UPDATE: CD IS AVAILABLE for purchase! Go to www.scottish-irish.com! To hear the best song on the entire album (and one of the greatest songs of all time), go to http://www.scottish-irish.com/mp3/04-paul-mounsey.mp3 .
The first CD from Paul Mounsey, produced in 1994, a fusion of scottish/irish melodies and songs with brazillian percussive influences. One of the most astounding and completely original compositions I've ever heard; was followed up by Nahoo Too in 1997.
Tracklist:
- Passing Away
- Alba
- Robert Campbell's Lament
- Journeyman
- Dalmore
- Stranger in a Strange Land
- As Terras Baixas Da Holanda
- From Ebb to Flood
- I Will Go
- My Faithful Fond One
- Illusion
I remember when i first heard this CD...
The opening track, haunting and fragile, ran over me as I played in a field of bamboo on the banks of the Russian River. I was seven. I think I was swordfighting with myself, trying to imitate Bushido Blade or something, when the first, strained words came through from under the music. I was struck by such a sense of sadness, of tragedy, as it began; something melancholy beyond words pervaded it, and pervaded me, even young and naive as I was.
"It makes a person sad... when... you see it all passing away. There's nothing one can do to stop it..."
Nahoo is about a search for identity; about finding home. When you truly realize what songs like "Passing Away" really mean, it changes your life. When you understand what it must be like for people in places like rural Ireland, where the once-proud Gaelic culture has all but disintegrated, an entire language being lost moment-by-moment as the children are too hip to learn the value of the old and the old are too tired to care, you realize how important culture really is. You begin to understand how important individual people can be; if one more person decided to keep the old in favor of the new, how much of history would have been changed?
From Ebb to Flood is, still, one of the most haunting, stirring pieces ever created, in my mind. Suitable at any time, anywhere, it is free, hopeful, and devastatingly beautiful. A lone violin plays a melody that is timeless beyond anything you've ever heard; suddenly backed by a modern, almost electronic groove, and the song just ebbs and flows across one's soul. Perhaps that's the real reason for the title...?
If I wrote a detailed description of just what each song on this masterpiece made me feel, I'd be here all night... so I'll end by saying that if you can find it, buy it ... and if you'd like to hear more, I'm open to sending a few "evaluation" tracks around, seeing as it's borderline-impossible to acquire legally. Everyone on Earth should hear "Dalmore", "From Ebb to Flood", and "Passing Away"; and preferably the entire, breathtakingly poignant album.
Thank you, Paul Mounsey. Nahoo means more to me than you'll ever know.