I love Celtic music.  I fell in love with it years ago, but I recently had a resurgence after my older sister presented me with my first Irish whistle last Christmas.  Christian Celtic music isn’t very easy to find, especially original songs.  There’s a plethora of hymns played in the Celtic style (which is absolutely wonderful – I just am often looking for more modern music).  Here are five of my favorites (with two bonus honorable mentions!). This isn’t an exhaustive list by far, so if you know of ones that I’ve missed, please let us know in the comments, because I am always looking for new music to listen to!

Ceili Rain

This is one of my favorite Celtic groups.  It’s mainly Celtic/rock, but features a lot of traditional Irish instruments, including the fiddle, whistle, and button accordion.  We were introduced to Ceili Rain (which roughly means “Party Rain” in Gaelic and is pronounced KAY-lee) in 2010 after we met lead singer Bob Halligan at a music conference (there’s a long story that goes along with that…for some other day).  It was my introduction to Irish music, and I fell in love with it.  Apparently, Bob gets many ideas for his songs from the Syracuse Times…which makes for some interesting songs.  There’s often a lot of hard truths put humorously riddled (pun intended) throughout the songs.  I wanna be different / I wanna be different / I wanna be different / just like everybody else!  Ceili Rain’s last project was released in 2014, but we fans can always hope for more, right?  Their discography also includes Ceili Rain: Say Kay-lee (1996), Erasers On Pencils (2000 – you know you want to learn what that song’s about!), Change In Your Pocket (2003 – my personal favorite), Whatever Makes You Dance (2005), I Made Lemonade (2008), Maunka Honey (2011), and Hymns and Hers (2014).

Eden’s Bridge

This was a very recent discovery for me.  The music is not new (the last original album was released in 1999), but it is timeless in its beauty.  Some songs are covers, others are originals.  Eden’s Bridge’s discography includes Celtic Worship (1996), Celtic Psalms (1996), Celtic Worship (1998), Reflections on Celtic Hymns (1998), Celtic Lullabies (1998), Celtic Journeys (1999), Celtic Praise and Worship (2002 – it’s a compilation of the best songs from the two Celtic Worship albums with a new song, “Morning Prayer”), and Irish Christmas (2012).  Led by siblings Sarah and Richard Lacy and hailing from Yorkshire, England, these melodies use many traditional Celtic instruments, including the uilleann pipes (which are essentially the Irish version of the bagpipe) and accordion. My personal favorite song that the group does is from their first record, entitled “Into the Light.”  As I was perusing through some of their music not long ago, I discovered a song that we had listened to on the radio back when I was too young to remember, so it was cool to get to discover who the artist was after all these years!

The Willis Clan

While this family band is on permanent hiatus, some of their Celtic/pop/rock music was Christian-themed, such as City Down Below (based on the story of Abraham and Lot), City That I’m Looking For, and Is There More?  The majority of their music is love songs, but the lyrics are very clean and family-friendly.  And, if I can be 100% honest, it’s not so hard to turn some of those love songs in to love songs to Jesus…

The band released four albums, Chapter 1: Roots (2012), Chapter 2: Boots (2012), Heaven (2015), and Speak My Mind (2018).  The first two are of slightly lesser sound quality than Heaven and Speak My Mind, but are worth giving a listen.  The final album, Speak My Mind, features many songs of healing and finding restoration after (sadly) the father was arrested and sentenced to 40 years in prison for child abuse.  If you’ve walked through anything of that nature, I recommend giving it a listen.  And even for those, like me, who have never experienced pain on that level, I’ve found these songs to speak to me as well.

Robin Mark

Best known for his hit song “Days of Elijah,” Robin Mark’s music tends to have a Celtic edge, while being primarily pop/rock.  He frequently features the Irish whistle and accordions on his songs, including on the original “Days of Elijah.”  His music tends to be live, and none of it is very recently released, but it tends to be very worshipful, which is really nice.  Mark was born and lives in Belfast, Northern Ireland, so this is very authentic Irish music!  His discography is fairly extensive, including Room for Grace (1997), This City, These Streets (1998), Sanctuary (1999), Shout To The North (2001), Come Heal This Land (2001), Revival in Belfast (2002), The Mandate – Experiencing God (2002), Songs And Hymns (2004), East of the River (2008), Living the Adventure – Mandate 2007 (2009), Year of Grace (2009), Days of Elijah (2010), Fly (2011), and A Belfast Symphony (2018 – which is a lot of his well-known songs with a symphony behind him).  I’m not as familiar with Robin Mark’s music, but I remember as a child, we sang his songs frequently at church, so it’s always nostalgic to go back and give these a listen!

Keith & Kristyn Getty

I would call Keith and Kristyn Getty’s music slightly less “noticeably Celtic,” although their music, especially their hymns albums have some Celtic influence.  (Note that Keith Getty is the same one who wrote the modern hymn In Christ Alone with Stuart Townsend.) Again, I’m not quite as familiar with their music, but the songs that I do know are very nice, though, as I said, depending on the album, it may not satisfy everyone’s Celtic tastes.  The North Coast Sessions, for example, are quite Celtic in style, whereas Awaken the Dawn is not.  Generally speaking, the later the album is in their discography, the more likely to is to have strong Celtic influences. The couple also has a number of albums for kids.  Other albums in their discography include In Christ Alone (2005), Awaken the Dawn (2008), Joy: An Irish Christmas (2010), Hymns for the Christian Life (2011), The Greengrass Session (2014), Facing A Task Unfinished (2016), North Coast Sessions (2018 – this one is my personal favorite), Sing! Psalms: Ancient + Modern (2019), and Incarnation (2019).

And as honorable mention – Aural Axiom

He has released two songs on YouTube.  Both are instrumental, but both are also absolutely beautiful.  In his own words, “In exchange [for listening and using the accompaniment track], I ask only that you share this video with your friends. I believe that beauty is one of the more profound ways through which the Creator reveals Himself; it stands apart from the mundane and affords us a fleeting glimpse beyond the horizon of the shadowlands. Thus to experience beauty is to have an encounter with the divine, at least in some small way. So again, if you find beauty in this piece, please share it. Sola Gloria Deo.”

I’ve been blessed by his willingness to give away his music, along with the backing tracks so that I could learn the Irish whistle part on Celtic Hymn…which has been really fun, though my family’s ears sometimes complain because when I play it, it gets really piercing at the top of the range! (His version is not nearly so piercing…I will have to learn how that is done).

And as a second honorable mention – Wheels of Glory!

We released Celtic Hymn a few months ago, so go check it out!  In addition, there is also some Gaelic influence on Mercy & Grace, our latest single.