''Abocurragh''''Andy Irvine - Abocurragh'', Andy Irvine AK-3, 2010.Review of the launch of ''Abocurragh''
by

BBC News BBC News is an operational business division of the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) responsible for the gathering and broadcasting of news and current affairs in the UK and around the world. The department is the world's largest broadca ...

Northern Ireland, 18 September 2010. Retrieved on March 2, 2014.Review of ''Abocurragh''
in ''The Guardian''. Retrieved on March 2, 2014 is an album by Andy Irvine recorded in Dublin, Norway, Australia, Hungary and Brittany between February 2009 and April 2010. It was produced by

Dónal Lunny Dónal Lunny (born 10 March 1947) is an Irish folk musician and producer. He plays left-handed guitar and bouzouki, as well as keyboards and bodhrán. As a founding member of popular bands Planxty, The Bothy Band, Moving Hearts, Coolfin, Mozai ...

who also plays on all the tracks, except the last one.Sleeve notes from ''Andy Irvine - Abocurragh'', Andy Irvine AK-3, 2010.

Recording

With the first two tracks, Irvine, Lunny and O'Flynn re-kindle the distinctive

Planxty Planxty were an Irish folk music band formed in January 1972, consisting initially of Christy Moore (vocals, acoustic guitar, bodhrán), Andy Irvine (vocals, mandolin, mandola, bouzouki, hurdy-gurdy, harmonica), Dónal Lunny (bouzouki, guitars ...

sound, beginning with "Three Huntsmen", a song (about a sinister murder) that Irvine learnt from

Johnny Moynihan John Moynihan (born 29 October 1946, Phibsboro) is an Irish folk singer, based in Dublin. He is often credited with introducing the bouzouki into Irish music in the mid-1960s. Music career Sweeney's Men Known as "The Bard of Dalymount", he w ...

in the early sixties. It first appeared on

Sweeney's Men Sweeney's Men was an Irish traditional band. They emerged from the mid-1960s Irish roots revival, along with groups such as The Dubliners and the Clancy Brothers. The founding line-up in May 1966 was Johnny Moynihan, Andy Irvine and "Galway J ...

's eponymous album under the name "Johnston" and set to a different tune from this recording, written by Irvine. This song is entry H185 in Sam Henry's ''Songs of the People'' but with a happy ending omitted here. "Willy of Winsbury" is Irvine's re-recording of " Willy O' Winsbury", also from Sweeney's Men's first album, where he sang it accompanying himself on guitar. This time round, he re-arranged the accompaniment for mandola, played alongside a much fuller sound contributed by Lunny (guitar and keyboards) and O'Flynn (uilleann pipes and low whistle). This song is #100 from the

Child Ballads The Child Ballads are 305 traditional ballads from England and Scotland, and their American variants, anthologized by Francis James Child during the second half of the 19th century. Their lyrics and Child's studies of them were published as ''T ...

and is also printed as entry H221 in Sam Henry's collection (under the names "The Rich Ship Owner's Daughter" and "John Barbour", among others). "Emptyhanded" is a modern song by George Papavgeris, about convicts and early immigrants in Australia defaulting on their bank loans and losing their land. The album continues with "The Close Shave/East at Glendart", "James Magee/Isambard's Lament", "The Girl From Cushendun/The Love Of My Life", "The Spirit of Mother Jones", "Victory at Lawrence", "The Demon Lover". As if it were a concert, the album closes with two encores: "Banks of Newfoundland" and "Oslo/Norwegian Mazurka".

Track listing

All tracks composed by Andy Irvine; except where noted. # "Three Huntsmen" – 4:10 # "Willy of Winsbury" – 6:23 # "Emptyhanded" (George Papavgeris) – 5:10 # "The Close Shave"/"East at Glendart" (Bob Bickerton / Traditional; arranged by Máirtin O'Connor, Dónal Lunny and Andy Irvine) – 4:12 # "James Magee"/"Isambard's Lament" (Traditional; arranged by Andy Irvine / Bruce Molsky) – 4:57 # "The Girl from Cushendun"/"The Love of My Life" – 4:06 # "The Spirit of Mother Jones" – 4:02 # "Victory at Lawrence" – 6:49 ky # "The Demon Lover" (Traditional; arranged by Andy Irvine, Dónal Lunny, Nikola Parov and Jac Molard) – 6:21 # "Banks of Newfoundland" – 5:33 # "Oslo/Norwegian Mazurka" (Andy Irvine / Traditional; arranged by A. Lien and L. Nielsen) – 4:48

