I’m realy getting into this band. It’s unfortunate there are so few recordings of them. I can definatly hear them in Lunasa and flook. One of the things I realy dig, and it’s missing from all the other Trad based groups I have heard, is the use of the Harpsichord and clavinet. It’s as if Dracula was Irish. True Celtic Goth music.
I’m looking for more outfits that are in this vane. Any suggestions?
Look for other recordings with Triona Ni Dhomhnaill. I was initially put off by the clavinet in trad music, but have really grown to like it. She recorded two albums with Relativity (Triona and Michael O’Dhomhnaill and the Cunninghams) and two with Touchstone, an America-based band. There’s also a more recent album with her sister Maigread. I love all of these albums, as well as the Bothys.
I’m sure she’s been involved in other projects, but can’t think of them at the moment.
Charlie
I went to Willie week in Miltown Malbay, Co Clare in July 2000 and every BB album ever done was there for sale - but not anywhere else since I got back. try an Irish mail order website - you may get lucky.
They don’t come any better than the Bothy band…sigh
Green Linnet should still have all of their stuff. The essential albums are:
1975
Old Hag You Have Killed Me
Out of the Wind into the Sun
Some would add the BBC live recordings and After Hours, but i don’t care for those as much.
You should really give Planxty a listen, too, they were contemporaries and two members of the Bothy Band, Donal Lunny and Matt Molloy, were in that band in several of its incarnations. Liam Flynn does not play like Paddy Keenan, but he has a gift for taste and understatement that is very powerful.
The 4 albums mentioned by Pat above are available through <a href=http://music.barnesandnoble.com/search/results.asp?qsrch=X&WRD=Bothy+Band&userid=68PBKNGPWE>Barnes and Nobel
You may also want to check your local Borders Book store or on line at Border](http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/search-handle-form/002-5846901-9258434>Border) Books - Amazon.com
You can hear more harpsichord on Tríona’s recording simply titled “Tríona” (Green Linnet)GLCD-3034 and a bit of clavinet on “Skara Brae” (gael-linn)CEFCD 031 which features Tríona, Maighread, & Micheál O’Dhomhnaill and Dáithí Sproule.
Cheers,
David
P.S. If you want to hear a beat from a different drummer (if you will) you may want to investigate the keyboard playing of Mícheál Ó Súillebháin who on his first and self titled recording plays tunes on harpsichord, clavichord, pedal organ, piano and moog.(gael-linn)CEFCD 046
[ This Message was edited by: Feadan on 2002-03-21 08:46 ]
For the sake of a full discography the 1973 issue of a record shared with the Castle Ceiliband should be mentioned. The Bothys then called themselves Sixteen ninety one, the line up had Triona ni, Molloy, Liam Weldon, Tommy Peoples and Peter Browne on the pipes. The repertoire included already some of the Bothy classics [green groves of erin/flowers of red hill] but also The widows lament, the wet fish [appearing here as the virgin mary].
half of the tracks are by the Castle Ceili band, intersting to note these include the kesh, rip the callico, coleman cross and the kid on the mountain, which all ended up in the bothy repertoire. Just in case you ever wondered where they got them.
[ This Message was edited by: Peter Laban on 2002-03-21 08:43 ]
On the Bothy Band v. Planxty thing: I prefer Liam O’Flynn over Paddy Keenan, stylistically. And while I agree that the Afterhours and Live at the BBC albums of the Bothies aren’t generally worth the bother (sorry), I seem to remember a great solo done by Paddy Keenan on the Live album. I think it was Buck of Oranmore. I am not a conisseur of piping, but that track stood out compared to all his other playing with the Bothies, I thought.
I never meant to imply a preference for Paddy’s playing over that of Liam’s, if that was how it was taken! They’re apples and oranges to me, really. Two very different personalities with very different approaches
I love Liam’s playing, especially in his Planxty days-not a hair out of place, and yet so musical.
Anyway, Paddy still has a good version of the Bucks-I saw him in Wicklow not long ago and he was just lashing it out.
Another vote for Liam O’Flynn. I heard him several times in 1971-2 in Ann Arbor Michigan and I have been hooked on Irish music ever since (not to slight Paddy!). I love many of the cuts he’s done on solo albums post-Planxty. Check out “The Given Note,” one of my absolute favorite Irish/Celtic albums of all time (an added bonus: guest appearances by Paul Brady and Andy Irvine).
All you guys rock!!! Thanks for the inputs and info. I’m always buying music so it’s a matter of finding what you mentioned…it’s only a matter of time my friends, a matter of time.
I have all the Bothy albums but for “Into the Sun” I’ll pick it up tomorrow, before I leave for my vacation.
I dig the live albums, raw and on the fly. Thier version of Yarrow (Paris) was a cool surprise. Very different from the ones I already have by other artists, plus the Keenan solo is worth the price just for that track (BBC).
How is Nightmusic? It has been recomended to me before. But hey, I’m a bit weary of “New Age”.
Also anyword on Paddy’s solo records? I’ll order them, but I’d love to hear a review here. I think he has three out there.
I’d say there are more, the first Gael linn one, the one with Glacken, the one with Arty McGlynn, the keen affair an the new one the long grazing acre.
You have to have a taste for that music.
As to the keyboards; they were introduced by Sean O Riada during the early 60s.
Nice new one to lsiten to is Padraic O Reilly’s Ivory stairs
[ This Message was edited by: Peter Laban on 2002-03-22 11:01 ]
Here’s a little vote for the BBC Live recording - it’s cheaper, and frankly not bad at all. Worth the money just for the Paddy Keenan solo and the “Kid” version. Only neg. for me is the evident lack of stage presence - just listen to the playing, not the intro bits in between; BB clearly didn’t know how to communicate with an audience then except through their music.
On 2002-03-22 10:57, nickt wrote:
BB clearly didn’t know how to communicate with an audience then except through their music.
Wouldn’t necessarily agree, saw some archive footage on tv recently and they didn’t do too bad in between tunes and it even had a surprisingly well sung version of ‘The piper who played before Moses’ by Kevin Burke. Very entertaining that one.
Just wanted to mention that of the three studio records (1975, Old Hag…, Out of the Wind into the Sun), the last one, Out of the Wind, is may favorite musically. I love the other two and listen to them frequently, also just to listen for the differences between Tommy Peoples (1975) and Kevin Burke (Old Hag…), but I find myself choosing Out of the Wind more often than not. It strikes me as deeper. It requires a bit more effort and is there for a bit more satisfying in the long run.
On 2002-03-22 10:57, nickt wrote:
BB clearly didn’t know how to communicate with an audience then except through their music.
Nick, I was lucky enough to catch them three times in London around 1977, and you’re right, articulate they weren’t. I remember being stunned that Kevin Burke, who played with such elegant expressiveness, seemed barely able to put two words together to introduce a tune. Having seen him in other contexts I now know he is actually very droll, so what was going on?
A musician I knew back then did a tour with them (as a member of a band that was opening for them) and reported that the Bothies seemed to spend most of their time on tour in a state of “altered consciousness”. He was amazed that they were able to play at all, let alone with such energy and precision.
So that may explain it. But the excitement generated by the music was so strong that it really wouldn’t have mattered if they hadn’t spoken at all.
[Edit PS: regarding Paddy Keenan’s various solo recordings, a question was asked about this a few months back. Try a search…]
[ This Message was edited by: StevieJ on 2002-03-22 13:33 ]