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Sleeve Notes
St. Brendan's Fair Isle — Songs from Town & Country
The songs on which Danny Doyle was raised came from the last of Dublin's street singers — men who commented on events of the day through their witty and often biting ballads — from his mother and great-grandmother, and from some of Dublin's finest literati: poets Brendan Behan and Patrick Kavanagh, who were neighbours. Danny left school at age fourteen and started doing odd jobs in Dublin's Pike Theatre, where he learned from the traveling players songs of the countryside. Always a passionate student of Irish history, he expanded his repertoire choosing material reflective of the rich ballad tradition through which much of the country's history has been preserved.
In an impressive concert career spanning more than three decades, Danny Doyle has brought the ballads, history and stories of Ireland to audiences around the world. He has a way of conjuring up the Irish island with songs and vivid tales; listening to him, you can nearly taste the salt aroma of a West Clare gale, faintly hear the distant call of a Kerry shepherd to his dog, and almost feel the mist falling on Dublin's Ha'penny Bridge.