This came out in 1999 – or at least that’s when I got it. Here’s what I said about it back then (with some minor editing):
He flashed a TV audience while in a kilt. He bought one of Elvis Presley’s Cadillacs. He’s owned up to a crack addiction. Clearly, fiddlin’ magician Ashley MacIsaac has the ‘star’ part of rock star down pat.
Sadly, on Helter’s Celtic, his music displays the same sort of immature, impulsive flamboyance. As befits the title, MacIsaac spends most of the disc arbitrarily bolting from style to style — traditional Celtic melodies, bar-level funk-rock, cheeseball metal, drums ’n’ bass. If you’re feeling charitable, you could call it eclectic and daring, but the half-baked feel of many of these tunes betrays the truth — he’s just undisciplined. MacIsaac has tremendous talent; what he needs to do is put down the pipe, get out of the Caddy, put on some underwear and start putting his skills to better use.
