standard songs, American ones, not Irish
596383
They did a good job, but not well enough to warrant buying it (the previous ones are superior).  I knew what to expect from other reviews, but got it anyway because of the cast.
681661
A few songs I really like. But there are some songs that I do not like due to the language.
1250778
Not necessarily a fan of Dave Stewart, but a Brit doing Nashville is always amusing. Reminds me when, at the peak of country dancing back around '95, Neil Diamond did a country album of "original songs."  It was "hokey."  A couple of Dave Stewart's songs, especially the duets with "Yanks," are good (not great), some are mediocre, others probably should have been left in the waste basket.
1975197
A decent selection of songs, but beware: The songs "Your Painted Smile" and "Is Your Love Strong Enough?" are not on this version. I learned this the hard way...I sent it back to Amazon, explaining that they are referring to the other version that sells for $37.99, but they sent it right back to me. So if you are buying for those songs, skip this disc.
160360
Not sure what I was expecting. The vocal harmonies are there and it sounds like America, think some of the tunes were just presented a little too somber for me. More of an upbeat xmas tunes kind of person. Chicago xmas album is better but together they make a nice companion.
3995674
I bought this compilation so I could take all of Foreigner's hits with me without lugging all of the CDs.  Unfortunately, many of the songs are edited to AM radio length, giving this collection a "Foreigner Lite" feel to it.  "Hot Blooded" which is a short song to begin with, has been reduced to one verse and the solo.  I would have been willing to lose the Spooky Tooth songs, as well as Lou Gramm's solo stuff to make room for the full length tracks.  For the casual listener, it's probably fine.
1755227
Not the best selection of songs in my opinion. I would do it differently.
2170578
If you're looking for the male version of Celtic Woman, look elsewhere! This is more like an Irish pop group than anything else. They sing a few "Celtic" songs (Ireland's Call, Homeland, The Mountains of Mourne, Come by the Hills), which are admittedly very good, but the rest is a plug for composer Phil Coulter's "original work," which is rather poor. Overall I was very disappointed.
1343984
I love Josh Groban but I have come to realize that I don't care so much for when he covers other people's songs.  He should stick with originals.  Having said that, there are a couple of stand out songs on this cd.  "All I Ask of You" and "Bring Him Home"
214537
Song info is wrong on 3/4's of the tracks.  At least it's not the info for a completely different collection which happens too often. Wrong
idenentifiers make collections very hard to work with.
3910856
I'm not crazy about Alvin's rumbling baritone but there are some fine renditions of 'Maggie Campbell', 'Delia' (better than Dylan's 1993 version), 'Texas Rangers', and 'A Short Life of Trouble'.  The production is almost too modern and the bluegrass-inflected tracks lack swing.  But the good tracks are worth the buy.
3915645
This is a well layed out book with a helpful CD, but the choice of songs is awful.  They are the old folk songs that no one has heard of and are no fun to play.  Songs like this made me quit playing Saxophone 20 years ago,  and now that I am starting to play again, I won't play lame songs.
146554
This is a collection of 30 Irish songs arranged for solo C-recorders (i.e. sopranos or tenors). Each is arranged one to a page, and ranges in length from 3 to 8 lines, most being 5 or 6. Almost all the arrangements also include the words to the songs (or some of them) plus guitar chords. 24 of the 30 are traditional. The remainder appear to be early to mid-20th century popular songs.

The first 29 songs are conveniently arranged in alphabetical order, more or less.

There's some good material here, including such well-worn classics as Danny Boy (The Londonderry Air), The Minstrel Boy, Cockles and Mussels, The Spinning Wheel, The Last Rose of Summer, and The Lark in the Clear Air.

My personal favourites in this collection include The Irish Washerwoman, I'll Take You Home Again Kathleen, The Road to Lisdoonvarna, The Garden Where the Praties Grow and The Wild Colonial Boy (with lots of verses).

There's also some good sing-along material here, for those of that era/inclination, although the lyrics aren't printed very large. Some is sentimental to the point of being hokey, however.

The back cover asserts all the songs are "easy to play" and they do seem to be within the reach of diligent advanced beginners. They are challenging enough to give a real sense of accomplishment. I've had the book for 10 years and by no means have mastered all of them. If one adds a little ornamentation here and there they're even more challenging.

The back cover also describes it as an "outstanding collection" and in some important respects (such as beginner-friendliness, organization, its inclusion of lyrics and quality of arrangements) it lives up to that claim. Some might find "Irish Music for Recorder" a little less outstanding as a representative selection of Irish music, however. Although those who think of "Danny Boy" as the alpha and omega of Irish music aren't likely to have a problem with it, there are several beginner-level collections that feature a far better range of Irish traditional music, such as Ossian's Irish Tunebook series, Ellen Cranitch's 30 Irish Tunes for Easy Recorder, and Michael Raven's Popular Tunes for Recorder, not to mention any number of session books or tin whistle collections.

For my money it is hard to classify a collection of Irish Music as "outstanding" that doesn't include a single piece by Turlough O'Carolan and has virtually nothing explanatory about the music. For me, this collection doesn't match the very high standards set by the arranger in his "Early Music for Recorder" collection. It could leave one with the impression that Irish music is far more skewed to the "easy listening" or "golden oldies" end of the spectrum than is in fact the case.

This collection is also fairly redundant with earlier collections of Irish music for recorder. For example, 16 of its 30 songs can also be found in Lavender's Songs and Dances of Ireland. Given the vast array of great Irish songs out there it is unfortunate that there was so much re-inventing of the wheel here.

That being said, I would not recommend it as one's only introduction to Irish music. I would recommend it to anyone looking for a well-organized, well-arranged, very advanced-beginner-friendly collection of some classic, popular Irish tunes, complete with lyrics and guitar chords.

As a bonus, the last song in the collection can also be used to get rid of pesky coyotes, if you happen to be a roadrunner with a high-explosive piano...
3397975
Overall this is a pretty good CD.  Just to let you know, however, that the song "America-My Country 'Tis of Thee" is listed as being on the CD.  It is not on the CD; in its place is "We Shall Overcome".  Since "America" is the song I was really looking for, I was disappointed when the CD arrived.
580927
Great songs for a unique american composer. His music has some elements of classic Beethoven and Gershwin. Good transcriptions of the piano parts. I didn't give the 5 stars because in "Piano Man" and "New York Stade of Mind" they missed the piano intro, but is a good book to practice some classics of the 70's and 80's.
2840456
Cute songs- some I had never heard before; I enjoy listening to most of these songs with my toddler son, but as a Psychologist, I wish they'd change the "Ain't it Great to be Crazy?" to "Ain't it Great to be Silly" as crazy has negative connotations, especially for persons with mental illnesses (who would not agree it is "great" to be "crazy").  But these are classic songs I guess; not sure why Bill Brogan's Goat is a kid's song- it's about tying a goat to rail road tracks and it almost being killed!  Most of the songs do not have Disney character voices, but are well voiced and my toddler seems to like them.
3234905
Was not what I was expecting -- it's okay.  I'll listen to it again but some of the songs are just arranged differently.