Welcome Welcome
to the March/April edition of the Celtic Radio newsletter. First and
foremost we are happy to report that we have reached our
fund
raising goal to cover our broadcast renewal fees which are due this
month. Celtic Radio members where up to the challenge and we exceeded our
fund raising goal, so a big thank you to our sponsors and supporters!
A
mischievous Irish elf is known as a leprechaun and fortunately, or
unfortunately, Celtic Radio has a history of being plague with leprechauns
on St. Patrick's Day. One St. Patrick's Day the leprechauns were not happy
with our website, so they made our site vanish in one quick swoosh!
Perhaps that was a blessing as our redesign of Celtic Radio came out very
nice. We should consider having a contest for our members to build the
ultimate leprechaun trap for our studio, but we'd like to think they are
just trying to get a message to us.
This year they totally overloaded our site and database making Celtic
Radio pretty much unusable. We fought hard and tried our best, but at the
end of the day our Internet Provider had a national outage. We sent our
apologies to our provider about these little green elves and gave up for
the day and continued our celebration on Friday evening following St.
Patrick's Day.
"It's not what we
hae, but what we do wi' what we hae, that makes us happy or
miserable."
~ Author Unknown (Scottish)
The leprechauns are in a way a blessing in disguise. They revealed to us a
number of software and hardware issues plaguing our site. To help overcome
these issues we purchased a brand new very fast database server and installed
a number of new network applications that has resulted in a significant boost
in our site performance.
Our 2008 Celtic Radio Music award is completed and we invite you to
review the results
and to sample some of the music from our new inductees into the Celtic Radio
Hall of Fame.
It's a great place to start if you are looking to buy a few CDs for your
Celtic Music collection.
Finally, we'd like to mention that for 2009 we plan on continuing to expand
our site with a number endeavors. This includes offering free WebPages to all
Celtic Radio members, creating a player widget for Highlander Radio and
resuming development of our online game -
Medieval Kingdom. So, an
exciting year coming up for Celtic Radio and we are very glad to have you
with us to enjoy all of this good music and companionship on our website.
Until next time, Slàinte.
Album of the Year Stanley
& Grimm is comprised of Fiddler Nikki Engstrom and guitarist and
singer Sean Brennan. They have been nominated to receive the 2008 Celtic
Radio Album of the Year award and the 2008 song of the year in the Jigs &
Reels category. These awards qualify Stanley & Grimm to be inducted into
the
Celtic Radio Hall of Fame!
Their album, "Another
Round", earned high marks from not only Celtic Radio, but from many
listeners of Highlander Radio. This New England duo plays a mix of old and
new tunes that is a delight to the ears and addicting to the feet
(especial those that dance). We at Celtic Radio carefully listened to each
and every track on this CD and we have come to the conclusion that
perfection has been made! Every musical measure is a beautiful display of
just how much these folks love to play.
Read our full review of Another Round in our 2008 Celtic Radio music award
press release.
Congratulations to Stanley & Grimm on this well deserved recognition. Our
award and a letter sent on behalf of the members of Celtic Radio will
arrive at their doorsteps soon!
Tartan Day 2009
Tartan Day
was held on April 6th of this year. X-Men united star,
Tony award winner and celebrated Scottish actor, Alan Cumming, led the
2009 New York Tartan Day Parade as Grand Marshall. Watch him leading the
parade in full dress kilt:
The United States Senate passed the National Tartan Day Resolution which
makes every April 6th National Tartan Day. The purpose of this day is to honor
Scottish Heritage. It is also to remember the patriots of
Scotland and pay remembrance to the Scottish Declaration of
Independence which was the model and inspiration for America's Declaration
of Independence. Read more about this day and the resolution at
TartanDay.org.
Keltic Nations
Keltic
Nations is a family owned and operated business that manufactures and
retails silver and gold jewellery.
Begun in 1997 as a t-shirt vendor at Scottish Highland Games and Celtic
Festivals in Ontario, they have evolved into a sophisticated on-line
retailer of fine, handcrafted Celtic jewellery.
Keltic Nations specializes in and features jewellery that bear Celtic
designs. Celtic art refers to a specific style of design unique to the
ancient Celtic people, whose homelands today are considered to be
Scotland, Ireland, Wales, Cornwall, the Isle of Man, and the Brittany
region of France.
In 2005 Keltic Nations sponsored a fund raising
contest for Celtic Radio
of which the winner received a beautiful Celtic ring valued at over $200!
We highly recommend Keltic Nations to anyone wishing to purchase fine
Celtic jewellery from a reputable and well known company. The MacPherson
family are long time members of Celtic Radio and we are proud to once
again welcome them to Celtic Radio as a sponsor and friend!
