Celtic Soul

Soul music is not just by black people for black people.Obviously. Though you'd be forgiven for thinking so by the lazy shorthand people use these days. The number of times one hears Louis Walsh saying "Your voice is really soulful" to some contestant destined for 7th place in the X-Factor when Louis Walsh wouldn't know soul from westlife, and all he's actually, patronisingly, saying is "I notice you're black".

What is soul music? Well, in Kenya, I remember my friend Job telling me he was a fan of soul music, and when I asked who, he said Erasure, so you know, it's different things to different people.

The kind of soul music I'm going to talk about is the kind that Louis Walsh ought to be well versed in, being as how he's Oirish and all that, it's a disappointingly small subgenre beloved of a knowing few called Celtic Soul.

Now, if I really knew what Celtic Soul was, I'd be well set to write this post. So I thought I'd look it up on wikipedia. But, shock upon shock, it doesn't even have its own wikipedia entry. Dear oh dear. Put in "Celtic Soul" and the closest you'll come is 'Celtic Soul Brothers', the first song on Dexys Midnight Runners' classic album 'Too-Ry-Ay' ... which is a good start as to what Celtic Soul is. Well, not a start, you start with Van Morrison and move to Dexys Midnight Runners, go a little sideways to the Proclaimers and maybe take in the Waterboys too. And what else? Emeli Sande? Glasvegas? Eek.

The inclusion of Proclaimers is helpful, though, because that ties into the other side of how I conceptualise Celtic Soul, which is hinted at (but not dealt with as wholly as I thought it might be) in the book and film 'The Commitments'. A lush film. A film about an Irish soul band, as a expression of their Irish working class roots.
The famous quote goes "Do you not get it lads? The Irish are the blacks of Europe. And Dubliners are the blacks of Ireland. And the Northside Dubliners are the blacks of Dublin.  So say it once and say it loud, I'm black and I'm proud."
Though the Commitments pointedly play American soul music, Motown, Stax, Atlantic etc, and paved the way for any number of student bands, wedding bands and karaoke singers belting out 'Mustang Sally'.
Ironically, it's a wedding scene in The Commitments which sees the singer Declan drunkenly belting out 'Letter from America' by the Proclaimers. Jimmy Rabbitte notes "that eejit's singing something approximating music".
Dexys and the Proclaimers toured together - truly some kind of Celtic Soul Brothers.
And Dexys covered Van Morrison's Jackie Wilson Said, and that's the very crux of this Celtic Soul Music.

I happened to see Dexys and Van Morrison both playing on the same day this summer. Very enjoyable, particularly Van Morrison, who certainly belied his reputation by playing the hits and even giving some banter (though the banter did involve his critics being hung, drawn and quartered).

Anyway, I wish there was more pointedly Celtic soul - there is lots of soulful Celtic music, lots of Irish troubadours bearing their souls and Scottish indie stars crooning to tug the heartstrings.
So, using a fairly broad definition, here's a Celtic soul compilation for the ages:

 The Way Young Lovers Do - Van Morrison
Jackie Wilson Said - Van Morrison
Jackie Wilson Said - Dexys Midnight Runners
Geno - Dexys Midnight Runners
Letter from America - The Proclaimers
The Whole of the Moon - The Waterboys
Galileo - Declan O'Rourke
Falling Slowly - Glen Hansard
There's Too Much Love - Belle and Sebastian
A Girl Like You - Edwyn Collins
I Want To Be a Christian- The Proclaimers
I Couldn't Help If I Tried - Dexys Midnight Runners
Into the Mystic - Van Morrison