Get Your Irish On With This St Patrick’s Day Playlist
Skip the shamrocks - Hit play on this playlist
Green beer is passé, trite, and, frankly, shameful. So is any kind of headgear featuring glittery shamrocks.
This Saint Patrick’s Day it’s time to shake things up musically. We put on our thinking caps – sans shamrocks – and compiled a Paddy’s Day Playlist with 10 tunes that are sure to please connoisseurs of Irish-inflected music.
Sheila Chandra - Speaking in Tongues II (live at World In The Park 1992)
Of Indian and Irish descent, Chandra fused eastern and western musical traditions. Initially, with the group Monsoon and then in a distinguished solo career, which was sadly brought to an end by a rare illness called Burning Mouth Syndrome. Fortunately, Chandra recorded extensively, and we have fantastic recordings like “Speaking in Tongues II” to enjoy.
Rónán Ó Snodaigh – Cad eile le rá | Live by the Sea (2016)
Ó Snodaigh is a diamond in the rough, a wild and wooly percussionist and singer/songwriter who can drive a crowd wild with the sheer force of his personality. This is a fine example of his skill as a bodhrán player, and please note he’s singing in Irish.
SOAK – B a noBody
Bridie Monds-Watson, better known as Soak – a combination of “Soul” and “Folk” – hails from Northern Ireland. Dreamy, contemplative, flecked with darker tones of sorrow, their music has struck a chord with fans around the world.
John McCormack – The Rose of Tralee
McCormack (1884-1945) was at home in the opera and on the concert stage. He’s best remembered today for his renditions of Irish folk songs and popular tunes. Admittedly, the material is old-fashioned and sentimental, but McCormack’s depth of feeling renders such distinctions moot.
Susan McKeown – No Jericho (Live - 2012)
Grammy Award-winning, Dublin-born McKeown is a first-class singer equally at home with contemporary and traditional material – just as she divides her time between Ireland and the States. This self-penned number is a lovely intro to a luminous musical presence.
The Dubliners – The Wild Rover
The original bad boys of Irish Trad music. They may look like your great-granda but they partied like the business. The Pogues would be nowhere without them. The Dubliners are the band that launched a thousand pints...
Sinead O'Connor – Nothing Compares 2 U (Live)
O’Connor’s public wrestling with personal demons tends to overshadow her music. Which is a shame because, at her best, she’s a powerful and transformative singer. Nothing Compares 2 U was written and composed by Prince and helped catapult Sinead to international superstardom when it was released in January 1990.
The Pogues – A Man You Don’t Meet Every Day
You knew these lads were going to show up, right? Shane MacGowan is the poet laureate of the guttersnipes. But we’d rather focus on the group’s less raucous side, epitomized by their erstwhile bass player Cait O’Riordan’s version of this traditional number.
Elvis Costello and the Voice Squad – Full Force Gale
Costello – ne Declan Patrick McManus – and friends cover this number written by bard & mystic Van Morrison. They slow it down, use no instruments...and make vocal magic.
Hozier – Jackie and Wilson
Andrew John Hozier-Byrne and friends record under the first part of his surname. Whatever you call him, this boy from Bray struck it big in 2013 with “Take Me to Church.” Those with a taste for great riffs coupled with idiosyncratic lyrics will relish Jackie and Wilson.
There 'tis, lads. However you celebrate St. Paddy’s Day, do it safely. And let this playlist lift you into the mystic.
Lá Fhéile Pádraig sona duit!
Actually, Spotify Does Pay Their Artists
After Universal Music Group, the largest record label in the industry, took all their artists' music off TikTok after failure to reach an agreement on AI usage of their artists and safety...people are now more than ever looking into how artists are treated on platforms where their music is the main focus. For TikTok, it's detrimental- they tried to punish UMG, and now they're paying the price.
At the 2024 Grammy Awards this Sunday, there were tons of controversial moments: should Taylor have brought Lana Del Rey onstage, should this person have won, what was that person wearing? But one of the more subtle digs was taken by host Trevor Noah, who commented on the UMG-TikTok battle by including another well-known streaming platform,
"Shame on you, TikTok, for ripping off artists. How dare you do that? That’s Spotify’s job!”
Without artists and their music, there would be no streaming platform to be had...and Spotify knows that, which is why they've been tracking their royalty payments to the music industry though their Loud & Clear report. The Loud & Clear report comes out every March and shows exactly how Spotify pays it back. According to their site,
"Nearly 70% of that revenue is paid back as royalties to rights holders, who then pay the artists and songwriters, based on the agreed terms."
This means that whatever Spotify is making from these artists and labels, and their music, they're making sure it gets back to them. It should be a mutually beneficial experience: one where both the artist and their representation trust that their work will be valued and protected (and thus, properly compensated), and where the platform also gains traffic from an artist's fans.
Today, Spotify announced that they've paid labels over $9 billion to give us a glimpse of their Loud & Clear report. In an exclusive statement to Popdust, a Spotify spokesperson states,
"Spotify paid record labels and publishers – which represent artists and songwriters – more money than ever in 2023: $9B+. That figure has nearly tripled over the past six years, and represents a big part of the $48B+ Spotify has paid since its founding."