distributed ''free with'' orbis partwork the blues collection #84, which contains some details relating to the individual tracks, and an essay upon the east coast blues of the usa.
columbia / sony music ireland, so i'd be equally happy for this to be flagged 'ireland': it's legally available at least throughout the eu, though.
the ''traditional?'' query as to the origin and proper composer credit for ''(the pursuit of) farmer michael hayes'' is because christy notes he came across the lyrics in 1975, recorded a version with planxty in 1978, that dónal lunny composed the second part to the melody, and that he, himself has varied the farmer's journey along its way, and to a land of liberty.
musicians:
christy moore: vocals, guitar and bodhrán
declan sinnott: electric, acoustic, spanish and dobro guitars, keyboards, bass, drums, bouzouki, mandolin, backing vocals
tim edey: accordion, guitar, bouzouki
vickie keating: backing vocals
mandy murphy: backing vocals
west coast string quartet:
niamh crowley: violin
seamus mcguire: violin
neil martin: cello
ken rice: viola
string arrangements by neil martin
engineered by tim martin
produced by declan sinnott
recorded at ballymountain, co. cork
mixed at the factory, dublin
project director: paddy doherty
tour manager: michael devine
sound: david meade
stage sound: dikon whitehead
stage manager: john meade
lighting: geoff ryan
photography: london feis, finsbury park, saturday 18th june 2011 by dikon whitehead
package design: atelier david smith
quad5point1: ha! - yes, like you, i bought that first lp of theirs back when it first came out, on vertigo; quite liked it, but it didn't stick in my mind after i found other lps to play myself & friends, or as they found 'em, to play themselves and the rest of us; then while at university radio york, i asked island for a review copy of wizards and fairies^W^W^W demons and wizards, and they sent me a merkin copy iirc - and again, i enjoyed listening to it (and played a couple of tracks from it ''on air'') - but it didn't ''stick''. naught wrong with their sound in itself, but a bit ''samey'' over a whole lp, maybe - and not particularly striking/memorable lyrics, possibly ?
christy moore: vocals, guitar, bouzouki (made by andrew robinson) and bodhrán (made by joe kelly of ''the brow'' (iiuc))
with:
andy irvine: mandolin, harmonica, mandolin (tyopped as ''valdolin''), dulcimer, bouzouki and vocals;
barry moore: guitar and vocals;
noel hill: concertinas (c/g and b flat/f systems);
tony linnane: fiddle;
gabriel mckeon: uilleann pipes (concert set made by bruce du ve from spiddal, c set made by coyne (circa 1800) and obtained from matt kiernan of dublin);
jimmy faulkner: electric, acoustic and slide guitars;
rosemary flanagan: cello
''trad. arr. by christy moore'' will likely mean, ''arranged by christy moore and the other musicians playing on the track''; where this credit comes after one particular musician's name, it indicates that he introduced it to them, and they'll likely have worked up the arrangement they play between them, after.
in the booklet, christy notes where and from whom the different tunes and airs were learned after giving their titles, where known, and the lyrics of any song set to them.
(it can be difficult to know whether the singer or musician you learned a tune or air from composed it, or whether it's their arrangement of another's - and they mayn't've known whether the musician they learned it from composed it... so you give the credit, as best you can...)
(- and leave whoever's entering it on cdcat (or lpcat, or 45cat) the headache of trying to sort it all out.. :-))
- ''if it's there, including it's best - and might even help someone identify what they've got, avoid wasting time adding a duplicate entry here - or, perhaps, order & buy a copy for themselves, or as a present for somebody else...''
(though yr hmbl srppnt.'s not at all sure i'd want this much uriah heep - a little heep goes a long way, and two lps was enough for me, and has been - for forty-five years, now!)
i wonder whether the included recording of ''medicated goo'' is the very sharp charting single version, or the greatly inferior ''last exit'' album track, which sounds like a rehearsal - it even includes the length of the intended sudden silent break being counted out by (parts of) the rhythm section continuing playing a basic riff, so everyone else comes back in on time...
