| Welcome Here Kind Stranger | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
 | ||||
| Studio album by | ||||
| Released | 1978 | |||
| Recorded | March and April 1978 | |||
| Studio | Lombard Sound, Dublin, Ireland | |||
| Genre | Irish folk music | |||
| Length | 43:03 | |||
| Label | Mulligan | |||
| Producer | Paul Brady, Dónal Lunny | |||
| Paul Brady chronology | ||||
| ||||
Welcome Here Kind Stranger is a 1978 album by Paul Brady. After leaving The Johnstons, Brady toured with Planxty until they disbanded in 1975, and recorded a duo album with Andy Irvine in 1976.
Welcome Here Kind Stranger is Brady's first solo album and his final folk recording before switching to mainstream rock. Its title is a phrase taken from one of the album's songs: "The Lakes of Pontchartrain". The album was initially released (vinyl and cassette) on Dónal Lunny's Mulligan label (LUN024) in 1978 and was voted "Folk Album of the Year" by Melody Maker magazine.
The album was never officially released on CD due to a breakdown in the relationship between Brady and the Mulligan label and remained out of print for many years, until finally re-mastered by Aidan Foley at Masterlabs and released in 2009 on Brady's own label, PeeBee Music. [1]
The songs on Welcome Here Kind Stranger are highly arranged – instruments are heard then disappear as they are replaced by others. Brady added musical accompaniment to his interpretation of "Don't Come Again", a song recorded by Hugh Shields of Eddie Butcher and his wife Gracie singing it in 1975. [2] "I Am A Youth That's Inclined To Ramble" is Number 788 in Sam Henry's Songs of the People. [2] The lyrics of "Jackson and Jane" are from Robin Morton's collection Folk Songs Sung in Ulster, for which Brady wrote a new melody. [2] "The Lakes of Pontchartrain" was previously recorded by Christy Moore on Planxty's album Cold Blow and the Rainy Night , though Brady's version is quite different. He later re-recorded it in Irish as "Bruach Loch Pontchartrain" for the 2002 compilation album Eist Vol.2: Éist Arís, Songs In Their Native Language. The historical context of an Irishman in Louisiana is unclear but may be set during the Battle of New Orleans. [2]
"The Creel" is another version of "The Keach in the Creel" (Child 281) and the tune and most of the words come from Packie Manus Byrne from Corkermore, Killybegs, County Donegal, to which Brady added verses from other versions in the Child collection as well as a few lines of his own. [2] It is followed by "Out the Door and Over the Wall", an instrumental piece composed by Brady as an exercise in Balkan time signatures, on which he plays tin whistle and overdubs three bouzoukis; it was arranged by Lunny, who also plays bass bouzouki. [2] Brady sings "Young Edmund in the Lowlands Low" unaccompanied, a song he learnt from Geordie Hanna from the townland of Derrytresk near Coalisland in east Tyrone. [2] "The Boy on the Hilltop"/"Johnny Goin' to Ceilidh" is a set of reels; the first was originally recorded in the 1930s by Sligo fiddler Paddy Killoran in New York, and the second comes from Fermanagh flute player Cathal McConnell. [2] "Paddy's Green Shamrock Shore" is a variant of Sam Henry's H192 that Brady learnt from Kevin Mitchell of Derry. [2]
| The Missing Liberty Tapes | |
|---|---|
 The Missing Liberty Tapes album cover | |
| Live album by | |
| Released | 2002 |
| Recorded | 21 July 1978 |
| Venue | Liberty Hall, Dublin |
| Length | 58:38 |
| Label | PeeBee Music |
| Producer | Paul Brady, Dónal Lunny |
To launch Welcome Here Kind Stranger, Brady gave a concert on 21 July 1978 at Liberty Hall, Dublin.
With the participation of Irvine, Lunny, Liam O'Flynn, Matt Molloy, Paddy Glackin and Noel Hill, he presented the music from the album, minus "Young Edmund In The Lowlands Low" and "The Boy On The Hilltop/Johnny Goin' To Ceilidh", but adding three songs from the album Andy Irvine/Paul Brady : "The Jolly Soldier", "Mary and the Soldier", and his own version of "Arthur McBride", plus two reels: "The Crooked Road to Dublin/The Bucks of Oranmore".
At Brady's request, The Liberty Hall performance was recorded on his own domestic Akai 4000DB reel-to-reel tape machine by Brian Masterson, who had engineered Welcome Here Kind Stranger and knew the music well.
After forgetting that he had stored the tapes in a box of old vinyl albums, Brady found them in his attic in 2000, still in excellent condition. Intent on having them transferred to CD but unable to secure interest from a major label, he decided to release these recordings as a live album on his own PeeBee Music label in 2002, under the title of The Missing Liberty Tapes. [3]
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.
