Folk Meets Traditional
Singing folk songs to instrumental accompaniment became enormously popular in Ireland in the 1960s with the triumphal return from America of The Clancy Brothers and Tommy Makem (three brothers from Tipperary joined by a member of a well-known Armagh musical family). The Clancys had taken New York's Carnegie Hall and the networked Ed Sullivan Show by storm, and they were welcomed home to Ireland as conquering heroes. Their heady blend of rousing ballads accompanied by guitar, harmonica, and five-string banjo revitalized a genre of folk song that had all but vanished. Hundreds of sound-alike ballad groups sprang up, decked out in a motley selection of ganseys - The Clancys' and Makem's hallmark was the Aran sweater. Before the ballad group fashion petered out, it had laid the foundations for a revival of interest in popular folk singing that endures to this day. Still going strong is another great group of this era, The Dubliners . With an uncompromisingly urban image, in contrast to the rather twee Oirishness of The Clancys, their work was often bawdy and their ribald spirit was captured in the most popular song of this era, Seven Drunken Nights (although the Dubliners only recorded five of them, it still managed to be banned from Irish radio). Earthiness may have been part of the reason why their true musical accomplishment was never fully appreciated for, as well as fielding two unique singers, Luke Kelly (who died in 1984) and Ronnie Drew , they boasted two fine instrumentalists, banjoist Barney McKenna and fiddler John Sheahan . In many ways they helped lay the groundwork for the fusion of the traditional/ballad genre explored by bands such as Sweeney's Men, The Johnstons, The Bothy Band and, most influential of all, Planxty . Planxty was formed from the musicians recording Christy Moore's Prosperous album and the evolution of traditional music can be traced through the band members' post-Planxty recordings. The band consisted of Liam O'Flynn, Donal Lunny, Andy Irvine and Christy Moore and their self-titled first album (known as "The Black Album") mixed traditional, modern folk and ballad singing through harmonies backed by O'Flynn's superlative pipe playing. They recorded three albums before their split and a selection from each is available on the 1976 album The Planxty Collection . The band reformed again in 1978, adding the former Bothy Band and currently Chieftains' flute-player, Matt Molloy , to their ranks. Their best work in this period is The Woman I Loved So Well but the band split finally when Lunny and Moore moved on to stretch the traditional genre even further with the formation of Moving Hearts. Moving Hearts radically attempted to fuse traditional and rock music and almost succeeded. Consisting of two pipers, saxophone, bass and lead guitars, electric bouzouki, drums and percussion, their gigs were memorable feasts of exciting music, seeming simultaneously familiar and new. Too large to survive financially, the band sadly folded in 1984. Since then there have been a few reunions which have played to crowds of fans old and new. Released after their break-up, their 1985 album The Storm is a landmark in its pioneering use of rock and jazz idioms to redefine the harmonic and rhythmic foundations of Irish music. Moore has since moved on to become possibly Ireland's best loved singer recording a number of highly successful and acclaimed albums. In his first recordings, such as the album Prosperous , he was overtly political in the style of Woody Guthrie or the early Bob Dylan. This commitment is also evident in his recordings with Moving Hearts, such as his protest against state repression No Time for Love and, in the mid-1980s album The Time has Come , his song Section 31 which criticizes the Republic's media censorship of Sinn Fein. Though Moore has become less politically engaged, his popularity has been maintained through stunning live performances, including regular mainstays such as the comic Lisdoonvarna and the ballad, Ride On . Finally, in 1996, after years of singing others' songs, he released a self-penned album Graffiti Tongue . In 1998 he announced his retirement on the grounds of ill-health, but returned at the end of the following year with a grand new album and a barn-storming series of gigs. Moore's brother Barry records under the name Luka Bloom (a combination of Suzanne Vega's song and the protagonist of Ulysses ). Early on he backed his brother who recorded some of Bloom's work, most notably The City of Chicago . With a reputation himself for magnificent live performances he has also made some fine albums including Turf and Salty Heaven . Of the other musicians recording crossover traditional music and folk in the Sixties, Paul Brady continues to produce music of an exceptional standard. From Strabane in County Tyrone, Brady became involved in the Dublin folk renaissance while studying there in the 1960s. His first recordings were made with the Johnstons with whom he made seven albums before leaving for London and New York, returning in 1974 to join Planxty for a short time. In 1976 he teamed up with Planxty member Andy Irvine and the album they produced, with its unique and sensitive interpretations of songs such as Arthur McBride , make it one of the finest albums in the traditional canon. His work in the late Seventies was of an equally high standard culminating in arguably his best solo album, Welcome Here Kind Stranger , in 1978, featuring his benchmark rendition of The Lakes of Pontchartrain . The 1980s saw Brady move away from his traditional roots through Hard Station (1981) which included the passionate expose of anti-Irish racism, Nothing but the Same Old Story . Subsequent albums have further highlighted his tremendous songwriting talents - he's been recorded by Tina Turner and Eric Clapton among many others and the best way of sampling these is his remastered compilation Nobody Knows . Contemporary bands striving for new ways to express the tradition are the excellent Kila , whose latest album Lemonade & Buns mixes traditional singing with African rhythms, the superb Afro-Celt Sound System, Anam , who draw on a rich variety of musical influences from jazz and blues, and Anuna , a vocal group spanning classical, folk, traditional and contemporary. Other experimental outfits include Flook , featuring the astonishing young bodhran player John Joe Kelly and a twin flute attack, and Cran whose blend of flute, uilleann pipes and bouzouki is married to song arrangements of both exceptional candour and beauty. Originally a jazz-influenced folk band, Clannad 's mix of atmospherics (sometimes known as "Celtic hush" music) has brought the group huge international success. Any examination of Irish traditional music must include a reference to The Pogues . Originally known as Pogue Mahone ("kiss my arse" in Irish), this London Irish band emerged in the early 1980s playing a chaotic set of "Oirish" standards and rebel songs. Iconoclasts to the core, they brought a punk energy to the Irish ballad. They were also blessed with one of the finest Irish songwriters of recent years, Shane McGowan . His songs captured the casualties and condition of Irish exile in London and, said fan and producer Elvis Costello, "saved folk from the folkies". Certainly they helped bring a new audience, and a new generation of musicians, back to look at its roots. McGowan subsequently formed his own band The Popes and released three albums, though none matched the glorious exuberance of The Pogues' Red Roses for Me or Rum, Sodomy and the Lash .
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