Leprechaun Watch
The
leprechaun fairy watch webcam is in a hidden location in the field in
Tipperary, Ireland. This is an enchanted area, well known for magical
associations. There is fairy ring close-by and you may see leprechauns and
other Irish fairies such as pookas, banshees and merrows. Because the
Leprechaun Watch is in the countryside in a remote part of Ireland there
is only natural light and there will be little or nothing to see after
dark and before dawn. The time shown is the current time in Tipperary,
Ireland. In the summer in Ireland it is often bright until quite late at
night.
The picture will refresh automatically every 30 seconds. Don't forget, if
you see a leprechaun, pookas, banshees or other Irish fairy please help us
the Leprechaun watch by reporting your sighting!
Kennedy's Kitchen plays tear-up-the-floor, break-your-heart beautiful
Irish music; traditional dance tunes, pub and original songs, stories,
jokes, and well embellished tall tales.
They have played from New York City to Chicago, from the Majestic
Theatre in Gettysburg, to the Irish festivals of Dayton Ohio and Muskegon
Michigan, entertaining audiences with their own special sound on: fiddle,
whistles, banjo, bouzouki, guitars, bodhran, harmonica and bass. It's the
ancient tradition and it's as fresh as a spring rain.
“Out of their
respect for each other's talents comes an abiding drive to share their
enthusiasm for Irish music and culture with others. Rowdy and
toe-tapping or sweet and sentimental, you'll have it all..."
Based in South Bend, Indian, Kennedy's Kitchen has grown over ten years
out of weekly seisuns at Lula's Cafe in South Bend, Indiana. As a seisun
is as much a social gathering as a musical one, so like their
performances, the music is intermingled with stories, jokes and well
embellished tales. No two performances are the same. Out of their respect
for each other's talents comes an abiding drive to share their enthusiasm
for Irish music and culture with others. Rowdy and toe-tapping or sweet
and sentimental, you'll have it all.
To be eligible for the monthly Celtic Radio contests you must post at
least one message in the Celtic Radio community forums. Or sign-up for a
Celtic Radio
Founder's account to be automatically entered each month!
Winners to be announced May 1, 2009!
Good Luck Members!
April CD Contests
Enter the Haggis
"Gutter Anthems"
Over the past three albums and five years, Toronto’s Celtic rock band
"Enter The Haggis" has found itself at the center of a grassroots success
story ever teetering on the brink of mainstream success. From playing
Celtic festivals to headlining them, and from the festival circuit to
selling out multiple nights in rock venues, ETH has blazed a path with
heavy and almost constant touring up and down the East Coast, to Canada,
the West Coast and back again, winning over success one fan, one town, one
region at a time.
"The band has made waves in the musicality of the
genre, landing high Billboard and iTunes World Music chart positions
as well as major television appearances on shows like Live With Regis
And Kelly, A&E Breakfast..."
The band has made waves in the musicality of the genre, landing high
Billboard and iTunes World Music chart positions as well as major
television appearances on shows like Live With Regis And Kelly, A&E
Breakfast With the Arts and PBS’ popular program Out of Ireland, with its
multi-influence style of Celtic rock. It’s the kind of overall sound and
devotion package that has created not only die-hard fans, but “Haggis
Heads” that follow the band from gig to gig.
When
we first began Celtic Radio back in the days of 2001, our
largest storage device was only 500 megabytes. Now, our entire
operation requires 190 Gigabytes of backup space and that number
is growing all of the time. It would seem that
Moore's law can be applied to storage devices too, doubling
in capacity every 2 years.
In the past 6 months we have drastically upgraded our online
storage capacity, so we have decided to provide our members with
additional storage space for the following services:
Enjoy the new storage capacities and keep uploading your
photographs in the online member
photogallery!
The
Top Ten Most requested songs for the past 60
days
Listen to the top ten count down on Highlander Radio. Visit our
broadcast schedule
for play times.
Celtic
Radio TIP:
Listen to Highlander
Radio in beautiful streaming CD quality by using the Thompson
MP3Pro
decoder for Winamp.
MP3Pro technology was developed by
Coding Technologies. The folks
at Coding Technologies have experts who have worked for years on
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MP3 was developed. Their in-depth knowledge about both parts that
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This means that even though Highlander Radio is streamed at 64kps,
using the compression technology of MP3Pro allows the stream to
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backwards compatible with standard MP3, so there is no
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To take full advantage of MP3Pro technology while listening to
Highlander Radio, first
download and install the Winamp media
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download and install the MP3Pro plugin. Configure
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and input (under plugins). Click on the MP3Pro plugin and enable.
Highlander Radio will never sound so good by using the MP3Pro
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free. Access the stream through the
control panel. Any questions
on installing Winamp and the MP3Pro plugin please contact our
technical support department.