Personnel

* Andy Irvine - vocals,

bouzouki The bouzouki (, also ; el, μπουζούκι ; alt. pl. ''bouzoukia'', from Greek ), also spelled buzuki or buzuci, is a musical instrument popular in Greece. It is a member of the long-necked lute family, with a round body with a flat top and ...

mandola The mandola (US and Canada) or tenor mandola (Ireland and UK) is a fretted, stringed musical instrument. It is to the mandolin what the viola is to the violin: the four double courses of strings tuned in fifths to the same pitches as the viola ...

harmonica The harmonica, also known as a French harp or mouth organ, is a free reed wind instrument used worldwide in many musical genres, notably in blues, American folk music, classical music, jazz, country, and rock. The many types of harmonica inclu ...

guitar The guitar is a fretted musical instrument that typically has six strings. It is usually held flat against the player's body and played by strumming or plucking the strings with the dominant hand, while simultaneously pressing selected stri ...

keyboard Keyboard may refer to: Text input * Keyboard, part of a typewriter * Computer keyboard ** Keyboard layout, the software control of computer keyboards and their mapping ** Keyboard technology, computer keyboard hardware and firmware Music * Musi ...

, bass bouzouki, orchestral drum,

percussion A percussion instrument is a musical instrument that is sounded by being struck or scraped by a beater including attached or enclosed beaters or rattles struck, scraped or rubbed by hand or struck against another similar instrument. Exc ...

Liam O'Flynn Liam Óg O'Flynn ( ga, Liam Ó Floinn, 15 September 1945 – 14 March 2018) was an Irish uilleann piper and Irish traditional musician. In addition to a solo career and as a member of Planxty, O'Flynn recorded with: Christy Moore, Dónal Lun ...

Uilleann pipes The uilleann pipes ( or , ) are the characteristic national bagpipe of Ireland. Earlier known in English as "union pipes", their current name is a partial translation of the Irish language terms (literally, "pipes of the elbow"), from their ...

tin whistle The tin whistle, also called the penny whistle, is a simple six-holed woodwind instrument. It is a type of fipple flute, putting it in the same class as the recorder, Native American flute, and other woodwind instruments that meet such criteria. ...

*Nikola Parov -

Kaval The kaval is a chromatic end-blown flute traditionally played throughout the Balkans (in Albania, Romania, Bulgaria, Southern Serbia, Kosovo, North Macedonia, Northern Greece, and elsewhere) and Anatolia (including Turkey and Armenia). The ka ...

nyckelharpa A nyckelharpa (, "keyed fiddle", or literally "key harp", plural ) is the national musical instrument of Sweden. It is a string instrument or chordophone. Its keys are attached to tangents which, when a key is depressed, serve as frets to cha ...

Máirtín O'Connor Máirtín O'Connor is an Irish button accordionist from Galway, Ireland, who began playing at the age of nine, and whose career has seen him as a member of many traditional music groups that include Skylark, Midnight Well, De Dannan, and ...

accordion Accordions (from 19th-century German ''Akkordeon'', from ''Akkord''—"musical chord, concord of sounds") are a family of box-shaped musical instruments of the bellows-driven free-reed aerophone type (producing sound as air flows past a reed ...

Bruce Molsky Bruce C. Molsky (born 1955, New York City) is an American fiddler, banjo player, guitarist, and singer. He primarily performs old-time music of the Appalachian region. Early years As a young man, Molsky first became interested in blues music, but ...

fiddle A fiddle is a bowed string musical instrument, most often a violin. It is a colloquial term for the violin, used by players in all genres, including classical music. Although in many cases violins and fiddles are essentially synonymous, th ...

*Rens van der Zalm -

Rick Epping Rick Epping is a California-born musician who has immersed himself in American old-time and Irish traditional music since the 1960s. He is a player of the harmonica, concertina, banjo and jaw harp. During the 1970s he lived in Ireland where he stu ...

