Tag Archives: rock

How Far We Have Come

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A review of Teaċ Daṁsa’s 1975/Naoi Déag Seachtó Cúig, based on the Bothy Band’s debut album. First published on journalofmusic.com.

I was one when the Bothy Band released their debut album in 1975, and 19 when I explored its invention. Musically, the album pulls away from Ó Riada and Planxty, combining the new aesthetic of rock and pop with traditional music. It was also only the second album released on the embryonic folk/pop label Mulligan, so it was a statement in many ways. Dónal Lunny and Mícheál Ó Domhnaill produced it, but the album code is LUN002 – his imprint is all over it.

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30 Years of Questions in One Hour: An Interview with Martin Hayes

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A recording of a public interview with fiddle player Martin Hayes, conducted by Journal of Music editor Toner Quinn at Fleadh Cheoil na hÉireann 2024.

It is just over thirty years since I paused on my way out of J. McNeill’s music shop on Capel Street in Dublin to look at the tapes for sale. They were held in a tall, slender wooden case by the door with the most recent at the top. This is where I first came across Kíla’s Handel’s Fantasy as well as the re-release of Kevin Burke’s Sweeney’s Dream. On this day there was just one tape on the top shelf. The cover seemed purposefully blurred to represent motion and presented a musician standing holding the fiddle with the bow hanging from one finger. New tapes were not cheap for a student, but somehow I had precisely the right amount of money. On impulse, having never heard the name of the musician before, I bought it and jumped on the bus to Waterford.

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