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Navan is a Celtic a capella group based in Madison, Wis. From left: Elizabeth Fine, Sheila Shigley and Paul Gorman.
Navan is a Celtic a capella group based in Madison, Wis. From left: Elizabeth Fine, Sheila Shigley and Paul Gorman.
March 11, 2007 - When the Irish arrived in America, their music came with them and took root in some unexpected places.
Madison, Wis., for example, is home to a group of singers whose selections go way beyond "Danny Boy."
Navan is a Celtic a cappella trio made up of Sheila Shigley, Elizabeth Fine and Paul Gorman.
The music on their latest album, Lowena, spans a wide swath of Celtic culture.
In fact, it goes way beyond Ireland to encompass songs from Scotland, Wales, Brittany and the Iberian Peninsula.
Lowena also offers a diverse array of selections: children's songs, haunting laments, love ballads, songs about daily life and work.
The singers don't translate their lyrics into English, preferring instead the beautiful, intricate rhyming schemes of the original language.
Shigley and Fine talk to Liane Hansen about how a group of Midwesterners got so heavily involved in Celtic music.
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