Amelia is a verb

Press

Here are a few reviews of Amelia's work, both recorded and in live performance.

Fabulous, magical music!

by Karen Rubio

Having heard Angeline LeLeux play fiddle as my music teacher, I had to have this CD. I knew it would be wonderful but now that I've heard it, I have to say that the music is enthralling, soulful, and completely magical. I love the variety, and each piece is played with such artistry. I listen to it all the time and it lifts my spirits...I can't wait to hear the next CD from Sheltering Sky!

Karen Taylor Good is never wrong!!!

by Doug Fitch (BMI/NSAI)/CATIII Music Publishing (BMI)

As soon as I saw the comment by none other than Karen Taylor Good I knew I'd better give this one a listen!! I wasn't surprised at what I heard. True musicians on their axes, great vocals and pro production, as well as excellent Celtic tunes. You can't ask for anything more. Don't ask me what criteria CDBaby uses for their "Editor's Picks" but they missed one! Don't be limited to those subjective "Editor's Picks" or you'll be doing yourself a great disservice and miss a group like Sheltering Sky! 5 stars! May the road rise to meet your feet.

Enchanting

By M. Anima (California, USA), November 26, 2007

This review is for: Long Night's Journey (Audio CD)

The music of Sheltering Sky is pure enchantment. Amelia's voice has an otherworldly purity and grace, and the blending of sounds with the gentle guitar work and sweet fiddle is a delight.

Irish Music on Broadway

by Robert Rodriguez, New York City, 2010

Amelia Hogan may not be a household name in the territory between the Great Divide and the Atlantic Ocean, but she should be...and perhaps in the future will be. But for one special evening, Irish traditional music came to Broadway, in a manner of speaking. In a house concert on Friday, June 4, 2010, Amelia showed that she is one of the best singers of traditional Irish music around today, a view with which a lot of folkies on the west coast will concur. The audience was small in numbers, but enthusiastic in their response to her very special performance.

If this had been an evening of disconnected songs sung in a vacuum, it would have still been worth coming, but it was much more. Amelia knows Irish history, culture, and tradition, and performed her songs within the larger context of the Irish experience, both in Ireland and on the journey to America in the late 1840s during the Great Irish Famine. She doesn't merely know how to sing a song, she becomes the song's lyrics, its history, its meaning, and its importance in the larger scheme of things. This was especially true in such memorable pieces as "Paddy's Green Shamrock Shore," "The Irish Quarter," The Boys of Barr Na Sraide (boys from the top of the street, neighborhood boys)," and "Erin Gra Mo Chroi (Ireland of my heart)." In these songs, "The Irish experience, from Erin, across the Atlantic, and into America" came alive in words, images, and Amelia's special brand of warmth in her professional-quality presentation.

Yet her repertoire does not come solely from the Irish experience, but ranges far afield. She ably showed this in such pieces as the comic "Our Goodman" (with its classic tale of the hoodwinked husband) and a rousing version of Tennessee Ernie Ford's "Sixteen Tons," the American classic, with audience participation. The result was just grand, to say the least.

You folkies on the west coast are very lucky to have her in your musical midst; our side of the folk landscape should only be so lucky. Thank you, Amelia Hogan, for proving once again that the old stories and the old songs are often still the best, when all is said and done. As an old Turkish proverb says, the only thing better than finding a treasure is sharing it with someone else, and that goes for fine singers as well.