Celtic Connections

Celtic Connections offers radio listeners a wide variety of traditional and contemporary
music associated with the Western European lands occupied at one time or another by
people of the Celtic tribes and their descendants, including Ireland, Scotland, the Isle
of Man, Wales, Cornwall, Brittany, and Galicia, as well as Cape Breton, Nova Scotia,
and other parts of North America where the Celtic influence has been felt.  Host Bryan
Kelso Crow, also brings you great music from England, Scandinavia and other European
regions, all of which have connections with a Celtic past.

Each week on Celtic Connections, you can count on hearing the finest selections from
new releases as well as Celtic classics.  We also offer occasional concert performances,
recorded exclusively for Celtic Connections, along with original interviews with some of
the top names in the Celtic music world.

Celtic Connections began in 1991 as a local program hosted by Bryan Kelso Crow and
produced in the studios of WSIU Radio in Carbondale, Illinois for broadcast across
Southern and East Central Illinois and Northwestern Kentucky.  Since its inception, there
has been an explosion of world-wide interest in and awareness of Celtic music, matched
by a huge increase in the number of recordings.  As the program matured, musician/host
Crow took advantage of opportunities to interview Celtic musicians and to record entire
concerts for later broadcast. 

In July, 1996, Celtic Connections became nationally syndicated series. Crow regularly
receives e-mails from Celtic music fans around the country as the popularity of Celtic
Connections has grown.

In 1998, Celtic Connections was honored by the placement of four episodes into the
permanent archives of the Ethnic Radio Collection of the Museum of Television and Radio
in New York. The programs, all produced in 1998, are The 1798 Uprising in Song, The
Scotch-Irish People and Their Music, Celtic Americans, and New Releases. 

Celtic Connections features music derived from the Celtic culture wherever it has been
transplanted around the globe, from the Celtic Isles to the New World and beyond.  Host
Bryan Kelso Crow's academic career and his passion for Celtic history give an unusual
depth to Celtic Connections, as does his experience and connections as a Celtic musician
performing as a member of The Dorians.

Celtic Connections is available, free of charge, to stations across the United States.  It is
produced in the studios of WSIU Radio, Carbondale, Illinois and is syndicated to stations
by the WFMT Radio Network in Chicago.