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Sleeve Notes
Out of the blue came a call from Universal Music Ireland announcing that they had acquired the renowned Tara Records catalogue. Their intention was to reinvigorate all the music recorded by Tara since 1972.
Over 40 years John Cook at Tara had assembled a collection of recorded music that would not exist today without his foresight and determination. (Tara's first release was my Prosperous album).
At first I was taken aback when Universal suggested a retrospective of my early recordings.
Upon 'mature reflection I soon warmed to the project. Their enthusiasm and intent won me over! In 2016 they had done good work on the Planxty retro album Between The Jigs and The Reels.
Stan Roche, who curated both that Planxty retrospective and this Early Years project, uncovered songs and recordings long since forgotten. Some tracks are rough and ready just as my life was back then, most bring back good memories of nights long gone, of songs long since sung.
I am happy that these early works have been remastered, given a fresh context and a new lease of life.
Thanks for listening.
Christy Moore, Dublin, 13 August 2020
When you have been turning out new music for nigh on six decades, performing solo or in seminal ensembles, exciting collaborations, and with esteemed accompanists, the back catalogue can sometimes become an unwieldly beast to keep track of. Christy Moore has lived several music lives at this stage, an odyssey that has led as down as many backroads as it had the motorways to mainstream fame and success, and it seems like on every aberration off the beaten track Christy has dropped gold. As one of those rare artists who has somehow managed to remain relevant and socially pertinent to this day, you could forgive Christy for forgetting where he buried the treasure.
In the archives of Christy Moores history, beyond the multi-platinum albums and the big songs that have sound-tracked a society, lay many dormant gems on dusty discs in lonely libraries. It was time to go looking for them, to piece back the puzzle, to celebrate and appreciate those moments once again.
Christy's story as a recording artist begins in 1966 when he heads for England during the Irish bank strike in search of adventure, opportunity, and most importantly, gigs! Along the route of folk clubs and benefit gigs, one of the many colourful characters he encounters is Dominic Behan, brother of Brendan and serious songwriter in his own right. "We hit it off and he took me under his wing", explains Christy. "He said he would help me make an album in Sound Technique Studio in Chelsea in 1969." Well-known folk guitarist and music director Steve Benbow put together a band of pub jazz musicians, a somewhat incongruous fit for a young Irish ballad singer. "I met them for the first time in the studio. They were all pub jazz players and I was the apprentice Paddy greenhorn. They did their thing and I tried to keep up with them. While I couldn't keep up with their chord shapes I could keep up with their drinking and we all got on well. There was pain in the music but we were not feeling it." The result was Christy's first album, Paddy On The Road. Christy cites it as an unsatisfactory album, yet an important learning experience nonetheless. It subsequently prompted him to record the Prosperous album back in Kildare, the right way, with many of his favourite Irish musicians.
There are two cuts from that debut album PADDY ON THE ROAD included here, the title track written by Dominic Behan and THE BALLAD OF JAMES LARKIN, written by Donagh McDonagh. It is fascinating to hear the raspiness in young Christy's voice, a voice that would of course later soften and mature into the great source of comfort and familiarity that it is today. These tracks, mastered from the original vinyl, are real rarities as the Mercury label only pressed 500 copies at the time.
There are five cuts remastered from his career-changing second album Prosperous recorded in Downings House with various contributions from Andy Irvine, Dónal Lunny and Liam O'Flynn (the group that later became Planxty), recorded by Englishman Bill Leader on his mobile recording unit. Leader was famed for his role as a recording engineer central to the British Folk Revival of the 1960s and 70s and his work with companies such as Topic and Transatlantic, as well as his own Leader and Trailer labels.
THE CLIFFS OF DOONEEN, an enduring classic which became the second Planxty seven inch and which Christy still sometimes performs to this day, was from a poem reportedly written by Jack McAuliffe of Lixnaw, County Kerry in the 1930s, later put to music. The words were inspired by the cliffs around Dooneen Point near Beale, West Kerry. Christy himself first heard it in 1965. "I have heard versions from Andy Rynne [owner of Downings House in Prosperous where they made the album], Ann Mulqueen and Mick McGuane. I have heard it sung in very different styles too. Margo recorded a 'Country and Irish' version whilst Andy Rynne used to sing it in the Sean-Nós style with his finger in his ear and his keks tucked into his Kerouacs."
RAMBLING ROBIN, a traditional tune with words by Peter Bellamy, was learned from the singing of the great all-round singer-songwriter, comedian and broadcaster Mike Harding of Crumpsall, Manchester who booked Christy to perform one of his first English shows at his folk club in the Old House pub.