Andrew Kennedy Irvine is an Irish folk musician, singer-songwriter, and a founding member of Sweeney's Men, Planxty, Patrick Street, Mozaik, LAPD and Usher's Island. He also featured in duos, with Dónal Lunny, Paul Brady, Mick Hanly, Dick Gaughan, Rens van der Zalm, and Luke Plumb. Irvine plays the mandolin, mandola, bouzouki, harmonica, and hurdy-gurdy.
Paul Joseph Brady is an Irish singer-songwriter and musician from Strabane, Northern Ireland. His work straddles folk and pop. He was interested in a wide variety of music from an early age.
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.
Prosperous is the second album by Irish folk musician Christy Moore, released in 1972. His first album, Paddy on the Road, was recorded by Dominic Behan in 1969 and has long been out of print. In addition to Moore's guitar and voice, Prosperous featured musicians Andy Irvine, Liam Óg O'Flynn and Dónal Lunny. These four musicians later gave themselves the name Planxty, making this album something of the first Planxty album in all but name. Other musicians included Kevin Conneff on bodhrán, Clive Collins on fiddle, and Dave Bland on concertina.
The Irish bouzouki is an adaptation of the Greek bouzouki. The newer Greek tetrachordo bouzouki was introduced into Irish traditional music in the mid-1960s by Johnny Moynihan of the folk group Sweeney's Men, who retuned it from its traditional Greek tuning C³F³A³D⁴ to G²D³A³D⁴, a tuning he had pioneered previously on the mandolin. Alec Finn, first in the Cana Band and subsequently in De Dannan, introduced the first Greek trichordo (3 course) bouzouki into Irish music.
Planxty is the first album by the Irish folk group Planxty, recorded in London during early September 1972 and released in early 1973.
Cold Blow and the Rainy Night is the third album by the Irish folk group Planxty. It was recorded in Sarm Studios, Whitechapel, London during August 1974 and released the same year. It takes its title from the third song on the album, "Cold Blow and the Rainy Night".
The Well Below the Valley is the second album by the Irish folk group Planxty. It was recorded at Escape Studios in Kent, England, from 18 June 1973 until the end of the month, and was released later that year. It takes its title from the sixth song on the album, "The Well Below the Valley".
Ordinary Man is the tenth studio album by Irish folk artist, Christy Moore. It features songs like "Ordinary Man", "St. Brendan's Voyage" and "Another Song is Born". The album featured songs by Peter Hames, Johnny Mulhearn, Hugh McDonald, Colm Gallagher and Floyd Red Crow Westerman; as well as some backing vocals by Enya on "Quiet Desperation", "Sweet Music Roll On" and "The Diamondtina [sic] Drover" and some fine uilleann pipes work by Liam O'Flynn. The original release of the album featured the song "They Never Came Home" which Moore wrote for the victims and families of the Stardust fire. The song was quickly removed from the album because the lyrics were found to be libelous.
After The Break is the fourth studio album by the Irish folk music band Planxty, recorded at Windmill Lane Studios from 18 to 30 June 1979 and released the same year. It was the band's first of two releases on Tara Records.
The Woman I Loved So Well is the fifth studio album by Planxty. Like their previous album, After The Break, the album was recorded at Windmill Lane Studios and released by Tara Records. Co-produced by band member Dónal Lunny and engineer Brian Masterson, the album was recorded in April and May of 1980 and released on LP in July of that year. It remains in print on CD and in digital form from Tara to date.
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.
Abocurragh is an album by Andy Irvine recorded in Dublin, Norway, Australia, Hungary and Brittany between February 2009 and April 2010. It was produced by Dónal Lunny who also plays on all the tracks, except the last one.
Rainy Sundays... Windy Dreams is Andy Irvine's first solo album, produced by Dónal Lunny and recorded at Dublin's Windmill Lane Studios in late 1979. It was released in January 1980 by Tara Records.
Andy Irvine/Paul Brady is an album recorded by Andy Irvine and Paul Brady when they formed a duo, after Planxty broke up on 5 December 1975. For this recording, they were joined by Dónal Lunny and Kevin Burke.
Changing Trains is the first studio album recorded by Mozaik in Budapest during November 2005, and for which they had rehearsed new material a few months earlier, in January and April.
Andy Irvine/70th Birthday Concert at Vicar St 2012 is a live recording of a pair of concerts held at Dublin's Vicar Street venue, on 16 and 17 June 2012, to celebrate Andy Irvine's 70th birthday.
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.
Usher's Island is an Irish folk band featuring Andy Irvine, Dónal Lunny, Paddy Glackin, Michael McGoldrick and John Doyle. Their repertoire consists of Irish traditional songs and tunes, as well as songs written by Irvine and Doyle, respectively.
