Favourite Book 2005 #1

Drone On!: The High History of Celtic Music
My #1 pick as Favourite Book 2005


This is a weird, wild, wonderful read. Despite her name, Winnie Czulinski is an avowed Celtophile and has written extensively in the field.

Reading Drone On, subtitled "The High History of Celtic Music," is like an evening in an Irish pub. The teller of tales mixes fact, fiction, speculation and downright lies to make the night a joy to recall and Winnie takes us on a breakneck tour of the various Celtic lands and legends. The book also looks at the Celtic contribution to country and American folk styles of music, as well as the transition of songs like "The Patriot Game" into "God on Our Side," with the tune coming from the Appalachians as "The Merry Month of May" and popularised as "Bold Grenadier".

This is a wonderful book in the old sense of the word, being full of wonder.