Andy Irvine, Donal Lunny, and Paul Brady. These three musicians brought Irish traditional music to life for me all those years ago. As a (recreational) player I owe them everything.
I'm Greek but I love celtic music. And being a Balkan afterall, I simply adore the changes in rythm, from 6/8 to 3/4 to 7/8 to 9/8.... simply beautiful and these guys make it sound as right as rain!!! Too bad we don't hear that a lot in western music.... Slointe!
Seriously, Andy Irvine must be using some part of the brain that no one else can use! I will never understand how he can play like he does on all the instruments and sing at the same time...simply amazing! Not to mention that all he does is so good that you can't stop listen to it! One of the best ever!!
I agree Andy Irvine is very much underrated. Then again via ytube these days it also demonstates the vast array of music available to us. I am thinking of that Shakespeare quote. It's a case of "everything and nothing all at once".
Great! Andy made a recording of "Lost Train Blues" for me in a gents toilet in TCD in 1967. It had great acoustics but, sadly, it has disappeared as I have moved many times. Andy has incredible control of a harmonica and can do stuff I just cannot copy. He has visited Australia over the years and still weaves the same magic.
Listening again in honor of Andy's 79th Birthday - Let's wish him many more! Superb, as ever. If I ever tire of this song, I'll know I'll have lived far too long...
My respect for Andy continues to grow by the minute as I watch these videos. He is an astonishing player as are Donal and Paul as well, and a great singer to boot! If only I had access to stuff like this back then when I was coming of age as a budding musician, my life today might be a different story!
Thanks so much for posting Andy,Christy & of course all the rest of those great musicians that came out of the 60's scene in Dublin.Some of the finest players ever. I have tried to collect most of their music it is all very special.
For those who don’t know, theres versions of this story sung by Lead Belly (check it out if you can - it’s African-American call and response style but the same story) and also Peter, Paul and Mary, whose melody was used for Happy Xmas! by John Lennon. Check especially the Lead Belly one - it’s class but completely different
I bought this in '76 and just had couple of photos of these fellas. Spent forever transcribing lyrics by lifting and dropping the needle and can't believe that I don't have to get this music off my old albums--didn't think they would all be here ready to download different versions and they are Live!!
Lovely, wish I had heard this in 1976 when I was a young one,, how old were these talents then I wonder? I have a great appreciation for these posts. Thanks so much!
I do pass the embankment often and i wonder on all the great music that went on there back in the day? im to young to have been at any of the great nights there but i think of them fondly.
All the soul of "Planxty" is there with Andy Irrvine. And he play two songs I can't find on albums with the same "powerfull "spirit , of the all band had at this time.
I catch Andy or Patrick Street whenever they came to the Pacific NW.Andy is one of the finest musicians alive & wonderful man of beautiful beliefs as well.I have a nice Sobell bouzouki,old The Gibson mandolin & various guitars & middle eastern & Indian instruments.They are a incredible in the hands of a master like Andy!
music, dance and art are old, very old. you can look and see some similarities in some of the old dance, music and art styles from pre-islam Mediterranean and Atlantic: Crete, Lebanon, Turkey. There are some Lebanese Dabke dance steps that are identical to irish dancing. These dance steps are older than the spread of islam.There are some old Cretan guitar riffs that sound like the jams in this song. Some the ancient Israeli synagogue motifs used tile mosaics with knot weave styles similar to celtic knots. These are all whispers of a culture and people whose world revolved around cows, knot-making and boats.
How come all these Brits make up their own tune to this song? How can it be the same song with the melody is completely different from version to version?
'Stewball' came to Virginia and the Carolinas, I assume with Church of Ireland emigrants rather than with Ulster Scots-Irish emigrants (very few Irish Catholics emigrated directly into the South until workers were brought to New Orleans, which lead later to a sizable group going to Memphis). But the song became so common across the hill South and across to Texas and Oklahoma that in many places any song about race horses was said to be about ole Stewball.
First of all, such an unbelievably good arrangement. Gets me every time! Secondly, why do they drink the health of the gray mare and say that she "emptied their pockets on the plains of Kildare" if stewball won?? (Is it like a joke saying that they were thanking her for being slow?)
Everyone expected the grey mare to win, so they all bet on her. Oops! When Stewball won instead, their pockets were empty because they'd cast their bets on the wrong horse.
The gray mare caught up and won, because Stewball got overconfident...no way the horse and rider would bet against themselves, and then deliberately win and deliberately have their pockets emptied!
Andy was born in London to an Irish mother and a Scottish father: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Andy_Irvine_(musician) He has lived in Ireland most of his life.
you prob won't believe me but I sold Andy and the troops a full strip of purple hearts for that weekend...they sweating the bit out alright but I never got paid...15 punts back then is how much in euros now?
Great tune and preforming indeed! ^^ as for if Stewball and/or the put money on the grey mare -dearest CrimsonEmpire- it´s Irish folk, the rules of logic don´t apply on it :D
Not strictly this group. This has 3 ex-members of Planxty but Brady was never recorded as part of the group. Planxty was not formed till after Christy Moore's 1972 "Prosperous" LP, so you'd struggle to have a tape of this group in 1969. ;-)
Yes you can still get the Brady/Irvine album on CD on Mulligan. Probably available on Compass, I would have thought, in the States. www.amazon.com/Andy-Irvine-Paul-Brady/dp/B0010V4TOQ
