Category: Recordings

Find this at Gourd Music

The Road Home represents William Coulter’s first solo recording since he began exploring Celtic music over twenty years ago. This rich and eclectic collection features selections from Ireland, Brittany, Norway, Portugal and America, as well as original compositions. This elegant collection is a personal offering of beautiful music performed by one of the world’s finest acoustic guitarists.

Released 1998 on Windham Hill Records.
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With Mary McLaughlin

Find Crooked Road at Gourd Music

Following up on the success of his previous recordings, Celtic Crossing and Celtic Sessions, William Coulter once again draws from the rich repertoire of airs and dances from Scotland and Ireland for The Crooked Road. Along with traditional works, Coulter has also selected a number of contemporary compositions for this recording, including a wonderful duet with concertina master Alistair Anderson on Anderson’s “Dog Leap Stairs.”

Coulter is joined on two tracks by virtuoso classical guitarist Benjamin Verdery. Together they perform the Sean Ó Riada classic, “Women of Ireland” and the beautiful Turlogh Ó Carolan air, “Eleanor Plunkett.”

Other guest artists include cellist Barry Phillips, Shelley Phillips on oboe and English horn, Lars Johannesson on flute, fiddler Deby Benton Grosjean, Neal Hellman on dulcimer, uilleann piper Todd Denman, Muireann Nic Amhlaoibh on whistle and flute, and pianist Paul Machlis.

Find this over at Gourd Music.

Following the success of The Road Home William Coulter joins a wealth of talented musicians for Celtic Sessions. This stunning disc features Martin Hayes and Alasdair Fraser on fiddle, Seamus Egan on flute and 4-string banjo, Todd Denman on uilleann pipes as well as his long time musical friends Barry and Shelley Phillips, Lars Johannesson, Paul Machlis, Theo Page and Neal Hellman.

“The sounds on this album are pristine; it is beautifully recorded, capturing a range of nuances and gentle moods that are rarely heard on recordings of Celtic music. The arrangements are mostly contemporary, the content traditional and above all else it is musically expressive in a way that helps to redefine the place of the guitar in Celtic Music.” – Martin Hayes

Celtic Crossing is available from Gourd Records

Here I’m joined by Shelley and Barry Phillips, Irish fiddler extraordinaire Kevin Burke, and others. The tunes include beloved traditionals The Lark in the Morning, Si bheag, Si mhor, Banish Misfortune, Lagan Love, The Kesh Jig and Return to Fingal. You’ll also find unexpected treasures including the lullaby Einini*, Ay Linda Amiga from Celtic Spain, and the Victorian Marble Halls.

*Featured on the Narada Sampler Celtic Legacy.

I also published a book of arrangements for these tunes. It’s also available at Gourd Music.

With Barry Phillips, Shelly Phillips, Mike Marshall, Robin Petrie, Lars Johannesson, Laurie Hart, Neal Hellman, and others. We made several collections of shaker music. The most famous of these tunes, Simple Gifts, was immortalized by Aaron Copland in Appalachian Spring.

Find them all over at Gourd Music

This record, from 1988, can be found over at Gourd Music
Five San Francisco Bay instrumentalists take the name Orison from the old-fashioned word for prayer or invocaiton (see Hamlet, III, i). They are: Barry Phillips, Shelley Phillips, William Coulter, Steve Coulter and Anne Cleveland, whose repertoire includes music from both the folk and classical traditions (The Butterfly*, Arran Boat Song, The Maids of Mitchelston, The Water Kilpie, Morgan Megan and more), along with original compositions. Their combinations of harp, guitar, cello, oboe, English horn, flute and percussion produce textures of etheral and poignant beauty.

the liner notes:

The Arran Boat Song comes from the Arran Islands off the west coast of Ireland, a traditional tune in a contemporary setting.

Pierre on the Mountain Playing the Hurdy Gurdy is a medley. The first tune in it is a French one we learned from Pierre Bensusan. It is followed by an Irish slip jig called Kid on the Mountain, originally in 9/8, our setting is in 7/8. Followed by an obscure French hurdy gurdy tune, the title of which is unknown to us.

Morning Rain is a solo steel string guitar piece composed with the help of digital delay. Dedicated by composer William Coulter to the weather.

The Dance of the Spirits of Water is from Holst’s opera The Perfect Fool. The Golden Goose is a slip jig from the composer’s ballet of the same name.

William Coulter composed Pastorale in 1986, inspired by the beauty of the Santa Cruz mountains.

The Water Kilpie, a Manx tune from the Isle of Man, tells the story of a water fairy. The Maids of Mitchelston is a slow Irish reel which we adapted from an arrangement by the Irish group the Bothy Band.

The Butterfly is an Irish slip jig played here in three different time signatures, 9/8, and altered 9/8 (2 + 2 + 2 + 3), and 11/8 (2 + 2 + 3 + 2 + 2). These rhythms are borrowed from Bulgarian folk music.

Morgan Megan is by Turlough O’Carolan, the blind harper and composer who lived in Ireland from 1670-1738 and dedicated many of his tunes to his patrons.

William Coulter composed Bob’s Room while visiting a good friend whose interior decor was particularly inspiring.