Mike Harding recalls his first time booking Christy in a BBC blog: "One night Jerry Brady of the Beggarmen — a cracking Irish band based in Manchester — said to me (You ought to book this guy Christy Moore. He's brilliant. If he doesn't go down a storm I'll give you his fee meself. ' There is some controversy about whether this was Christy's first English gig (Bury Folk Club may have been the first) but it was certainly one of the first. He came in that night, a quiet bank clerk from Kildare, fairly shy and a bit nervous. He was only over in England because there was a bank strike in Ireland and there was naff all for him to do over there. He was wearing slacks and a neat shirt and a smart pair of boots. The crowd arrived and I opened up the night with my mate Tony Downes singing a couple of Lancashire songs and a few Tom Paxton and Ewan MacColl songs. Then Christy got up, slung his guitar around his neck, put one foot on a low stool and started in on the Galway Races. From the first chords he had the audience enthralled. That night he sang The Little Beggar man, James Connolly, Avondale and The Cliffs of Dooneen. I forget the rest. The crowd wouldn't let him off and it took the landlord coming in really heavy before we could finish the night. After that he came back to the club every month and he filled it every time."
It is the recording of THE RAGGLE TAGGLE GYPSY / TABHAIR DOM DO LÁMH that in many ways blew open the possibilities for the Planxty project that would take over Christy's world for the next three years. The song itself, as is well documented, is learned from traveller-singer John O'Reilly, one of Christy's most cherished song sources. In the arrangement, Dónal creates a bridge from which to segue into the air of TABHAIR DOM DO LÁMH, one of the most beautiful moments in the shared life of folk and traditional Irish music. It is a perfect showcase for Liam O'Flynn's pipes and most likely everything Christy imagined when he was dreaming up this album.
I WISH I WAS IN ENGLAND, also from the Prosperous album is one of Christy's earliest self-penned songs. He is accompanied by Andy on mandolin and Dónal on bouzouki and guitar. "I got the idea for this song from an old book of Irish songs which had been poorly translated. I rewrote the song, put a new tune to it and this is the result."
SPANCILHILL is an old song written by Michael Considine in the 1800s about the village in County Clare where he was born, and which was famous for its horse fair. There are some lyric changes from the original, but it is essentially a sorrowful ballad of emigration about people like Considine himself, who left their families and loved ones behind for a life in America.
After Prosperous, the energy of that band saw the first period of Planxty produce three brilliant albums over the next three years before it all fell apart. It was time for Christy to resume his solo career and he did so in 1975 with WHATEVER TICKLES YOUR FANCY, recorded in Ashling Studios in Rathgar, Dublin with a band featuring Jimmy Faulkner on guitar, Kevin Burke on fiddle, Declan McNelis on bass, Robbie Brennan on drums and Dónal Lunny on guitar, bouzouki, bodhrán, and Moog synthesizer. The multi-talented Lunny, Christy's teenage pal from Newbridge and long-time musical co-conspirator, also produced the album. The album is split between acoustic and electric sides, similar in mood to the English crossover folk-rock of bands such as Fairport Convention and Steeleye Span.
There are six cuts included here, remastered from the original quarter-inch tape. TIPPIN' IT UP TO NANCY is a traditional song with Christy accompanied by Dónal on bodhrán. The Ewan MacColl / Peggy Seeger song THE BALLAD OF TIM EVANS and the traditional Kerry song HOME BY BEARNA are both given the full band treatment. Also from this album is a version of Gail Collins and Felix Pappalardi's (of American rock band Mountain) ONE LAST COLD KISS where we hear that convergence of folk and rock music in full effect with Faulkner's electric guitar and Robbie Brennan's drums rubbing shoulders with the acoustic instruments and Kevin Burke's fiddle sounding positively European. The MOVING-ON-SONG (GO! MOVE! SHIFT!) by Ewan MacColl, part of a set of songs he wrote about the nomadic lives of Travellers, is a beautiful trad-folk rendition, as is a gentle version of Dave Goulder's JANUARY MAN.
This album was a big departure for Christy but an important step in the process of regaining his profile as a solo artist. "I was a bit out of my depth playing with a bass and drums rhythm section and I could not offer much direction. A lot of the music at this time was confused and unstructured but we had happy days and made some good music", recalls Christy.
This vinyl collection also features a plethora of recordings from Christy's eponymously titled fourth album from 1976, recorded in Dublin Sound Studios, sometimes referred to as The Black Album due to its starkly lit cover. The album was produced again by Dónal, with the exception of one song, NANCY SPAIN, which was recorded in Eamon Andrews Studios by Nicky Ryan. Its overall atmosphere marks a return to a more acoustic folk sound than the previous record.
NANCY SPAIN became a big song in Christy's career. It was learned from the late Sallynoggin songwriter Barney Rushe when Christy met him in St. Helier, Jersey in the Channel Islands in 1968. Rushe also gave Christy THE CRACK WAS NINETY IN THE ISLE OF MAN, another tune now embedded in the national repertoire. Lyrically NANCY SPAIN is a wistful love song, but the name itself is taken from the much-loved English journalist of the same name who offered an alternative to typical gender stereotypes of the 1950s. Rushe, a much-travelled troubadour, passed away in 2014 in Dun Laoghaire and Christy paid his respects by singing NANCY SPAIN at his funeral.
