The Barleycorn

Last updated

The Barleycorn
Origin Belfast, Northern Ireland
Genres Irish rebel music, Irish folk, Northern Irish folk
Years active1971–1995
LabelsRelease Records
Past membersJohn Delaney
Brian McCormick
Paddy McGuigan
Liam Tiernan
Paul Anderson
Derek McCormack
Paddy Sweeney
Dennis O'Rourke
Maurice McCarthy

The Barleycorn (also written as The Barley Corn) was an Irish traditional music and rebel music band.

Contents

The band, consisting of Paddy McGuigan, Liam Tiernan, Brian McCormick and John Delaney, was formed in mid-1971 in Belfast. Other musicians joined over the years, while some of the original members left.

Their first recording was "The Men Behind the Wire", produced by Billy McBurney in Belfast and pressed in Dublin by Release Records in December 1971. [1] After its release on 14 December the song shot into the Irish charts, selling far more copies than any other single until then released in Ireland, and remained in the charts for months. [2] It reached no. 1 position in the Irish charts on 22 January 1972, where it remained for three weeks. After a gap of one week, it returned to no. 1 for two weeks on 15 February. Royalties from the recording were donated to families of the internees. [3] They also had big success with a follow-up single called 'Sing Irishmen sing'. In the following year the band made its debut album in the United States on Rex Records, The Barleycorn in America. [4]

Paddy McGuigan was the first to leave the band, despite arguably contributing the most to its success with his songwriting, in 1975. Liam Tiernan left the band in 1981 and emigrated to Boston where he started his own pub. John Delaney stayed with the group until 1995, when the group broke up. He emigrated to the United States. [3]

After the late Derek McCormack, "one of the finest voices of his generation", [5] joined the band about 1982, the band undertook a change of direction to showcase his lyrical voice. The singer/guitarist Paddy Sweeney was in the group before going on to join the Dublin City Ramblers. Derek McCormack had previously been a member of Dermot O'Brien's band and later bass player with the Fureys.

The Barleycorn released "The Fields of Athenry" in 1982, reaching no. 7 in Ireland. [6]

Barleycorn became firm favourites when they were the resident bands at a pub on the Expo88 grounds in Brisbane, Australia. They were so popular the pub operator brought them back for the last weeks of Expo. [7]

Personnel

Discography

Related Research Articles

"The Men Behind the Wire" is a song written and composed by Paddy McGuigan of the Barleycorn folk group in the aftermath of Operation Demetrius. The song describes police raids in Northern Ireland by British security forces during the Troubles, and the "men behind the wire" refers to those interned without trial at HM Prison Maze, HM Prison Magilligan and onboard HMS Maidstone.

Planxty were an Irish folk music band formed in January 1972, consisting initially of Christy Moore, Andy Irvine, Dónal Lunny, and Liam O'Flynn. They transformed and popularized Irish folk music, touring and recording to great acclaim.

"The Fields of Athenry" is a song written in 1979 by Pete St. John in the style of an Irish folk ballad. Set during the Great Famine of the 1840s, the lyrics feature a fictional man from near Athenry in County Galway, who stole food for his starving family and has been sentenced to transportation to the Australian penal colony at Botany Bay. It has become a widely known, popular anthem for Irish sports supporters.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">The Dubliners</span> Irish folk band

The Dubliners were an Irish folk band founded in Dublin in 1962 as The Ronnie Drew Ballad Group, named after its founding member; they subsequently renamed themselves The Dubliners. The line-up saw many changes in personnel over their fifty-year career, but the group's success was centred on lead singers Luke Kelly and Ronnie Drew. The band garnered international success with their lively Irish folk songs, traditional street ballads and instrumentals.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">De Dannan</span> Irish folk music group

De Dannan is an Irish folk music group. It was formed in 1975 by Frankie Gavin (fiddle), Alec Finn, Johnny "Ringo" McDonagh (bodhrán) and Charlie Piggott (banjo) as a result of sessions in Hughes's Pub in Spiddal, County Galway, Ireland, with Dolores Keane (vocals) subsequently being invited to join the band. The fiddler Mickey Finn (1951–1987) is also acknowledged to have been a founding member.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">The Irish Rovers</span> Irish-Canadian musical group

The Irish Rovers is a group of Irish musicians that formed in Toronto, Canada in 1963 and named after the traditional song "The Irish Rover". They are best known for their international television series, contributing to the popularization of Irish Music in North America, and for the songs "The Unicorn", "Drunken Sailor", "Wasn't That a Party", "The Orange and the Green", "Whiskey on a Sunday", "Lily the Pink", "Finnegan's Wake" and "The Black Velvet Band".

Patrick Reilly is an Irish folk singer and guitarist. Born in Rathcoole, County Dublin, he is one of Ireland's most famous balladeers and is best known for his renditions of "The Fields of Athenry", "Rose of Allendale" and "The Town I Loved So Well". Reilly released his version of "The Fields of Athenry" as a single in 1983; it was the most successful version of this song, remaining in the Irish charts for 72 weeks. He achieved number 1 in Ireland with the Liam Reilly written song "Flight of Earls" in 1988.

