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Thu, 10/23/2008

Getting jiggy with it by Alan Gratz:

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Celtic music plays a big part in Something Wicked, the Macbeth-inspired follow-up to Something Rotten, and part of the fun of going to highland festivals to research the book was hearing all the great bands and pipers. At the Grandfather Mountain Highland Games, there are two special "stages" that are really natural amphitheaters, with enormous rocks for stages and hillsides for auditoriums. Off in the shade, 5,000 feet above sea level, there's really a sense that you've escaped into another world. They call them "the groves," and some year soon we're going to forgo all the other great stuff at the festival and just camp out in one of the groves all weekend long and listen to music.

I namecheck a number of my favorite "Sham-rock" bands and musicians in Something Wicked, so it only made sense to put together a sort of Something Wicked soundtrack. You won't be able to buy a CD anywhere, but both Amazon.com and iTunes feature the music of most of the bands, so I created songlists you can listen to and purchase, if you're so inclined.

The soundtrack page on my web site can be found under the Something Wicked Fun Stuff link on alangratz.com or by clicking here.

As you can see from the list, I'm a big fan of Barleyjuice. They just came out with a new album that I love, with a great Celtic cover of "London Calling." It's the band Albannach though that really stirs Horatio's latent Cetlic blood, and unfortunately neither service sells their music. Instead I'll have to send you to Albannach's web site to have a listen. Albannach is all drums and bagpipes--sort of a hardcore take on the "pipe and drum corps" idea. I like to think of them as grunge meets Gaelic. They're so popular that the groves will fill to a standing room only crowd in advance of their shows, and you can hear them drumming and screaming out on the main thoroughfare as you're passing by. They'll certainly stir your Scottish blood, even if you didn't think you had any...