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Sleeve Notes
It was 1988, and Kevin Burke — living legend and fiddler extraordinaire — was in a band called Patrick Street. The name was proving unfortunate: "Even in the Bothy Band, after three or four years", he said, "we were still getting asked to explain what a Bothy was. In the end we were telling them to go out and buy a bloody dictionary! Now we're getting hotel rooms made out to Mr. P. Street … " Patrick Street were, at that time, the very latest in a long line of Irish music 'Supergroups' — most of whom feature seemingly rotational combinations of a relatively small group of people who made their marks in one or more of a handful of genuinely important bands during the late '60s and '70s. And most of which (then, as now) have included, at some point, Donal Lunny. With the exception of Sweeney's Men — the very first of the great Irish 'revivalist' bands — Lunny was a prime mover or shaper in the seminal sounds of Planxty, Clannad and Moving Hearts. And somewhere in the middle, and perhaps more easily forgotten in this role call of the greats, the Bothy Band.
Forgotten or foot-noted in the rock 'n' roll encyclopaedias they may be, but the music and inspiration of the Bothy Band is very much alive today in the memories and repertoire of almost anyone who is anyone on the Irish traditional scene. It may be a subtle point to grasp, but while Planxty gained a 'rock' audience through a fresh and vigorous approach to Irish folk music, the Bothy Band did likewise with the deeper wells of Celtic tradition.
This disc may not be the fruits of a reunion, but it is a real diamond from the vaults of oblivion. Forget about the bootleg tapes and hear instead, in perfect sound, the magic of Kevin Burke on tunes from the band's first album (the Tommy Peoples album) — "Martin Wynne's" and "The Kesh Jig" sets. Hear the amazing harmonies on the Hebridean nonsense song "Fionnghuala". And hear, especially, Keenan's stunning, and previously unrecorded pipe solo Garret Barry's/The Bucks Of Oranmore" — the latter a notorious 'test piece' in piping circles, with Keenan heard here throwing in wild incidentals and taking courageous liberties with the time signature. He passes the test. They all do.
Colin Harper