol.
https://youtu.be/XhJp0W0ku2w
They did The Parting Glass really well, although I felt the Celtic Woman performances had a bit more of a wow-factor with their voices of epic beauty.
Overall, it was a fun album. Nothing really sucked and there were a few really good songs on it. I'm looking forward to listening to the rest of their recorded works.
-
Lisa Kelly said on her live Q+A tonight that David Downes indeed composed The Parting Glass arrangement (evidently for The High Kings first). I've been confronted with a frustrating lack of information about the High Kings during my research, so it's good to actually get an answer to this one.
After further digging, it does seem David Downes was the musical director of the group for at least a while:
https://www.allmusic.com/artist/the-high-kings-mn0000563900/biography
-
Over the weekend, I listened to The High Kings "Live In Ireland" (2011).
It was a fun one to listen to.
The following songs were my favourites, most of which were well-arranged and had good harmony:
The Black Velvet Band
Fields of Athenry
The Town That I Have Loved So Well
Leaving Of Liverpool
Rare Auld Times
Go Lassie Go / Dutchman
Those songs are probably all worth listening to if you're interested.
A lot of the other songs were fun, but I found for many of the others a bit too frantic. It made the songs more intense than I would have found ideal. Like many live albums, there are some parts where the performers turn the mic over to the audience. In most cases, unless the audience interaction is really epic, I'd rather just listen to the performers.
Overall, I liked the album, although I definitely had a set of favourite tracks and a separate set I didn't enjoy quite as much.
-
I finished listening to Friends for Life (2013) and Four Friends Live (2014).
I found Friends for Life to be the most polarizing I've listened to so far. There were a few songs I really liked:
Musicmakers
Ireland's Shore
McAlpine's Fusiliers
Oh Maggie
Come With me Now
There were also quite a few songs / arrangements on that album I really didn't care for.
Four Friends Live, which was recorded live in Derry, Northern Ireland, was a bounceback album for me in this listening experience. I enjoyed most of the songs on the album. It was fun to listen to. The crowd interaction was well-mixed into the album. It added to the energy level without being excessive or becoming distracting. I very much enjoyed 12 of the 16 songs on the album and the other 4 were still fun to listen to. My favourites (in order) were:
Ireland's Shore
Leaving of Liverpool
McAlpines Fusiliers
The Fields of Athenry
Town I Loved so Well
The Parting Glass
Yes, The Parting Glass was #6 for me. That's how good the other tracks were! I did prefer their earlier (2008) version of The Parting Glass to this one, but this one was still very good! This album's definitely going to be on my shortlist of ones to buy.
-
It's been a productive weekend so far (productive listening to music anyways). I finished listening to Grace & Glory (2017) as well.
This album perhaps had the tightest harmony of The High Kings albums I've listened to. In terms of track enjoyment, I found most of the songs were bunched towards the middle of the spectrum, where even if they sounded nice or seemed like fun songs, most of them just weren't clicking with me the way some of their songs did on previous albums. Perhaps another listen later will change my mind, but for now, here are my top 3 from the album:
Grace
Follow Me Up To Carlow
Ride On
Grace was well arranged and performed. Chloë's tour version remains my favourite, but this one was good too. Ride On was well done, but it didn't have the same wow-factor that the Celtic Woman (Destiny) or Celtic Thunder versions did. Overall, an enjoyable album, but not my overall favourite from the group.
-
Something tells me that maybe back in 2010, The High Kings "opened" a couple of shows for CW. I think they did both shows at RCMH that year?
-
Something tells me that maybe back in 2010, The High Kings "opened" a couple of shows for CW. I think they did both shows at RCMH that year?
I seen a show that a guys group opened the show for the girls and i was not impressed I was there to see the girls sign not some guys they were ok just not what i was there for and it wasn't that long ago and it was either in greenbay or appleton Wi.
-
Something tells me that maybe back in 2010, The High Kings "opened" a couple of shows for CW. I think they did both shows at RCMH that year?
I seen a show that a guys group opened the show for the girls and i was not impressed I was there to see the girls sign not some guys they were ok just not what i was there for and it wasn't that long ago and it was either in greenbay or appleton Wi.
Yeah, I wouldn't want anyone to open for the girls if it meant the girls had less time on stage. There's nobody else like Celtic Woman. I only want to see other performers on days when there's no Celtic Woman show or it's not practical for me to be at the Celtic Woman show.
-
Most major touring acts seem to have an opening act. Granted, in most cases, I just show up late and miss them! I noted I was at a show(s) where who I think was the High Kings, opened for CW. Not bad, but that;s some of purpose of an opening act -- get there name out.
There's a YouTube video floating around whith CW doing YRMU with a New York Public School Chorus. Again, I was there. I tended to object more to that than a totally separate opening act.
-
If Celtic Woman has an opening act sometime, I would want it to be Glenn and Ronan! I would also want the total concert time running longer than normal so that the CW length doesn't get shortened.
-
If Celtic Woman has an opening act sometime, I would want it to be Glenn and Ronan! I would also want the total concert time running longer than normal so that the CW length doesn't get shortened.
I love that idea!
Or CaraNua, but I think that would be a little less likely than a G+R opening act.
-
I listened to Decade: Best of the High Kings tonight.
All the tracks on this album were studio versions.
"Best of" or compilation albums have a challenging task of pleasing fans that have a variety of tastes and favorites. This album is a good collection of their good songs. But there are certainly some omissions, at least relative to my personal list of favorites. I suppose if I want all my favorites together, that's what a playlist is for (or a "mix tape" for those of us old enough to remember what a cassette tape is).
