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April 2009 Newsletter



Inside This Issue

Inside This Issue


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!

 

>>>Visit the Leprechaun Watch Now! <<<


 

 

Kennedy's Kitchen

"The Hotting Fire"

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.

[Read More]
 

CD Contests

Our April 2009 CD contest features music from Dan MilnerSerundal The Irish Experience Sliotar Oceans Apart and  Bill Thurman.

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.

[Read More]

 

 

 

What's New?
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:
 
 

Photogallery Space:
Members: 500 MB.
Founders: 5 GB

Email Services:
Members: 10 MG.
Founders: 5 GB.

Hosting Services:
Members: 1 MG.
Founders: 25 GB.

 

 

 

 

 

Upload File Size:
Members: 2 MG.
Founders: 5 MG.

Photo Size:
Members: 1 MG.
Founders: 3 MG.

 
 

 
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.

1. Ireland's Call - Celtic Thunder
2. What's Up Yours? - Barleyjuice
3. The Overgate - Ed Miller
4. The Voice - Celtic Woman
5. And the Accordions Played - Runrig
6. Concerning Charlie Horse - Great Big Sea
7. Dandelion Wine - Blackmore's Nig
8. One Last Drink - Enter the Haggi
9. Bean an Fhir Rua (The Red-Hair - Chieftains
10. Johnny Cope - Rankin Family
 

 

 



Click Here
 

 

 

 

 
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 technologies similar to SBR as well as audio coding experts who have worked on MP3 and MPEG AAC at the Fraunhofer Institute, where MP3 was developed. Their in-depth knowledge about both parts that constitute MP3Pro enabled them to optimize MP3 and SBR for the perfect combination you experience with MP3Pro.
 
This means that even though Highlander Radio is streamed at 64kps, using the compression technology of MP3Pro allows the stream to sound like a 128kps CD quality stream. Highlander Radio is backwards compatible with standard MP3, so there is no compatibility issues for our listeners that do not use the MP3 decoder.
 
To take full advantage of MP3Pro technology while listening to Highlander Radio, first download and install the Winamp media player. Then download and install the MP3Pro plugin. Configure Winamp to use the MP3Pro plugin by accessing options, preferences and input (under plugins). Click on the MP3Pro plugin and enable.
 
 
 
 
 
 
Highlander Radio will never sound so good by using the MP3Pro plugin. And best of all our special MP3Pro stream is advertisement free. Access the stream through the control panel. Any questions on installing Winamp and the MP3Pro plugin please contact our technical support department.

 

 

 


Click Here

 

     


April Featured Music


Matt and Shannon Heaton
"Lovers' Well"

Paul Vens and Friends
"Playing In The Fields"

Skully
"Irish Makeover"

Beth Patterson
"Hybrid Vigor"

Rattle the Boards
"Debut Album"


 

Hot Topics
Popular community forum threads
 

St. Patrick's Day Giveaways
Gun Control
Pub humour
If You Have A N Egg Or Dragon Come Right Here
All You Folks Living In The Great White North
What's It Like Outside
Quotes Of The Founding Fathers
What Are You Doing Right Now?
Birthday Greetings!
Sorry!
Fox Going Too Far, And At The Worst Possible Time.
Fairness Docterine Coming Back
St. Patrick's Day, 2009
Canada
Seniors, Old Farts And Just Growing Old!




 

Sponsors
Please support our sponsors!


 

· No Celtic Boundries
· MacTalla Mor
· Mildred Lynn
· Wellness Success
· Irish Hummingbird
· The Celtic Mall
· The Trybe
· Kennedy's Kitchen
· Celtic Attic
· Schindler's Fabrics
· Mystikal Realm
· To Be A Pirate


 

 

 

· Shining Moon
· The Jolly Beggars
· Marc Gunn
· Colquhoun Imports
· Celtic MP3s
· Irish Pen Pals
· Keltic Kaleidoscope
· Kevin Walsh
· Dark Birth Right
· Anne Roos
· CelticSwirl Jewelry
· Keltic Nations



   








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