Secret Garden

Secret Garden is an Irish-Norwegian group led by Irish Fionnuala Sherry (violinist and singer) and Norwegian Rolf Løvland (composer, arranger and pianist).

Celtic Woman has drawn inspiration from the repertoire of Secret Garden, including:

- You Raise Me Up (SG: Once in a Red Moon)
- My Land (CW: Destiny, Orla: Distant Shore / My Land, SG: Inside I'm Singing)
- Sometimes a Prayer Will Do (CW: Destiny, SG: Inside I'm Singing)
- Nocturne (CW: Believe, SG: Songs from a Secret Garden)
- Sigma (Chloe: Walking In the Air, SG: Songs from a Secret Garden)
- Always There (Orla: Distant Shore, SG: Earthsongs)
- Prayer (Hayley: Odyssey, SG: Dawn of a New Century)


Am I missing anything?

Isn't the song Winter's Light that Chloe did on her CD also a Secret Garden song?

Isn't the song Winter's Light that Chloe did on her CD also a Secret Garden song?

It was a song by Linda Ronstadt from the movie The Secret Garden.

Oh, OK. No matter who wrote it, I love the song and think it's really pretty. I also like the Secret Garden songs Celtic Woman has done, especially Sometimes A Prayer Will Do.

Earlier this year, Secret Garden released their latest album, Storyteller.

I enjoyed it. It's mostly instrumental, but there are a few vocal tracks as well.

Song To A Child and Sunshine are pretty good.

I can imagine Mairead Carlin or Alex singing Sunshine.

My favorite track though is definitely Strength. That is truly an awesome song!

Strength has more of a Celtic Thunder vibe, but with the right arrangement and a strong choir and orchestra backing Celtic Woman, this would be good enough to be a DVD closing song.

One of my favorite Secret Garden songs is Raise Your Voices (from their album Earthsongs).

It has a far more British sound than a Celtic Sound. But oh man, is it ever epic!

The arrangement reminds me a lot of Celtic Woman's cover of Once In Royal David's City. If Celtic Woman was ever going to cover Raise Your Voices, Voices of Angels would have been album for it. But until we have a Celtic Woman cover, here's a link to Secret Garden's version to enjoy.

     Raise Your Voices (Earthsongs)

In honor of July 4th, here's a link to another of my favorite Secret Garden songs:

     Celebration

... and in the style of Tim Janis, the pictures in the slide show are pretty but otherwise unrelated to the actual song.

It's been 25 years since Secret Garden's Eurovision win in 1995! They're celebrating with an album called “Nocturne: The 25th Anniversary Collection!”

It's set for release on Friday, May 8, 2020.

Source: https://www.facebook.com/OfficialSecretGardenMusic/videos/1449743455204865/

The album will also include all NEW acoustic performances and some musical rarities.

You can pre-order the album here: https://DeccaGold.lnk.to/SecretGardenFP

As a teaser, here's a brand new solo piano version of "Adagio" out now: https://lnk.to/SecretGardenVisualizer

Live At Kilden: Twentieth Anniversary Concert was DVD (and live album) recorded in 2015. It's one of my two favourite Secret Garden albums and it's the only Secret Garden DVD I've watched so far.

The music is fantastic!

I love the opening rousing instrumental Celebration. There are a number of songs on the DVD that Celtic Woman fans may recognize, including Nocturne, My Land, Sometimes A Prayer Will Do, and You Raise Me Up).

The Reel, Steps, Moving, Elan, and Celebration are all fun songs. There are quite a few slower songs and a few powerful numbers mixed in.

Grace is one of the gorgeous slow, sweeping instrumental numbers. Sometimes When It Rains is another really pretty song.

The vocal numbers are all pretty good, but Sometimes A Prayer Will Do was possibly the most spectacular. Tracey Campbell has quite a powerful voice! My Land (misspelled on the back of my DVD cover as "My Lady") is really good and Celtic Woman evidently drew quite a bit of inspiration from this original Secret Garden song.

The music is backed by a big orchestra and it sounds great!

The DVD doesn't have the fancy stage design or choreography of a Celtic Woman show, but the music is outstanding! If you're going to get your feet wet with Secret Garden, this might be the best album / DVD to get you started as it has a lot of their best songs and several you'll recognize from Celtic Woman!

Secret Garden released a Christmas album: Sacred Night.

It's 7 tracks and they sound nice.

Enjoy!

Secret Garden is releasing "Sacred Night: The Christmas Album" on October 29, 2021.

It's an extended version of last year's Christmas album and includes 5 new tracks.

Secret Garden is releasing "Sacred Night: The Christmas Album" on October 29, 2021.

It's an extended version of last year's Christmas album and includes 5 new tracks.

It's a nice album. It's not one of those albums that's loaded with cheery songs. It's mostly slow and pretty songs, although there are some strong pop tracks in there for a change of pace. If you enjoy relaxing music and/or are sick of hearing the same Christmas songs every year, check this one out. The tracks sound great and Catherine Iversen has a beautiful voice. There are some satisfying harmonies along the way.

Some of my favourites were Sagnet om julerosen, A Million Stars, 'Cause of You, Desembernattens sang, Mørketid, and Mary's Lament.

There wasn't a track that absolutely blew me away and I'm not sure that the tracks are catchy enough to find their way into pop culture, but they're all really pleasant to listen to.

Importantly, the sound quality itself was pretty good, which allowed me to simply enjoy the tracks instead of getting constantly distracted by things that sounded weird.

I'm not sure if everyone would find their take on Ave Maria cover super-catchy, but it certainly sounds fresh. It's very different from the ways I've previously heard it performed.

You may recall Chloë's cover of Sigma earlier in her career. I'm not a huge fan of the melody (it's a bit repetitive), but like Chloë's version, this one sounds good. The violin takes a back seat to the singing on this album, but Fionnuala Sherry has a standout part in this song. Fionnuala also makes you feel all the notes she's playing in I Know A Rose Tree.

The album cover is also super-pretty.

A little piece of information on Wikipedia that never seems to come up: David Downes was an orchestrator for Secret Garden (on the album Earthsongs, for example, which also featured Máiréad Nesbitt).

Also, David Agnew played oboe for Secret Garden on multiple albums. The are many ties between Celtic Woman and Secret Garden.

A new album called "Songs in the Circle of Time" releases September 20, 2024!

https://shop.decca.com/products/songs-in-the-circle-of-time-cd?srsltid=AfmBOoow0mmebRDuCkupOyc7PjJKzCJt2TrgIR0KhfbFZWA8yhcakDPZ