The Parting Glass (their best version), The Fields of Athenry, The Black Velvet Band, and Rare Auld Times are among my favorites that made it onto the album.
The album also featured 4 songs I hadn't heard on their previous albums:
Homeland
Four Green Fields
The Lonesome Boatman
Irish Pub Song
Homeland was definitely my favorite of the 4 additions, although good though it is, I strongly prefer the Celtic Woman version from Ancient Land (and the Homecoming tour).
The four most notable omissions from my list of favorites were:
Musicmakers
Ireland's Shore
McAlpine's Fusiliers
Leaving Of Liverpool
There weren't many tracks I didn't like. There were several tracks with really good harmony. In contrast to Celtic Woman albums, there weren't many tracks that blew me away, even though there were a lot of tracks I enjoyed. Overall, it's a pretty good album. I'll add it to my short list of albums to consider buying.
-
The High Kings: Home from Home album is releasing soon (March 5, 2021)!
Track list:
1. Streets of London
2. The Dutchman
3. Wild Colonial Boy
4. Summer in Dublin
5. Farewell to Nova Scotia
6. Streets of New York
7. Caledonia
8. City of Chicago
9. Green Fields of France
10. Carrickfergus
11. Galway Races
-
The High Kings are releasing a new album June 23, 2023 called The Road Not Taken.
-
The Road Not Taken released today.
There are some really good songs on this album!
Some of my favourites:
Where I Belong
Wow! Just ... WOW! This song is ridiculously good! I think it's an original song too. This is probably one of my 3 favourite High Kings song ever, along with The Parting Glass and The Black Velvet Band. This is just phenomenal and I hope it gets the massive amount of streaming and radio plays it deserves.
Paddy's Day (P.S. it's Paddy, NOT Patty)
Lots of fun to listen to!
The Road Not Taken
Loved it!
Go With the Flow
A fun mostly-instrumental track.
Song for Kelly
It's nice and it claims the title of best sad song on the album.
I enjoyed the other tracks, but not as much as the ones above.
-
Tonight I got to see The High Kings: The Road Not Taken tour. The High Kings have shared a label with Celtic Woman and many years ago they opened for Celtic Woman on tour.
The crowd was pretty engaged, especially the High Kings super-fans sitting around me in the first two rows. A few of them had been to 50 High Kings shows or more and a few were flying to Dublin to see their upcoming shows there. The super-fans were really enthusiastic and some of them got up and danced during the songs. One of them got invited up on stage to play spoons with The High Kings during one of the songs. It was an atmosphere reminiscent of The Shamrock Tenors show in Belfast last year.
It was difficult for me to tell how into the show the rest of the audience was since I was sitting right in front of a speaker. But all of us up front were standing, clapping, and singing along for the last few numbers of the show.
There was less choreographed movement on stage than there is during a Celtic Woman or Celtic Thunder show. They stayed near their microphone stands for the most part, although they sometimes roamed around the stage and came closer to the audience. One of them even ventured into the audience with a bodhran.
Here are some of my other highlights...
Each of the performers sang and they each played around a half dozen instruments.
Men of Aran was a tribute to Finbarr Clancy's relative, who was a member of The Clancy Brothers.
Darren Holden was the lead singer in The Town I Loved So Well and it was phenomenal! He got the most out of every single note, and for his epic performance, he got the only mid-show standing ovation!
1845 was an a cappella number. They've done one of those on every show since the beginning.
Brian Dunphy gave me a fist bump from the edge of the stage during the show. I was like: what just happened??? 😲
When The Wild Rover was the encore, I thought for a moment: "oh well, no Parting Glass tonight" ...
Then they did a second encore! For the first time EVER, I got to hear the David Downes "Parting Glass" live! It has definitely evolved since they recorded it on their first album and DVD, but the essence of it was the same. For those who have been reading my rants on the forum for a while, The David Downes Parting Glass has been at or near the top of my all-time-favourite-arrangements list for along time. Oh my goodness, I was losing my mind with joy!
I managed to procure a set list after the show. There were some additional songs performed that were not on the list, but this will give you a pretty good sense of what was in the show:
Rocky Road to Dublin
On the One Road
Oh Maggie
Will You Go Lassie Go (aka Wild Mountain Thyme)
The Fields of Athenry
The Lonesome Boatman
The Star of the County Down
Grace
Streets of Kinsale
Men of Aran
The Town I Loved So Well
The Irish Rover
Caledonia
Connemara Bay
The Road Not Taken
1845
Chasing Rainbows
The Irish Pub
Whiskey In The Jar
The Wild Rover
The Parting Glass
The show went right through from beginning to end with no intermission.
After the show, the performers all came out to the merch table to sign things and chat. I got to meet all 4 of them! I was my usual chatty self (for those that know me, that's smiling and nodding at a stage door without saying much of anything). I've learned to accept that those types of interactions just aren't my thing.
I wore a Celtic Woman t-shirt to the concert. I wasn't sure how that would go over, but I figured it would at least have some nostalgic value for them. 2 of them did at least comment on it.
Once the line dissipated, the performers stuck around and took group photos with the remaining fans.
That was a very fun and satisfying show and I highly recommend it!
-
The High Kings released a single "Where I Belong at Christmas," a Christmas remix of "Where I Belong" from The Road Not Taken album.
Both versions are incredible and it's my favourite original High Kings song. 10/10!