Eden's Bridge vs. Iona, revisited

Regular readers will recall a previous post in which I mentioned a vociferous response against Eden's Bridge by Iona fans in the iona Yahoo! group. One of the more reasonable members recently posted this demonstration of open-mindedness:

I reckon I started something that some here differed with, that was a critique of Eden's Bridge (EB) vs. Iona. Since then I have listened to a lot of Eden's Bridge. I own all of their CD's. I have come to this conclusion: I was correct (as far as my personal taste is concerned) that the earlier EB albums are weak, but I found that one of their first five CD's is definitely superior, so my blanket comment that they are a boring band is indeed wrong with some exceptions.

The album I liked most out of their five early CD's is "Celtic Praise", as 9 of 13 tracks are most wonderful. This is a very good album, but the album I truly enjoy by EB is the newest one, "Isle of Tides". This CD is a very matured improvement and much more (both) progressive and contemplative. The production and musicianship is brilliant and the use of all original songs makes this EB's best album. Guest Uilleann Pipes and whistle player Michael McGoldrick is a great musician, a fine fill-in for the absent Troy Donockly, and a piper who I own some of his other works and CD's as well. There are moments on this CD that really pierce my soul. That is the make of a great album to me.

So, I was both right and wrong with my recent posts about Iona vs. EB. I guess comparing them is like comparing apples to oranges. Both are good.

Hopefully more Iona fans (and others who might not have liked Eden's Bridge's "Celtic" series) will share this author's open-mindedness about "Celtic Journeys" and "Isle of Tides", which are undoubtedly Eden's Bridge's finest work.

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