A Celtic Renaissance Wedding is a nice thematic collection from the ever-prolific Brobdingnagian Bards. There's the "Bridal Chorus" for the traditional walk down the aisle theme, and it's likely that any number of re-enactors will do just that by it. "My Irish Valentine" is one of the standouts of this collection, and quite charming as well. "Maids in the Meadow" is a lovely instrumental, deftly combining the Bards' trademark autoharp and recorder. The awkward spots on this album are where they include repeats of earlier tracks where the pacing is off. "The Kiss," while it does fit the theme, is the same somewhat choppy-sounding version as was previously heard on Gullible's Travels. And "None But a Harper (The Last Unicorn)" tries to fit too much into a line in places. "If you were a harper, you would be me harper," comes off sounding rushed. Still, it manages to be a charming little tune, even so. "When She Held Me in Her Arms" does rather nicely until the very end, where there's a couple of phrases where the lead is almost gasping for breath. Could do with a re-recording, there. Though for contrast, "Wild Mountain Thyme" is a track where the pacing is quite good, the vocals are full of a gentle burr, and everything goes together beautifully. Fans may well be wishing, "More like 'Wild Mountain Thyme,' please!" So while this is probably not an album for casual listening (unless one is planning a lot of wedding receptions), it does fill a specialty niche rather pleasantly.
© Murrday Fisher /TiVo