Search - Watercarvers Guild :: Balladeers and Aeronauts

David Casey has written a great collection of songs for this album, character portraits mostly. The two ?aeronauts? on the CD are Vincent Lunardi, the first air balloonist, in a song called ?Sailing Away? with delightfully, soaring Celtic fiddle and mandolin; and ?Amelia?, a soulful, melodic song about Amelia Earhart, the first woman to fly across the Atlantic Ocean, who was lost at sea. There?s a light-hearted, bluegrass tune called ?Neil Young Fan?, and the last song, ?Angel in This House? is a very moving portrait of a young woman performed on piano, guitar, fiddle and bass. Yet the meaning of this song is somewhat elusive, and listeners have varying opinions about this woman and her fate. Watercarvers Guild is especially honored to have Nollaig Casey, their Irish cousin, add her incredible talent on fiddle to the first and last songs of this CD. Nollaig Casey is one of Ireland's most gifted musicians, with her own unique way of playing traditional Irish music on the fiddle and such an utterly distinctive sound that it would be impossible to mistake it for that of anyone else. This ?sound? is so attractive to other musicians that there exists hardly any major Irish artist of the last twenty years with whom she has not worked. Nollaig has also recorded and worked with Enya, Van Morrison, Sinéad O?Connor, Nanci Griffith, Ricky Skaggs, Rod Stewart, Emmy Lou Harris, Steve Earle, Mary Black, and The Indigo Girls. Watercarvers Guild would also like to acknowledge Dean Morrissey, whose imaginative artwork graces the cover of ?Balladeers and Aeronauts? with his painting, ?Sleeper Flight?. This beautiful painting is from Morrissey?s 1994 book, ?Ship of Dreams?, which was awarded "Best Illustrated Children's Book" by The New York Times Book Review.