OK, I have to confess that some splendid music came out in 2005 that wasn’t made in Oregon. Here are a few disks from various global cultures that tickled my ears this year.

Celtic: It’s been too long since Cape Breton Island’s Mary Jane Lamond visited Eugene, but Celtic music fans can assuage the grief by scoring her new double disk and enhanced CD, Storas (Turtlemusik). As before, Lamond finds well-preserved old Gaelic tunes in her Canadian homeland, but this time updates the traditional sounds with contemporary accompaniment and harmonies.