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The Celtic soul brother

By Kernan Andrews

GROWING UP in a house where the old vinyl collection featured Bob Dylan, Sweeney’s Men, and Pentangle alongside the Rolling Stones and Slade meant there was a good chance I would end up liking folk music as much as rock.

In my early teenage years I listened to the folk albums to see what they had to offer. Dylan and Pentangle hooked me straight away, Sweeney’s Men took longer, but nestling among them were also records by a Breton harpist called Alan Stivell.

There were three vinyl LPs - A L’Oympia, Chemins De Terre, and Renaissance De La Harpe Celtique - all played so much during the 1970s that 20 years later they were worn out, badly scratched, and now unlistenable.

I was in luck though, we had two copies of Renaissance... and the second one was in fairly good nick. I placed it on the turntable, onto Side 2 by mistake, but it was a happy accident, for I was about to hear the epic side long piece ‘Gaeltacht’.

On ‘Gaeltacht’ Stivell wielded his harp like a guitar and made it as exciting as anything Bert Jansch or Jimmy Page could do. The 19 minute piece soared between the traditional Irish, Scottish, and Manx music, and was imbued with an atmosphere of romance and mysticism.

It was pure prog and could only have been made in the 1970s. Yet ‘Gaeltacht’ was also celebrating a living and vibrant tradition of music from the Celtic nations, making Renaissance... both an album of its time and timeless.

Renaissance... is regarded as not only a high watermark of Stivell’s career but as a landmark recording in Celtic and World music. As Allmusic.com said: “People who hear this record are never the same again. Renaissance De La Harpe Celtique, one of the most beautiful and haunting records ever made by anybody, introduced the Celtic harp to many thousands of listeners around the world.

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