St. Patrick's Day Gifts

I updated the St Patrick's Day gift page of the St. Patrick's Day Music website. The page highlights the Mage Records Celtic CDs that are best to own for St. Patrick's Day. Yes. I know that is ALL of them. But I limited the list. :)

Heart's Ease: Instrumental Autoharp Music

Take a breath...listen. Listen to an instrument that in the hands of Marc Gunn, becomes a pathway to fairy fields and drifting clouds, to magical realms and deepest dreams.

The autoharp -- conventionally known as the instrument of middle schools and German engineers -- is transformed into an expression of heart, spirit and soul, with Celtic roots and fairy branches, and the capacity to erase all but the calm, happy and comfortable end of a day.

Listen...

Heart's Ease began about five years ago while I was recording Soul of a Harper. I recorded my first solo instrumental tunes, and I loved them. At the time, I thought about recording an instrumental album inspired by the fae folk. My first tunes were named that way. But two years ago, I started back on the path, starting with "Stardust Serenade", a song inspired by the movie Stardust. The others came in bursts with fans and friends naming the tunes.

This is a relaxing album of peaceful heart-felt emotion. Imagine sitting in a warm bubble bath, a candle burning, and you'll have an idea of how to enjoy this peaceful CD, perfectly named Heart's Ease.

Track Listing:

1. Stardust Serenade
2. Heart's Ease
3. She Vanished in the Mist
4. Songwind
5. The Mage of Mirth
6. Desire
7. Amber Wednesday
8. Fairy Tale Waltz
9. Summer's End
10. Wildflowers of Party Field
11. Return to Lonely Mountain
12. Song of Assisi
13. Phoenix Tears
14. Of Twilight Shores

Buy MP3 Album!
$9.99. Instant access. Download the nicely formatted MP3s to your computer. Download free MP3 samples.

Buy the CD!
$16. The take-it-with-you version.

Celtic Christmas Music Website

The Christmas music is already starting to flood the stores and radio stations. I figured it was time to update my Celtic Christmas Music website. Now's the time to start shopping for your Celtic Christmas CDs.

Real Men Wear Kilts Updated

The Brobdingnagian Bards new CD, Real Men Wear Kilts is at long last finished. I updated the CD webpage. The CD is not yet available for sale (not until October), but you can pre-order it here.

What Color Is Your Dragon?

I hadn't even officially released A Tribute to Love when I started working on my next solo album--What Color Is Your Dragon? Folk Music with Delusions of Grandeur.

The album started when I realized I have a LOT of songs recorded that are not yet available on full-length albums. I listened to many of them and realized most were filk songs.

So I decided that would be the main focus of this album. I would compile a list of songs on a variety of Sci Fi/fantasy genres including: Lord of the Rings, Bugs Bunny, Firefly, Star Wars, Dr. Who, and Harry Potter. Added to that would be a few songs I wrote a long, long time ago (not necessarily in a galaxy far away) and a few new songs exploring new musical genres (blues, in particular).

The result is my latest album available in August 2008--What Color Is Your Dragon?. The album features 17 tracks of fun music that one fan compared to the Brobdingnagian Bards' chart-topping album, Brobdingnagian Fairy Tales.

That is kind of appropriate because the first song on the album, "Don't Go Drinking With Hobbits" was inspired by real-life event that happened several years ago at DragonCon when I went out drinking with hobbits and by the end of the weekend was so sick I had no voice to sing with. "The Virgin Diet" was a song inspired by another song popularized by The Bards called "Do Virgins Taste Better Medley", as well as the fan-produced magazine that arose from that song, The Medieval Virgin.

I get a lot of emails from fans with song lyrics. Now and then some songs really stand out and I record them. "The Nazgul Song" and "The Lusty Young Sith" were written by fans who decided to parody songs played by Brobdingnagian Bards. The lyrics made me smile so much, I decided they had to be recorded.

Nevertheless, What Color Is You Dragon? has taken on a life of it's own as I dug into my experience to write most of these songs about some of my favorite Sci Fi and fantasy fandoms. This was a wonderful way to share my love of those fandoms in song. I am happy to share this album with you.

Oh! A special thanks to Nikki O'Shea, the Bards Comic artist, who beautifully designed the CD cover. I hope you enjoy the new album.

