In his introductory remarks, compiler Richard Carlin acknowledges the dubiousness of "Celtic music" as anything like a truly meaningful category in any other than a marketing sense. What he puts into this collection is (mostly) Irish and Scottish music from Smithsonian Folkways' extraordinarily deep catalogue of the world's folk music.

Not to be confused with the glossy pop of Enya and the like, this recording focuses on the music in its authentic form, played or sung -- there isn't much overlap -- by traditional artists (Willie Clancy, Harry Cox) and tradition-minded revivalists (Shirley Collins, Patrick Clancy). It's 23 cuts and an hour's worth of lovingly performed, gripping rural ballads alongside fiddle and pipe tunes, many from field recordings.

My only complaint is that there's less than one minute of the exquisite Sarah Makem (Tommy's mother), on a fragment of "As I Roved Out." Sarah Makem recordings are available elsewhere, of course, and happily this, the latest in Smithsonian Folkways' Classic series, has plenty else to engage the serious listener. Not to be missed.