The first group that I want to highlight as part of my new Music Monday Orient Lodge Music Review is The Sweet Colleens, but before I get into talking much about them, I want to talk a little bit more about what I am doing with The Orient Lodge Music Review.

Orient Lodge is a blog that I’ve been writing since 2004. I’ve been getting around 15,000 page views a month as I write about an eclectic mix of topics. Recently, I decided to do a lot more music reviews here, and my goal is to pick one group a week to highlight. Some weeks, I might not get around to it. Other weeks, there might be a couple groups that I want to highlight at the same time.

I am accepting submissions on the Orient Lodge Sonic Bids page. For the first three months, I’ve committed to highlighting at least five groups, but I expect the number will be closer to twelve. In the first few days, I’ve received around thirty submissions. I’ve listened to all the songs for on the majority of submissions so far, and I’m building a list of who I intend to highlight on a week by week basis. This list will shift as I get new submissions.

It won’t be a typical music review. I’m more interested in talking about personal reactions to the music and to the intersection of the music, the performers, and our own experiences.

With that, let me talk a little bit about The Sweet Colleens. The first song in their Electronic Press Kit (EPK) on Sonicbids, is Wraggle Taggle, featuring Michael Doucet, from their CD Half a Mile From Home.

It is also known as “The Gypsy Laddie” and can be found as ballad 200 in the Child Collection. The Child Collection was published in the end of the nineteenth century and contained three hundred and five ballads from England and Scotland.

The first Child Ballad I remember hearing about was “The Great Silkie”, Child #113. If I recall properly, it was mentioned in the book Drifters, by James Michner. One of the drifters was a folk singer who sang that song. Prior to that, I had often heard the song Barbara Allen, which is Child #84, but I didn’t know it was from the Child collection

The Sweet Colleens rendition of The Gypsy Laddie has a special touch, with Michael Doucet of BeauSoliel playing on it. I’ve long enjoyed BeauSoliel’s music, and a touch of Cajan added to a great border ballad works really well.

Another song that The Sweet Colleens has in their EPK, also from the “Half Mile from Home” CD is “Wild Mountain Thyme”. This song was written by Francis McPeake and has been a long time favorite of mine, with many great folk musicians having performed it. They have a wonderful rendition of it.

On the same CD they also have their version of “The L&N Don't Stop Here Anymore” by Jean Ritchie. This is a song about the woes of coal miners that has been covered by musicians from Johnny Cash to Michele Shocked. After the Upper Big Branch Mine disaster, folk songs about the woes of coal miners are coming again to the forefront.

In January, they came out with a new kids CD, The Monkey Dance. The music is good, but I’ll leave the reviewing of those songs to my youngest kid.

So, I’m pleased to start off my new series by highlighting a really fun group that digs back to early English and Scottish ballads and presents it, along with more recent music, in a way that is truly enjoyable. Check out their CD. If you live in Minnesota, check them out at Kieran’s Irish Pub. Then, come back next week to see who I highlight next.