Karen Ashbrook with Paul Oorts - Celtic Cafe

(November 2001) 19 tracks: Breton Dance / Star of Munster / Irish Maidens Set * Máirin De Barra aire * Siobhan O'Donnell's / Handsome Young Maidens * Style Musette / Irish Reel Set * Hong Herald * Bear Island / Séan sa Cheo / Hong Herald * Behind the Bush in the Garden / Sgt Early's Dream / Lady Anne Montgomery * Belgian Jigs: Colonne la Gavre / Sabotière de Nonceveux / La Marchande * Valse Petit Déjeuner * Flemish Carillon Set: Wel Island / Chimes of Dunkirk / Air * Paspie Menuet / Mr. Waller * Napoleon Suite * Before the Battle: Gathering at Waterloo / Will You Go to Flanders * Wellington¹s Coming * The Victor¹s Return * Waterloo Hornpipe * The Battle: Bonaparte's Defeat * Battlefire / The Retreat * Lamentation for the Fallen Heroes of Waterloo * The Aftermath: The 78th's Farewell to Belgium.

Musicians: Karen Ashbrook - hammered dulcimer, wooden flute and penny whistle * Paul Oorts - classical and steel stringed guitars, mandolin, musette accordion, cittern, tenor banjo * Andrea Hoag - fiddle * Bonnie Rideout - Scottish fiddle and viola * Mark Hillmann - uilleann pipes * Bobby Read - woodwinds and soprano sax * Dwight Purvis - French horn * Ralph Gordon - bass * Dave Wiesler - piano * Paddy League - bodhran, snare drum, concertina and percussion.

French, Flemish, Breton, Irish, Scottish music from the cultural crossroads of Europe.This CD celebrates an institution that contributed mightily to the development and vitality of folk music - the café, and its Irish cousin the pub. Evokes late nights spent in these venues, sessioning with old musicians and listening to the lore of the buskers (street performers). We invite you into our café where musicians, old and new, Celtic and continental, are brought together in a lively dynamic, and evocative collection of music!

"If you think an album named in honor of the cozy cafes and noisy pubs that have long nurtured Celtic and Continental music would be filled with lively but somewhat ragged performances, you're half right. The latest release by multi-instrumentalists Karen Ashbrook and Paul Oorts is the product of a series of wonderfully energetic and exquisitely arranged collaborations. Ashbrook is an American Irish hammer dulcimer player well known for her work with the Ceoltori Celtic Ensemble. Oorts, her husband, is an exceptionally versatile Belgian musician and scholar, well versed in Flemish, French and Celtic traditions. Reflective of their common interests and abiding passions, Celtic Cafe finds the duo (and several guest musicians) exploring pan-European music with uncommon verve, grace and imagination. These virtues are particularly evident on the album's most ambitious arrangement - the three-part, 16-minute Napoleon Suite which makes cinematic use of traditional themes and sound effects. But the smaller scale performances have a special charm and vitality of their own, as evidenced by the soulful, then sprightly air of the Flemish Carillon Set, the curious, cross-genre trajectory of The Celt Goes South and the radiant blend of dulcimer and guitar rhythms propelling Belgian Jig Set. Each of these selections takes a different route to Celtic Cafe and helps make up a thoroughly enjoyable and evocative travelogue." (The Washington Post)