<i>The Long Black Veil</i> (album) 1995 studio album by The Chieftains

The Long Black Veil is an album by the traditional Irish folk band The Chieftains. Released in 1995, it is one of the most popular and best-selling albums by the band. It reached number 17 in the album charts. The band teamed up with well-known musicians such as Mick Jagger of the Rolling Stones and Van Morrison. The album went gold in the U.S. and Australia, and Double-Platinum in Ireland. One of the tracks, "Have I Told You Lately That I Love You?", sung and written by Van Morrison, won the Grammy Award for Best Pop Collaboration with Vocals in 1996.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Dónal Lunny</span> Irish folk musician and producer (born 1947)

Dónal Lunny is an Irish folk musician and producer. He plays guitar and bouzouki, as well as keyboards and bodhrán. As a founding member of popular bands Planxty, The Bothy Band, Moving Hearts, Coolfin, Mozaik, LAPD, and Usher's Island, he has been at the forefront of the renaissance of Irish traditional music for over five decades.

Redgum were an Australian folk and political music group formed in Adelaide in 1975 by singer-songwriters John Schumann and Michael Atkinson on guitars/vocals, and Verity Truman on flute/vocals; they were later joined by Hugh McDonald on fiddle and Chris Timms on violin. All four had been students at Flinders University and together developed a strong political voice. They are best known for their protest song exploring the impact of war in the 1980s "I Was Only 19", which peaked at No. 1 on the National singles charts. The song is in the Australasian Performing Right Association (APRA) list of Top 30 of All Time Best Australian Songs created in 2001.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">The Elders (band)</span> American folk rock band

The Elders is a six-piece, internationally touring American folk rock band formed in Kansas City, Missouri.

<i>Alive Alive-O</i> 1997 live album by The Dubliners

Alive Alive-O is a double album by the Irish Folk Group The Dubliners which was recorded live throughout several Evenings in December 1996 in Germany at the end of their European tour. After the departure of Ronnie Drew, The Dubliners were joined by the famous Irish singer Paddy Reilly who lends his voice to several ballads on the album. John Sheahan's daughter Ceoladh guests with her father, duetting on fiddle with him on his composition, "Among Friends". The album is notable for some mixed German-English song introductions by Sean Cannon, causing widespread laughter among the audience.

<i>Live from the Gaiety</i> 2003 live album by The Dubliners

Live from the Gaiety is a live album by The Dubliners. It was recorded during the Irish leg of their tour celebrating forty years on the road. The double album was recorded at the Gaiety Theatre in Dublin in June 2002. All surviving members took part. A companion double DVD of the concert in its entirety was also released.

Patrick Joseph McGuigan, known as Paddy Joe McGuigan, was an Irish traditional musician and songwriter who played for some years with The Barleycorn folk group. He wrote a number of well-known Irish rebel songs, including "The Men Behind the Wire", "The Boys of the Old Brigade", "Irish Soldier Laddie", "Freedom Walk" and "Bring Them Home".

Crubeen, formerly The Longkesh Ramblers, was a 1970s Irish folk band from Newry, County Down, Northern Ireland.

<i>Eagles Whistle</i> 1976 studio album by Crubeen

Eagle's Whistle is the debut album by Irish folk group Crubeen released on LP record by EMI Ireland in 1976.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Dublin City Ramblers</span> Irish folk band

TheDublin City Ramblers is an Irish folk band, originally formed by the name of The Quare Fellas in 1970. The band has had a long line of members and Sean McGuinness is the only current member of the original line-up, that also included Patsy Watchorn later member of The Dubliners.

<i>Words & Music</i> (Planxty album) 1983 studio album by Planxty

Words & Music is the sixth album by the Irish folk band Planxty, produced by Dónal Lunny and recorded at Windmill Lane Studios in late October and early November of 1982; it would be their only release on the WEA label. In 1989, the album was reprinted by the Shanachie label, who have kept it in print ever since.

<i>Between the Jigs and the Reels: A Retrospective</i> 2016 compilation album by Planxty

Between the Jigs and the Reels: A Retrospective is a two-disc anthology by the Irish folk band Planxty. It includes a 17-track CD and a 36-track DVD with over two hours of previously unreleased footage (1972–1982) from RTÉ archives.

References

  1. ↑ 15 January 1972 issue of Spotlight magazine
  2. ↑ Nick Guida. "The Barleycorn in America: the Barleycorn at theBalladeers". Theballadeers.com. Archived from the original on 29 March 2012. Retrieved 19 March 2014.
  3. 1 2 "Barleycorn". Irish-showbands.com. Retrieved 19 March 2014.
  4. ↑ "Rex Records (USA)". IrishRock.org. 31 May 2016. Archived from the original on 5 August 2016.
  5. ↑ Nick Guida. "A Song for Ireland (The Very Best of): the Barleycorn at theBalladeers". Theballadeers.com. Retrieved 19 March 2014.
  6. ↑ "Search The Charts". The Irish Charts: All There Is To Know. Irish Recorded Music Association. Retrieved 12 November 2011.
  7. ↑ per
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.