The Dubliners "Whiskey in the Jar" 1966-1969(rec) 1996(comp)****

I was yesterday at Zoetermeer's Boerderij for a Dublin Legends concert. The D.L. feature two long-time members of the most famous and historic Irish folk band, The Dubliners. Seán Cannon and Eamonn Campbell have been playing in The Dubliners since 1982 and 1987 respectively, but the name of the band was officialy retired when Barney McKenna, the last of the original band, passed away in 2012. Which doesn't stop Eamonn and Seán from appearing under the moniker of "Dublin Legends, fomerly Dubliners", "Dublin Legends (Dubliners)" or other variations of that theme. And neither should it stop them from it, judging from last night's performance. They gave a compelling show, kept the audience on its feet (even if Eamonn could hardly stand on his), and generally did justice to the couple of dozen Dubliners songs they played, keeping their spirit alive.
Like many others growing up in the 80's, my first contact with Irish music came through the punk-folk of the The Pogues and traditional elements in albums by the Waterboys and Van Morrison. Naturally the next step would be to look for the real thing. Nowadays if I want to look into a new band or style of music, I can google, read reviews on many different sites, listen to a few songs on the internet, maybe download an album and give it a couple of listens before buying it. Back in the 90's it didn't work like that: even if you did have internet, it'd be incredibly slow and information on it was scarce. The only sources were music magazines, radio and friends and none of them were actually steeped in traditional Irish music. So I settled on this box set by chance: it was cheap and it contained "Whiskey In The Jar" which was of course familiar because of Thin Lizzy. I had heard of the Dubliners as a band that influenced the Pogues - though I didn't know yet that The Pogues had recorded more than a dozen Dubliners songs. For someone looking for real traditional music, the guys on the album cover seemed authentic enough. Actually the photos were misleading, as they show the band members in their middle age while these recordings are the work of much younger men - they stem from the mid-60's live and studio albums on the Major Minor label that introduced the band to the wide world and signaled the rebirth of traditional Irish music. It features the classic line-up of Ronnie Drew (voc, gtr), Luke Kelly (voc, gtr, banjo), Ciaran Bourke (voc, gtr, tin whistle) and hotshot instrumentalists Barney McCenna (tenor banjo, mandolin) and John Sheahan (fiddle, tin whistle). Kelly had the strongest voice, heard on the definitive versions of traditional tunes "Whiskey In The Jar", "Black Velvet Band" and the jaunty banjo-led "Paddy On The Railway". He also sings "Kelly the boy from Killan" which isn't self-referencing as I thought at first but a traditional song about an 18th century Irish hero. Luke Kelly was a friend and disciple of English communist folkie Ewan McCall and sings many of his songs ("The Travelling People", "Shoals Of Herring" and "Net Hauling" as well as "Dirty Old Town" which is absent from this particular compilation). Drew deliciously handles the more boozy and bawdy songs like "Whiskey On A Sunday", "Dicey Riley" and the hilarious "Seven Drunken Nights" while Bourke also sings a few sprightly and funny songs including "Mrs. McGrath" and "All For Me Grog". Upbeat and humorous singalongs propelled by violin and banjo make up for the best part of this collection, though ballads also have a place. For some reason there are almost no instrumentals. Love and drinking are two of the main themes, the third being Irish rebel songs sometimes openly supporting the IRA. One has to remember that the IRA were at the time radical, revolutionary even, but not yet terrorist as they didn't yet target "civilians" - that happened later during the escalation of the crisis which became known as the troubles. To sum up, if you're looking for an introduction to The Dubliners or to traditional Irish music in general, this will do just fine. Sure there are omissions ("Molly Malone", "Wild Rover", "Dirty Old Town"...) but none of the countless Dubliners compilations out there has managed to include all of their favorites. I subtract 1* for the indifferent packaging and lack of information over the band and the recordings.

***** for Whiskey In The Jar,  The Galway Races, The Rising Of The Moon, Poor Paddy On The Railway,  Nancy Whiskey, Darby O'Leary,  Seven Drunken Nights, Whiskey On A Sunday, The Partin' Glass, Black Velvet Band, Seven Deadly Sins

**** for Quare Bungle Rye, Poor Old Dicey Riley, A Muirsheen Durkin , The Travelling People, Net Hauling Song, Mrs McGrath, (The Bonny) Shoals Of Herrings, Mormon Braes, Go To Sea No More, All For Me Grog,  Gentleman Soldier, I'm A Rover, The Fairmoye Lasses And Sporting Paddy, Many Young Men Of Twenty, Come And Join The British Army, Tibby Dunbar, The Inniskillen Dragoons, Peggy Gordon, Kelly The Boy From Killan, A Nation Once Again

*** for The Old Alarm Clock,  Maid Of The Sweet Brown Knowe, McCafferty, Molly Bawn, Weila Waila, Limerick Rake, The Dundee Weaver, I Wish I Were Back In Liverpool, Maloney Wants A Drink, Croppy Boy, Maids When You're Young Never Wed An Old Man