It's the Real Thing.

I was just rummaging through a cupboard and came across a 2xCD set that I’d forgotten I had. It’s called The Definitive Irish Folk Collection. I set the first disc playing while I read through the tracks.

Well now, I’ve been interested in Irish folk music in one form or another since I was a teenager, and I can tell you this. Around half the tracks on this collection would fail the test of ‘Irish folk’ even with the application of a liberal definition, and of the rest, there are few that could be described as ‘definitive.’

This is what the music industry does. It puts out stuff like this to convince those who wouldn’t know Irish folk from a cup of flat Guinness that they’re getting the real McCoy. And I assume they believe they are. Do you know, somebody once said to me ‘I can’t stand Irish music. It’s so miserable.’ God knows what she’d been listening to. A definitive collection, no doubt.

I’ve no idea how I came by this CD set; I certainly wouldn’t have bought it, so I expect somebody gave it to me. No wonder I forgot I had it.