A note from Universal Music Ireland
Legendary Irish traditional music act Planxty in partnership with Universal Music Ireland, are proud to release for the first time ever the complete and definitive retrospective of their ground-breaking music. Compiled and chosen by the band, the release comes complete with a bonus DVD featuring over two hours of previously unreleased performances from the RTÉ Archives.
This wonderful and impressively assembled collection tells the story of a morphing ensemble of musicians, songwriters, collectors, arrangers, and singers with a mutual lust for the discovery of music from different times and different places. The songs and tunes they collected and arranged, including everything from soft introverted ballads to whirling regional fiddle tunes, from haunting airs to skittering Balkan jams, all somehow made sense within this unique narrative of traditional and folk music they had sculpted and named Planxty.
The band were formed in 1972 when, to accompany him on the recordings for his second album, ‘Prosperous’, Christy More hand-picked a band of musicians he felt would have the correct skills and sensitivity to perform on his album. Dónal Lunny was his schoolboy friend who was a gifted multi-instrumentalist and arranger. Andy Irvine of Sweeney’s Men was a London-born socialist folk singer, a prominent figure on the O’Donoghue’s trad’ scene and who co-ran ‘The Mug’s Gig’ folk club with Lunny in Slattery’s Pub on Capel Street. Liam O’Flynn was rapidly becoming a true master of the uileann pipes. The configuration of personalities and instruments generated a new sound for traditional Irish music. Never before had stringed instruments such as guitar, bouzouki and mandolin accompanied the uileann pipes. The musicians felt an irresistible chemistry, and before long, with Moore returned home permanently from England, a new band was formed; a new band, a new sound and a new look for Irish music. Andy, Dónal, Liam and Christy represented a new more dishevelled Bohemian image than people had been previously accustomed to. The bouzouki-mandolin interplay pioneered by Sweeney’s Men was in full effect. The piping was otherworldly. The singers were two of the finest of their generation. Planxty was born.
This package of Planxty music is an arduously-curated goldmine of recordings, TV appearances and live sets that both the band and their fans deserve. Delve in. Lose yourself in it.
The band were formed in 1972 when, to accompany him on the recordings for his second album, ‘Prosperous’, Christy More hand-picked a band of musicians he felt would have the correct skills and sensitivity to perform on his album. Dónal Lunny was his schoolboy friend who was a gifted multi-instrumentalist and arranger. Andy Irvine of Sweeney’s Men was a London-born socialist folk singer, a prominent figure on the O’Donoghue’s trad’ scene and who co-ran ‘The Mug’s Gig’ folk club with Lunny in Slattery’s Pub on Capel Street. Liam O’Flynn was rapidly becoming a true master of the uileann pipes. The configuration of personalities and instruments generated a new sound for traditional Irish music. Never before had stringed instruments such as guitar, bouzouki and mandolin accompanied the uileann pipes. The musicians felt an irresistible chemistry, and before long, with Moore returned home permanently from England, a new band was formed; a new band, a new sound and a new look for Irish music. Andy, Dónal, Liam and Christy represented a new more dishevelled Bohemian image than people had been previously accustomed to. The bouzouki-mandolin interplay pioneered by Sweeney’s Men was in full effect. The piping was otherworldly. The singers were two of the finest of their generation. Planxty was born.
This package of Planxty music is an arduously-curated goldmine of recordings, TV appearances and live sets that both the band and their fans deserve. Delve in. Lose yourself in it.
