Andy Irvine / Paul Brady

[Paul Brett]

So this is happening in Ireland and Scotland next year. I'm hoping to grab tickets tomorrow morning. https://set.ie/event/paul-brady-and-andy-irvine/

I have to admit Andy Irvine's approach to mandolin and bouzouki is something I aspire to.

[John Kelly]

Paul, do not see any Scottish venues on your link, just Kilkenny, but maybe there is something I have missed?

[Bertram Henze]

Funny what youthful pictures they chose for the website.

[Simon DS]

Looks like it’ll be a great celebration, really wish I could be there.
Here’s a classic.
Info: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Lakes_of_Pontchartrain

Lyrics n versions on thesession: https://thesession.org/tunes/896



Ad8RVexRUoQ

The Lakes of Pontchartrain (notation)
180496

[Paul Brett]

Paul, do not see any Scottish venues on your link, just Kilkenny, but maybe there is something I have missed?

Sorry John, I saw a poster online for the whole tour with at least one Scottish date and one Northern Ireland date, but can't find it now. All I see now are Irish dates. Donal Lunny and Kevin Burke are joining them too.

[Aidan Crossey]

I saw them a while back at The Barbican and it was a real highlight. Memories that will stay with me forever. To hear Brady sing “Arthur McBride” live after all these years was monumental. And to hear him play “Sailing Into Walpole’s Marsh” on mandolin was nothing short of inspirational.

Both Brady and Irvine were warm, funny, engaging. (Brady has a reputation for being a little aloof from time to time; definitely not aloof the night I saw him. Genuinely humble and utterly connected to the audience, I would have said.)

The only drawback for me was that Kevin Burke didn’t have an opportunity to take the lead on a few sets. I know the night was all about Andy and Paul but what a shame that Burke couldn’t have had 15 minutes or so to play three or four sets. That big E Minor set of his, for example, or some of his old Bothy Band sets. That would have been electric. But - a mere quibble; that would simply have been *more* icing on a very rich cake.

[Martin Jonas]

Paul, do not see any Scottish venues on your link, just Kilkenny, but maybe there is something I have missed?

I don't see any Scottish gigs either (nor, alas, venues anywhere near me), but as far as I can see the following four dates have been announced:

14th March: Kilkenny TradFest, The Hub, Kilkenny
16th March: Royal Theatre, Castlebar, Co. Mayo
18th March: Vicar St., Dublin
19th March: Waterfront Hall, Belfast

Martin

[deluxe59er]

Scottish date - Perth Concert Hall 21st March - here's the link for booking: https://www.horsecross.co.uk/whats-on/paul-brady-andy-irvine-94602

[Dagger Gordon]

Magic! Still hoping to see them on their reunion tour. Good to be reminded how good Paul is on mandolin actually.


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sM6-WvSItuc

[vonbiber]

Paul, do not see any Scottish venues on your link, just Kilkenny, but maybe there is something I have missed?

On Andy Irvine's web site none are listed (December thru February):
http://www.andyirvine.com/gigs.html

[Dagger Gordon]

On Andy Irvine's web site none are listed (December thru February):
http://www.andyirvine.com/gigs.html

Perth is in Scotland. 26th January.

[Bob Buckingham]

Arthur McBride is still one of my favorite Christmas songs, I know it's not about that but love it!

[Dagger Gordon]

Arthur McBride is still one of my favorite Christmas songs, I know it's not about that but love it!

Certainly Paul does a terrific version in this video.
I must say, Paul looks to be incredibly happy to be doing this music, and seems to be well prepared for it. I wonder how often he plays mandolin, whistle or bouzouki these days.

[Paul Cowham]

This is one of my favourite albums


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DehychgRSDk

It strikes me that the band for this album (and current tour) is basically planxty with Kevin Burke on fiddle subbing for Liam o'Flynn on pipes. Wonderful music.

[DougC]

What strikes me as so amazing is the tunes within the songs. The accompaniment added with the strings seems more interesting than the song itself. (IMHO of course.) They certainly have a great project going and it is an inspiration for anyone of that age to carry on.

[Paul Cowham]

What strikes me as so amazing is the tunes within the songs. The accompaniment added with the strings seems more interesting than the song itself. (IMHO of course.) They certainly have a great project going and it is an inspiration for anyone of that age to carry on.

I completely agree that the string sound they get is really interesting. I love the combination of Andy Irvine on Mandolin, Donal Lunal on bouzouki and Paul Brady on guitar, very contrapuntal in sound. I suspect that Donal Lunny is the glue that knits these instruments together.

A related band that toured recently is Usher's Island. This features Andy Irvine and the evergreen Donal Lunny, with Paddy Glackin on fiddle and 2 next generation musicians; the virtuosic guitarist John Doyle and Mike McGoldrick. According to their wikipedia page, this line up formed as a continuation of sorts of planxty. My impression is that this band is slightly more focused on tunes as compared to the Brady/Irvine line up. Great to see that these iconic Irish musicians are still active. Here is a studio track from them

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dACUvG2n258

[Dagger Gordon]

So, tonight's the night!

Perth Concert Hall, Scotland. I'll be there.

[Dagger Gordon]

So it was truly great to hear this.

Sometimes the music wasn't as tight as it could be, there were a few forgotten lines and some fluffed introductions but the magic was still there for sure.
Everybody agreed that both Andy and Paul were singing wonderfully well. Andy's harmonica playing featured quite a lot. Normally as a soloist he is playing it along with one of his bouzoukis, but he could focus directly on the harmonica much of the time and it was better. His strings playing isn't quite as good now, but he is eighty-one, I think, and he's still very impressive. His tales of being in love back as a young man in Eastern Europe and living in the forest and hitch-hiking and everything are just so damn romantic! And they did stuff like Baneasa's Green Glade, West Coast of Clare and it was wonderful. He also did one song on guitar (an old Gibson I think), which he said was the first time he'd played guitar for 50 years. Sounded great actually. Some sort of open tuning I think.

Paul was in great form. He just seemed to be so into it. He had three guitars, a bouzouki (he 's really good) and often a mandolin (looked like an old Gibson A) which seemed to give him a lot of tuning trouble, and also electric piano sometimes. He puts a lot into his performance, and yes, he did both Arthur McBride and Lakes Of Ponchartrain (the second encore).

Donal had 2 bouzoukis, a guitar, bodhran and synth. You're often not that aware of his input, which is quite low key and not usually very loud, but I'm sure he holds much of it together.

Kevin Burke looks amazing. He has a pony tail half way down his back and wears glasses. He had two fiddles and a viola as far as I could tell. They did a few sets of tunes which were often led by Paul on mandolin, but Kevin's input to the songs (usually reading written arrangements rather than busking) adds a lot. He's also quite funny. He can really play the Bulgarian stuff as well as Irish tunes.

So there we are. A gig that had been postponed three times (maybe four) finally happened.

These guys are pretty old now, but they have given us so much. Some children of my friend Duncan were there and were not very familiar with their music, but they were particularly fascinated by the Eastern European input (which they didn't know much about) and the wonderful stringy sound which pervaded most of the music.

It was a privilege to see them on stage like this.

Edit: Forgot to mention Paul plays quite a bit of tin whistle.