Also included here from the Christy Moore album is another classic, LITTLE MUSGRAVE, an old ballad said to have originated in Northern England, dating as far back as 1613, and was collected and documented in the holy grail of songbooks, The Child Ballads. Christy took the air from the brilliant English folk singer Nic Jones' version. It details the adulterous affair between a young man and noblewoman both of whom are murdered by a jealous husband. It is a truly epic ballad and in this version (as well as a later one recorded for Planxty's The Woman I Loved So Well album) it showcases Christy as a truly nuanced singer, delicately weaving his way through verse after verse carrying the unfolding momentum of the story without losing a breath, as the musicians around him produce a decorative masterpiece.
Much of Christy's core collaborators return — McNelis, Lunny, Irvine, Faulkner and Kevin Burke — with some great additional guests. The great Barney McKenna of The Dubliners features strongly here on these sessions. He accompanies Christy alone on JOHNNY JUMP UP, an Irish drinking song by Tadhg Jordan of County Cork, later popularised by Jimmy Crowley (singer, songwriter and collector also from Cork).
There's a proper trad rave-up on LANIGAN'S BALL, learned from the singing of the great Elizabeth Cronin of Macroom and a beautiful airy version of Woody Guthrie's Folkways classic cut SACCO & VANZETTI.
Perhaps the most fascinating inclusion from this album though is the wonderful LIMERICK RAKE, a recording that reveals Christy's thirst for diversity during this period with the inclusion of Jeff Whittaker and Lord Eric's African drums. The collision of this percussion with Burke's fiddle and Christy's lilting tones is pure joy.
1978 brings us to The Iron Behind the Velvet album co-produced by Christy and Brian Masterson and recorded at Lombard and Keystone Studios in Dublin. There are two remastered selections from these sessions included here with personnel including familiar players Andy Irvine and Jimmy Faulkner alongside Christy's brother Barry Moore, Noel Hill on concertina, Tony Linnane on fiddle, Gabriel McKeon on uilleann pipes, Rosemary Flanagan on cello and Jolyon Jackson on cello and synthesiser. These remastered tracks include, from the 'Galway Joe' Dolan, TRIP TO JERUSALEM which segues into the reels THE MULLINGAR RACES and THE CROOKED ROAD, and Bill Caddick's song JOHN O' DREAMS (which didn't appear on the original vinyl album but was later produced by Dónal Lunny at Windmill Lane Studios and included on the CD version of the album). That same year saw the release of Christy's first live album, Live in Dublin, recorded by Nicky Ryan across several locations.
Christy was accompanied by two of his long-time cohorts, Jimmy Faulkner and Dónal Lunny. "We recorded this album in April 1998, when we did gigs at the Meeting Place, Pat Dowling's of Prosperous, Trinity College and the Grapevine Arts Centre in North Great George's Street. We got great assistance from Ireland's greatest roadcrew, John McFadden and Leon Brennan. I'll dedicate this album to Juno [his daughter] who arrived as we started."
Nicky Ryan is another hugely notable figure in Irish music, previously sound engineer for Planxty, as well as the great Donegal family group Clannad, who he went on to manage with his wife Roma for a period, before they left to help steer the career of the youngest member of that group — now universally known as Enya.
There are four selections from Live in Dublin, remastered for this compilation. HEY SANDY is a song by Birmingham singer-songwriter and poet Harvey Andrews, words rewritten by Christy, about one Sandy Scheuer, a 20-year-old student who was shot by the National Guard at Kent State University following the Vietnam War protests, although she herself was not a participant. BLACK IS THE COLOUR OF MY TRUE LOVE'S HAIR is a song learned from the late Scottish folk singer Hamish Imlach. Christy travelled the road with Imlach in 1967. A much renowned player who later veered towards humorous song, Imlach was nonetheless a big influence on not just Christy but the likes of Bert Jansch, Luke Kelly, Billy Connolly and John Martyn.
There is another song from the aforementioned Barney Rushe, THE CRACK WAS NINETY IN THE ISLE OF MAN, a drinking escapade that is so ingrained in Irish life it has become a contemporary social catchphrase in itself. And the traditional song, CLYDE'S BONNIE BANKS, a sad protest song addressing miners' rights. "Maybe it was Arthur Johnson of Glasgow or Dick Gaughan of Leith who first sang this song, it could have been in the backroom of The Scotia or the snug in Sandy Bells ", mused Christy.
So these four sides of vinyl are a portrait of the artist from 1969 to 1981, the places he went, the people he met, the songs he found, the songs he wrote, the way he sang them. It was years later that Christy Moore became the household name or, later still Christy Moore the national treasure. This was Christy finding his feet, finding his voice, looking for gigs, experimenting with sound and style. But it's an incredibly important period, because it's right here where Christy's repertoire began to take shape and the connections with so many of his key collaborators were forged. He has carried many of these songs with him right up to this very day. He may sing them a little differently now, but you can be sure every time he sings one of these songs he is brought back to the folk club or the moment where he first heard it, and he summons the spirits of the many great singers, writers, collectors and friends who have passed on these great songs.
Leagues O'Toole — September 2020