Track Listing:

1. Don't Go Drinking with Hobbits
2. A Rabbit for Halloween
3. Samwise Gamgee
4. The Virgin Diet (How to Have Fun Losing Weight)
5. How Do You Tell a Woman You're in Love with Her?
6. Pleasant Peasant Pheasant Plucking Song
7. She Said Her Name Was Saffron (Our Mrs. Reynolds)
8. Monkeys Over Mongolia
9. Lusty Young Sith
10. For the Setting Sun
11. If I Were a Horse
12. The Last Chicken in Dublin
13. Pig's Song
14. I Saved the Planet Earth
15. The Nazgul Song
16. Gollum Blues
17. My Father Was a Werewolf

Buy MP3 Album!
$9.99. Instant access. Download the nicely formatted MP3s to your computer.

Buy the CD!
$15. The take-it-with-you version.

Listen to it free online
Absolutely free. The complete CD. All 17 tracks. Completely free to listen to online.

Now playing: marcgunn's station - Marc Gunn - What Color Is Your Dragon?

Going for Brogue: Irish Pub Songs and Sea Shanties with an Accent

Several years ago, I started the Irish Songs & Lyrics website to help musicians like learn new songs by ear. The site features Irish song lyrics, chords, and streaming audio files so you can listen to the songs you want to learn.

Unfortunately, the website stopped growing because we stopped recording. I decided to expand the website in 2006 by recording a bunch of Irish pub songs under a different name--4 Irish Whiskey. To make it more "authentic", I recorded the songs with an Irish accent.

Then a year later, a fan sent me a book of sea shanties. I thought some of those songs would make nice additions to the website, so this time I took on a pirate persona and added new songs to the website.

Now I decided it is time to release the music officially under my own name. I remixed the songs and compiled the two CDs into one. It's called Going for Brogue: Irish Pub Songs and Sea Shanties with an Accent. The CD features 19 Irish pub songs and sea shanties performed by yours truly with a variety of bizarre Irish accents. There's over 68 minutes of music on one environmentally conscience CD. Going for Brogue is raucous fun that shines like the heart of Irish folk music.

Track Listing:

1. A Drop of Nelson's Blood
2. The Holy Ground
3. The Night that Paddy Murphy Died
4. Isn't It Grand, Boys?
5. Botany Bay
6. Old Fenian Gun
7. The Mermaid Song
8. Johnny, I Hardly Knew Ye
9. Irish Rover
10. The Humours of Whiskey
11. Whisky in the Jar
12. Fiddler's Green
13. Haul Away Joe
14. All For Me Grog
15. Bonnie Ship the Diamond
16. The Foggy Dew
17. Rattlin' Bog
18. Whiskey, Johnny!
19. Mingulay Boat Song
    

PLUS, when you order the CD you'll have a link on the CD to download a digital pack of graphics for your computer, website and profile, and a 37-page ebook of song lyrics, chords and information about the album.

Whiskers in the Jar: Irish Songs for Cat Lovers

Introducing Whiskers in the Jar: Irish Songs for Cat Lovers! If you love cats and Celtic music, you will love this latest offering from Marc Gunn & The Dubliners' Tabby Cats.

It all began with a phone call. I started meowing in the middle of "Wild Rover". Then I wrote my first cat song. Irish Drinking Songs for Cat Lovers was born. The CD was wildly popular. Before I knew it I had people asking when I would release my next Cat CD. Sure, I had a few songs already written, but not enough for a second CD. I spent the next two years writing some songs and asking fans of the first album to submit some lyrics. The results are now here!

The album features twelve songs and two sets of Irish tunes. The songs are a mix of Irish and Scottish songs rewritten about cats. You'll hear songs about cats eating catnip, waking you up in the middle of the night, staring off into nothingness. You'll laugh as cats take over a dairy farm, splashing milk all over the place or a nice feline friendly twist to the Sylvester and Tweety Bird cartoon. Cats fight off canine pack recruitment and Harry Potter makes an appearance as does cat cloning. No really! It's twisted, but amazing fun.

The CD was produced by Celtic music lover, Rich Brotherton, and it shows. Whiskers in the Jar is an album of purrlicious fun for cat lovers everywhere.

1. What Shall We Do With a Catnipped Kitty
2. Molly Malone, the Cat's Perspective/Planxty Hewlett
3. Kitty at the Door
4. Danny Boy
5. To Catch a Cat
6. Big Strong Cat (My Puddy Tat, Sylvester)
7. Cuddles McGish
8. When the Dairy Farm Caught Fire
9. Kitty's Rambles/Dowd's 9 Lives/Jenny's Chickens
10. The Old Woman and Her Cat (Dundee Cat)
11. Kitty Martin
    
12. Harry Potter and the Rising of the Moon
13. Orange Kitten's Mew
14. Whiskers in the Jar
    

The graphics were designed by Celtic artist, Ingrid Houwers. The final album is coming soon.