*Paul Moore -

double bass The double bass (), also known simply as the bass () (or #Terminology, by other names), is the largest and lowest-pitched Bow (music), bowed (or plucked) string instrument in the modern orchestra, symphony orchestra (excluding unorthodox addit ...

*Graham Henderson -

keyboards Keyboard may refer to: Text input * Keyboard, part of a typewriter * Computer keyboard ** Keyboard layout, the software control of computer keyboards and their mapping ** Keyboard technology, computer keyboard hardware and firmware Music * Musi ...

*Liam Bradley -

*Jacky Molard -

violas ; german: Bratsche , alt=Viola shown from the front and the side , image=Bratsche.jpg , caption= , background=string , hornbostel_sachs=321.322-71 , hornbostel_sachs_desc=Composite chordophone sounded by a bow , range= , related= *Violin family ...

violins The violin, sometimes known as a ''fiddle'', is a wooden chordophone (string instrument) in the violin family. Most violins have a hollow wooden body. It is the smallest and thus highest-pitched instrument (soprano) in the family in regular ...

, string arrangement *

Annbjørg Lien Annbjørg Lien (born 15 October 1971) is a Norwegian musician, playing the hardingfele (Hardanger fiddle), violin, and nyckelharpa. Career She first came to national prominence in 1986. Shortly afterwards got a recording deal with the Heilo ...

Hardanger fiddle A Hardanger fiddle ( no, hardingfele) is a traditional stringed instrument considered to be the national instrument of Norway. In modern designs, this type of fiddle is very similar to the violin, though with eight or nine strings (rather than ...

s *

Lillebjørn Nilsen Bjørn "Lillebjørn" Falk Nilsen (born 21 December 1950) is a Norwegian singer-songwriter and folk musician. He was born in Oslo, and is considered by some to be the leading "voice of Oslo", thanks to numerous classic songs about the city from th ...

*Kate Burke and Ruth Hazleton - backing vocals Produced by Dónal Lunny.
Engineered by Leon O'Neill assisted by Ross Martin, at Westland Studios,

Dublin Dublin (; , or ) is the capital and largest city of Republic of Ireland, Ireland. On a bay at the mouth of the River Liffey, it is in the Provinces of Ireland, province of Leinster, bordered on the south by the Dublin Mountains, a part of th ...

.
Mixed by Dónal Lunny and Tim Martin, at

Windmill Lane Studios Windmill Lane Recording Studios (earlier Windmill Lane Studios) is a recording studio in Dublin, Ireland. It was originally opened in 1978 by Brian Masterson and James Morris in premises at 22 Windmill Lane, and it subsequently relocated to its cu ...

, Dublin.
Remixed and Mastered by Tim Martin at Long Beard Sound, Dublin. Kate Burke and Ruth Hazleton's backing vocals were recorded in

Melbourne Melbourne ( ; Boonwurrung/Woiwurrung: ''Narrm'' or ''Naarm'') is the capital and most populous city of the Australian state of Victoria, and the second-most populous city in both Australia and Oceania. Its name generally refers to a met ...

.
Nikola Parov's kaval and nyckelharpa were recorded in

Budapest Budapest (, ; ) is the capital and most populous city of Hungary. It is the ninth-largest city in the European Union by population within city limits and the second-largest city on the Danube river; the city has an estimated population ...

.
Jacky Molard's string arrangement was recorded at his studio in

Brittany Brittany (; french: link=no, Bretagne ; br, Breizh, or ; Gallo language, Gallo: ''Bertaèyn'' ) is a peninsula, Historical region, historical country and cultural area in the west of modern France, covering the western part of what was known ...

.
Annebjørg Lien and Lillebjørn Nilsen recorded at Kongshavn Studios,

Kristiansand Kristiansand is a seaside resort city and municipality in Agder county, Norway. The city is the fifth-largest and the municipality the sixth-largest in Norway, with a population of around 112,000 as of January 2020, following the incorporation ...

Norway Norway, officially the Kingdom of Norway, is a Nordic country in Northern Europe, the mainland territory of which comprises the western and northernmost portion of the Scandinavian Peninsula. The remote Arctic island of Jan Mayen and t ...

; engineered by Roald Råsberg.

References

External links

''Abocurragh'', by Andy Irvine.
{{DEFAULTSORT:Abocurragh (Album) 2010 albums Andy Irvine (musician) albums