I was listening to some Planxty and Bothy Band today and thinking… wow… these guys were really good and I love their music.
Are there any other groups out there today with a similar or better style and of course there has to be one UP in the mix? Or was that just a special time in Popular Irish music that is gone now?
Lunasa springs to mind Cillian Vallely being the piper and Dervish (no piper though).
The Bonnymen.
Danú plays some great stuff with Donnchadh Gough on pipes.
No E
Just listened to them, not bad. I had not heard of them before but I like them. thanks.
Thanks, I have some of their stuff. They are a little on the soft side for what I am looking for.
I like it… still not quite some of the energy of those earlier bands… but good. thanks
My favorite new band is Réalta. They describe themselves as being “raised on a staple diet of Planxty and the Bothy Band”. Their album’s on Spotify.
Moving Hearts, maybe too rock, but if you like them, another in that style is Horselips.
Bua are a great band from Chicago worth checking out, if you haven’t already heard them.
Hey these guys are good.
I like the sound of Moving Hearts but not quite the genre I am looking for. I dould not find Horeslips.
I think I knew about these guys but did not have them in my collection… I do now. Thanks.
With the exception of the Bonny Men which I’ve only just heard of and really like what I’ve heard, except they don’t seem to do much in the way of songs, it seems these days eveyone is in to doing just tunes with little actual arrangement or composition or folk songs a-la Planxty. Kind of gets boring and time to put the vinyl Planxty records on again.
The Full Set. They have a piper and do both tunes and songs.
And don’t forget Solas. Great band.
There’s a band called the Chieftains that have a piper . They do some good stuff.
RORY
Cran spring to mind. Ronan Browne is the piper, with Desi Wilkinson on flute and Sean Corcoran on bouzouki. For a trio they make a big noise.
Get Black Black Black, its got serious Bothy mojo.
Some of Christy Moore early albums. Pretty close to Planxty, and often pipers are involved. Also Andy Irvine and Donal Lunny did couple of similar tracks on their own.
I think you kind of right, this type of bands belongs to those times, nowadays it’s hard to find something like this.
There was also a band called Oisin with Davy Spillane on pipes.
Other than that, i don’t think there’s much music of this kind.
You can find different parts of their sounds in solo recordings and smaller side-projects, like Relativity and Skara Brae for more “BB” singing and clavinet, Sweeney’s Men, etc.
And yes, Dervish took Planxty-style rhythm-section with the whole mandola+bouzouki thing, and Lunasa uses Bothy Band’s “flute+fiddle+pipes” idea (if you do not like them, give a try to all of their albums, all of them are different).
I still have Horslips on vinyl!
Note the correct spelling “Horslips” and try again, though they may only be on vinyl or tape; pretty old stuff now.
There are a few Horslips clips on YouTube.