Customer Reviews

Irish Folk Songs And Airs

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This CD is copiled from several old Clancy LPs, all of which were worth having. Pleasant, straightforward presentation of a wide variety of tunes, some well-known, but many obscure and a real treat to discover. Even amid the recent flood of Irish traditional singing, Makem's voice still excells most of them, and he is at his best on some of these songs. A pretty decent pile of songs for your money, as well.

Let's say you've heard of the Clancy Brothers and thought it would be nice to pick up a cd of their Irish music. Let it be said that this should NOT be the first choice.

Shame on the Collectibles label for phoning this one in. Yes you have 39 tracks, and all the titles are listed. But information on this release stops there. When were these songs recorded? Is this a compilation? Who are the singers? Are these songs all traditional, or who wrote them? Why is it mastered so quietly?

Note that quite a sizable number of the songs are sung by women and children, NOT by "The Clancy Brothers and Tommy Makem". Note that most of these recording sound like old Harry Smith field recordings, and many are acapella, and that 39 tracks clock in at 59 minutes (14 tracks are less than :40 each).

Having said all that, this is a very interesting mix of "Irish Folk Songs and Airs", and children's songs and rhymes, with a smattering of fun pub songs like "The Irish Rover" and "Bold O'Donahue", and one doesn't have to stretch too far to feel like one is in the Clancy family manse being entertained by every last voice in the family tree from toddler on up (and, of course, Tommy Makem's voice and whistle). It's more "cup of tay" music than "pint of stout" music, if you know what I mean.

The album has 39 short songs, and the recordings sound very un-processed - a plus in my book for this kind of music. Great recordings containing some uncommon stuff. Peg and Bobby Clancy provide most of the vocals here, and their tracks sound like they were from the same sessions that produced the 1962 album 'So Early in the Morning' and 1963's 'Songs from Ireland' Peg & Bobby Clancy. Peg's voice is wonderful, and I hear a lot of similarity between Bobby's voice and his brother Tom Clancy's. There are two versions of 'As I Roved Out' - Track 16 a short version from Bobby Clancy and track 34 from Tommy Makem and Tommy Makem's version is one of my and my little girl's favorites. The Tommy Makem tracks on this CD (songs #28-#39) sound exactly like songs #1-#12 from Tommy Makem's album 'Songs of Tommy Makem'.

If you prefer modern recording techniques of multi-tracking, overdubbing, and signal processing, you will find this collection wanting. But the title says it all, and hearing them raw like this makes them perfect!