Reviewed by Peter Williams

Can you remember some years back when a record company accidentally discovered (via Rob And Gilly) that there was a huge market for instrumental worship albums? What did they do? Flood the market with them of course. Today every Christian bookshop has racks full of them. Now the same thing is happening with 'Celtic music'. From Eastbourne to Nashville the word has gone out that meditative albums featuring Irish flutes, uilleann pipes packaged with sleeves featuring photos of Celtic crosses or Hebbredean islands are this year's maker niche and dozens, probably hundreds, of Celtic albums will no doubt pour out before Irish/Scottish sounding versions of "Amazing Grace", "St Patrick's Day", etc utterly saturate the market place. The renditions here, by a bunch of Nashville-based session musicians, are skillfully played. And as someone who has been personally touched by the timeless writing of Celtic spirituality I am delighted to see ordinary church goers, regardless as to whether they can trace Celtic ancestry in their family trees, turning to this rich stream of spirituality. But as a depressing example of Marketing By Numbers I find albums as unimaginitive as this rather depressing.

The opinions expressed in this article are not necessarily those held by Cross Rhythms. Any expressed views were accurate at the time of publishing but may or may not reflect the views of the individuals concerned at a later date.

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