Review: CELIA FARRAN
SageKatt October, 2008
Blessed Samhain.
Normally in this section of the magazine you would find a great review of a most terrific book which I had found for your enjoyment. However this is our Samhain issue and Pagan Pages, as you have noticed, has a new look and some new departments and this month I, also, am creating a new department of reviews which may at times included interviews.
With that said, I have taken some time getting to know this artist and it is going to be a blast getting to introduce you to a multi-talented person who is not only a SINGER, but also a SONGWRITER, ACTRESS, and a wonderful STORYTELLER. The woman’s talents are mesmerizing and her fan base is so fierce that when they know she is in town they will rally together to find a venue to get her to perform for them. Through her generosity for her friends and fans she arranges her time to do so.
I watched as her last visit to a town in Wisconsin was announced and immediately her fans went to work sending her emails asking if they found a place would she fit them into her schedule. I thought to myself, “This I want to see”. Sure enough, they found the place, it was packed and SHE put on the best show just as if they were paying her. That ladies and gents is a STAR in her own right.
CELIA FARRAN
“CELIA”
To quote a song from her current smash album, “she has alabaster skin, red hair and blue eyes”, and a lusty sultry voice that has been compared to Enya for this day and age and for one of the great female singers that I loved so much MS June Carter. Celia also has the comic talents often compared to those of Gilda Radner.
For those of you scratching your head and saying to yourself who is this person Celia and why did Sage pick her? Get a cup of tea, sit back and read on, don’t fret, by the time you have finished this article you will have come to know her and love her music as much I do. I have included all the links at the end of the article for her web pages, myspaces pages, and her yahoo fan groups as well. I hope you enjoy the review of Celia as well as our new additional department “ Reviews & Interviews”.
Happy Samhain everyone.
“I’ve been entangled in your soul
From the moment that we met
I can’t breathe to forgive
I’m suffocated to forget”
Once I heard the above words I kept singing them over and over again back in September of 2003, I can remember as if it were yesterday and for me that is a miracle. My husband had been deployed for some time by then and the words were so fitting as I was so angry still trying to get over the events of 9/11 and at the fact that he had to be deployed while I was healing and my feelings were just so mix wired. The name of this song is Trees Breathe.
Once things finally got through my very thick head, and I really took time to listen to the entire song I got back to my roots and grounded with the oak tree outside my house and center and then was able to let go and be free and again breathe and trust in what will be. That is the magick in Celia’s music.
Celia has a gift and a magical touch with every song she produces. I have listened to 5 albums, and within that group there is the CD Breathe recorded after the 9/11 disaster and released in August 2003. This album was completed with lots of love, warmth, energy and spirit. It is vitalizing and all about re-energizing you life. Her sultry voice seeps deep into your soul soothing the anguish, the hurt, the pain and encourages the light, the warmth of the moon and energy of your “self” to rise up and breathe once again.
When Celia released this album she did so with all original songs in hopes of touching the world after all the pain it had endured. I don’t say this often but being one of those that survived 9/11 in NYC the album “Breathe“ does exactly that. For those of you not familiar with Celia and her music you have truly been missing out on one of most talented performers the Goddess has created. “Breathe” – enjoy it while on a country ride or just sitting by the fireplace with a glass of wine or great cup of tea on a quiet evening.
Celia’s current CD release Red Alabaster & Blue, is turning heads everywhere she goes and doesn’t go for that matter. When I first heard the album I cried. Being a pagan military spouse the first song that yanked at my heart strings, is her song Symbol.
This song was written when Celia heard about the fight with VA Affairs office by SGT. Patrick Stewart (a Wiccan Soldier) who was killed in action while in Iraq being denied his Pentacle as his emblem of belief on his grave marker. Celia being stunned as the rest of the Pagan world wanted to show her support and thus “Symbol” was born. It has sense been named the Anthem for the Pentacle Quest by Rev Selena Fox of Circle Sanctuary.
This particular verses is my favorite:
“Well he served as any other with his hands and with his heart.
He prayed to Father Sky, bowed Down to Mother Earth.
He honored Air and Water and the Fire he danced around.
But you didn’t honor him before you put him in the Ground.”
We have several pagan soldiers deployed today who need your support
I applaud Celia for this writing and releasing this song in SGT Patrick’s honor for all the many other ways she supports the pagan military soldiers. You can take every one of Celia songs and in some way it is going to touch some part of your life.
The albums’ title song Red Alabaster & Blue is a perfect example of not only her vocal talent, and writing talent but also reaches out and touches every single American individually with its strength and energy. It is what America is all about and yet it tells you what is also all wrong with America.
Celia is a storyteller and tells a story with each and every song she creates. With some music you listen to you get a beat and there are words and sometimes you get the opportunity to understand them. At least I do. With Celia, she doesn’t leave you asking yourself what the meaning of the song was. If there is message to be given you’ll get the message. If there’s a story you hear it and if it is just meant to just put a smile on your face you will have that smile when the song is over. If you think I am kidding email her and ask her about the Marshmallow Dragon song. The composition of her work is exquisite, and you feel a kick from her Celtic Roots.
The song Quan Yin tells the story of young children stripped from the only adopted arms they knew since birth to be given back to the birth parents because they changed their mind and decided they wanted to play mommy or daddy again. Quan Yin is the Goddess that protects all children.
This Celtic ballad We’ll Always Sing
Last month was the 7th mourning year of 9/11. Being a survivor I feel it only right to honor the song which Celia was inspired to write to help heal the millions affected on that day. All that needs to be said about this song is take the time out of your busy schedule to listen to it enjoy the Lambeg Drums. Your heart will race with the tempo and for once you will sing and dance and smile. Thank you Celia for making me smile.
My Favorite Fae
While I have been a fan of Celia’s talent for a long while now, I have not had the chance to really sit down and concentrate on just her until the past two months. Celia has a friend that has been hanging around her for a few years now and she simple “wows” the crowds whenever she decides to make an appearance. If you ever get the opportunity to meet and catch her act, don’t turn down the chance you will so regret it, this awesome creature is “The Trestle Foote Faerie”. Every great once in a while she is known to “pop in” on Celia’s shows to say Hello to the fans.
Trestle Foote Faerie is a star in her own right dressed in her pink tutu and her red flowing flocks harmonious singing out tunes as “The Cell Phone Song” where she is addicted to cell phones, aren’t we all? “The Health Care Blues” where middles class citizens die owing the health system everything they never had to begin with and their children trying to pay the system back. How true how true and “I’m Not Homophobic”, all about how she fell in love with Curious George, but found out he was Gay.
Trust me when I say, Trestle will always surprise you, make you laugh when the day comes to an end, have you saying, “Yes I would vote for her for President!” She has announce her candidacy for President incase you were unaware. There is even a bumper sticker I am sure you can still purchase announcing there is an alternative to our choices. I am sure we could still talk her into running.
and web design. 
