Alan Stivell

Rough Guides got this pan-Celtic compilation beautifully right. Dervish, one of the most exciting traditional bands out of Ireland, opens the album with a suite of songs sung in Gaelic. From there, we head to Spain's Galicia and France's Bretagne (both part of the Celtic diaspora) and Canada, among other locales. Yet for all the geographic breadth, a certain hushed fervor pervades the album, a result of both the excellent song selection and the heady intellectualism that -- perhaps surprisingly to some -- underlies Celtic folk. A dusky joy from start to finish.