Planxty "Planxty" 1973*****

Planxty are considered largely responsible (together with the Dubliners and Chieftains) for the rebirth of traditional Irish music in the late 60's/early 70's and subsequent ubiquity of Celtic rhythms and melodies in pop music. They were all four talented instrumentalists and had two great singers (Christy Moore and Andy Irvine). Although they never strayed away from tradition, they were more daring and innovative than their peers, to the point of often being mentioned alongside Pentangle or Strawbs as prog-folk. One of their more surprising innovations was introducing a Greek folk instrument to Irish music: Singer Andy Irvine returned from his travels with a Greek bouzouki which he gave to Dónal Lunny, who until then played guitar. Left handed Lunny custom-fitted the instrument to suit his needs and learned to play it in his own way. Pretty soon it would become a staple of Celtic music, though only after going through some more transformations. Besides bouzouki, the band's sound is also often dominated by Liam O'Flynn's uilleann pipes, while the instrumentation also includes guitar, bodhrán, mandolin and tin whistle. Most of the songs on the record are traditional tunes to which Planxty give a new twist. The opener "Raggle Taggle Gypsy" had been one of my favorite folk tunes ever since I heard it from The Waterboys in 1990, but Planxty's version is the authentic and best one, culminating with a tremendous solo by O'Flynn. "Arthur McBride" tells of an amusing encounter between a couple of Irish lads and an English recruiting sergeant. He tries to dupe them into enlisting into the King's army and they end up teaching him a painful lesson. Another energetic reel popularized by Planxty is "The Jolly Beggar", ostensibly about King James V of Scotland dressing up as a beggar to seduce farmer girls - because, you know, farmer girls snub kings and are reversly dazzled by beggar's rags. "Sweet Thames Flow Softly", "Only Our Rivers" and "The West Coast of Clare" are gorgeous ballads, while "Follow Me Up to Carlow" and "The Blacksmith" are exemplary renditions of traditional folk executed with zest, the latter even introducing some Balkan elements. The rest of the songs are instrumentals, showcasing the band's skills with the pipes ("Merrily Kissed the Quaker", "Sí Bheag, Sí Mhór") and tin whistle ("Planxty Irwin", "Junior Crehan's Favourite/Corney"). I could give this record 5* just because of its historical significance in popularizing traditional Irish folk but -let's face it- it just makes for great listening in any case...

***** for Raggle Taggle Gypsy/Tabhair Dom Do Lámh, Arthur McBride, The West Coast of Clare, The Blacksmith

**** for Planxty Irwin, Sweet Thames Flow Softly, Junior Crehan's Favourite/Corney, The Jolly Beggar/The Wise Maid, Follow Me Up to Carlow

*** for Merrily Kissed the Quaker