Buy MP3 Album!
$9.99. Instant access. Download the nicely formatted MP3s to your computer.

Buy the CD!
$15. The take-it-with-you version.

Listen to it free online
Absolutely free. The complete CD. All 14 tracks. Completely free to listen to online.

Now playing: marcgunn's station - Whiskers in the Jar: Irish Songs for Cat Lovers

Non-Profit Donations

Mage Records considers it important to donate a portion of CD sales to non-profit organizations. Typically, these donations come from compilation CDs like .

As of April, 2008, Mage Records has donated over $7,000 cash to non-profits, including the following:

• Arkansas Celtic Music Society = $708.81
• Austin Browncoats = $771.08
  
• Austin Celtic Association = $1877.50
  
• Celtic Cultural Center of Texas = $622.69
• Celtic Heritage Festival = $1000
• Chapple Hill Cat Sanctuary = $213.63
  
• KOOP Radio = $100
• KUT Radio = $500
• Red Cross for Hurricane Katrina Relief = $1566.99

Renaissance Festival Podcast Compilation CD

The Renaissance Festival Podcast is a free, bi-monthly, downloadable radio show of Renaissance festival entertainment. It is hosted by Marc Gunn and Kristen Roger, and produced Joe Haydu and Marc Gunn, the show features music and entertainment from around the world.

Now we are proud to announce our latest compilation CD. This album benefits the podcast though a portion of the profits benefit a non-profit organization that will help the faire community as well and as needed.

This compilation is a lot like an episode of the Renaissance Festival Podcast with a fantastic mix of music and comedic faire commercials with our unique podcast touch.

Here's the complete track listing. Please visit the artists and find out more about the groups who support the Renaissance Festival Podcast.

Track Listing:
1. Fugli, "Crazy Leo's Indulgences", www.povera.com
2. Bedlam Bards, "Bedlam Boys / Bear Dance", www.bedlambards.com
3. Bramblebush, "Mary Mac", www.bramblebush-music.com
4. Bocca Musica, "Nancy", www.boccamusica.com
5. Bounding Main, "High Barbaree", www.boundingmain.com
6. Fugli, "Never Marry a Mermaid", www.povera.com
7. Tenpenny Travelers, "Dapper Dan", www.tenpennytravelers.com
8. Minstrel Woode, "Jolly Beggarman", www.minstrelwoode.com
9. Brobdingnagian Bards, "Hobbit's Dance", www.thebards.net
10. NeidFyre, "Old Maui", www.neidfyre.com
11. "Captain Black Jack" Murphy, "The Humours of Whiskey", www.irishsong.net
12. Queen's Gambit, "Rocky Road to Dublin / Foxhunter's Jig", www.queens-gambit.com
13. Pirate Comedy Show, "Tourists Promo", www.piratecomedyshow.com
14. Vince Conaway, "Cantiga", www.vinceconaway.com
15. Marc Gunn, "Finnegan's Wake", www.marcgunn.com
16. Jesse Linder, "The Leaving of Liverpool", www.jesselinderbard.com
17. Marooned, "Spanish Ladies", www.marooned-lv.com
18. Marc Gunn & Lorella Loftus, "PlagueAway: The Pestilence Potion", www.marcgunn.com
19. Terry Griffith, "For My Grandfathers", www.pittsburghirish.org/griffith
20. Blackjacks 'n Blarney, "Old Black Rum", www.renwidow.com
21. Thyme Awaye, "Highland Harry", www.myspace.com/thymeawaye
22. Seymoure, "The Pudding Song", www.seymoure.net
23. Marc Gunn & Lorella Loftus, "The Faire Is Over", www.marcgunn.com/

It album features photography by Chip Talbert, Kimberly Stockton as Elizabeth I and graphic design by the amazing, hard-working and generous, James McDaniel II.

Celtic Christmas Music

Just three more days until your own Celtic Christmas is begins. But there's no time like the present to start celebrating. Here you can find some:

• Irish Christmas traditions
  
• Scottish Christmas traditions
  

But the best way for any Celt to celebrate a Celtic Christmas is with music. Unfortunately, it's not easy finding Celtic Christmas music. Outside of Wales, there's not really any traditional Celtic Christmas music. However, there is a lot of new music written and adapted by Celtic music groups who have recorded their own Celtic Christmas CDs. These make great holiday gifts. So check out a few such popular Celtic Christmas CDs:

Celtic Christmas Music CDs

See more Celtic Christmas Music CDs.