musicians on disc 2: christy moore, of course: vocals, acoustic guitar
plus:
steve benbow: guitar on 2#21;
mary black: backing vocals on 2#12;
dave bland: concertina on 2#5;
paul brady: harmonium on 2#12;
robbie brennan: drums on 2#1;
kevin burke: fiddle on 2#1, 3, 16;
clive collins: fiddle on 2#5;
jack fallon: bass guitar on 2#21;
jimmy faulkner: acoustic guitar, (+ electric guitar on 2#1) 2#1, 3, 4, 7, 8, 9, 10, 13, 15, 16;
andy irvine: mandolin on 2#1, 2 (+ harmonica on 2), 5, (- mandolin + backing vocals on 6) 6, 13, 16;
ike isaacs: guitar on 2#21;
dónal lunny: guitar, bouzouki (+ moog synthesiser on 2#1) on 2#1, 2, 3, (- bouzouki, + backing vocals on 4) 4, 5, (- bouzouki + backing vocals on #6,7) 6, 7, 8, (- guitar, + backing vocals on #11) 11, 13, 16;
barney mckenna: banjo on 2#13;
declan mcnelis: bass guitar on 2#1, 3, 8, 12, 16;
barry moore: backing vocals on 2#6;
jimmy moynihan: mandolin + backing vocals on 2#11;
liam o'flynn: uilleann pipes on 2#2;
ray swinfield: flute on 2#21;
denny wright: guitar, banjo on 2#21.
@robozuc scans appreciated, especially of the notes. (wish i could provide scans of items i enter...)
the second page of the notes contains two ah, ''inaccuracies'' committed by universal/colin escott:
at the time and during their two lives, the group(s) named ''traffic'' were not regarded as ''a supergroup'', nor written up as one sfaicr. they were, perhaps, the first group - certainly one of the first groups - to find a relatively cheap house, cottage or unused pub to rent together, to practice, jell as a group, and to compose and work up a set-list of songs to perform on their first lp and live tour: fairport convention memorably did likewise, before ''liege and leaf'', with the reorganisation forced upon them (and again, later on after sandy denny left them to form fotheringay) iirc.
- ''getting it together in the country'' or ''retiring to the country to get it together'' very soon became something of a cliché...
t'other is that when they broke up (for the first time), there was no intention declared by the group members of re-forming after one year - or any other length of time, not even an indefinite length.
''last exit'' was cobbled together, consisting of half an lp's-worth of 'completed, but unfinished' studio tracks, really needing further work on them°, and a very poorly-recorded (on a cassette recorder?) live at the fillmore west side of just two tracks, to fill...
(° - the single of ''medicated goo'' is a different recording, much tighter and with a much cleaner sound than that of the album track.)
''blind faith'' was intended to last, and they'd begun recording a second lp before they split up over ''irreconcilable personal and musical differences'' - ginger baker being notoriously impossible to get on with - alcohol and/or certain pharmaceuticals having at least a little to do with these problems, as he later stated in a documentary; but he was musically driven, too, and inclined to be intolerant of anyone with a musical vision even a little different from his.
when ''blind faith'' broke up, winwood started work on recording a solo lp, calling on a variety of friends that were part of the music scene around island records - and it turned into a reunion, and then the re-formation of ''traffic'' along the way through the recording sessions: and the solo lp, into one of the all-time classic albums, ''john barleycorn must die'', by traffic.
the front insert is a twenty page saddle-stapled booklet, mostly notes on the circumstances - biographical as well as on the sources, musicians and recordings; n.b. some of the details add to, or implicitly or even explicitly contradict the compositional credits in the eight pages of details, which is whence the credits given above are taken; these details include the musicians playing with christy moore on the various tracks, who include mary black, paul brady, andy irvine, dónal lunny, johnny moynihan, liam o'flynn (aka liam og flynn).
it is declared sixteen tracks are previously unreleased recordings, but it is not stated which, except possibly by implication of the individually noted tracks' copyright dates.
the final page is a note by christy moore regarding the circumstances of universal music ireland's takeover of tara records, their consequent (and subsequent) early tara recordings project - and the creation of this cd album, itself, dated 13/8/2020.
in the track listing of the two discs on the back, 14 tracks on disc 1 and 15 tracks on disc 2 are marked as previously unreleased on cd in ireland:
disc 1 #1, 2, 3, 5, 8-17,
disc 2 #1, 3, 8-20
the single track listed as disc 2 #2 is a set of two separate songs, the first running straight on into the second: this is a set christy moore and planxty have used for half a century.
the following tracks are noted as live recordings in the rear insert track listing:
live at adare manor, 1980 & 1981, rté (raidió teilifís éireann (then radio telifís éireann)):
disc 1 tracks 11, 12 (1981), tracks 14-17 (1980);
live in dublin, 1978:
disc 1 tracks 19, 20
disc 2 tracks 4, 7
live at the abbey tavern, 1980, rté:
disc 2 tracks 9, 10, 12
live on ''the late, late show'', 1979, rte (no acute accent on the 'e'):
disc 2 track 11
bbc live session from ''as i roved out'', 1979:
disc 2 tracks 14, 17, 19
live on ''aisling gheal'', 1979, rté:
disc 2 track 15
live on ''ballad sheet'', 1969, rté:
disc 2 tracks 18, 20
yes, you're right as to the '4', phil, so i'll^W i've corrected that below; i've given this cd as 1994 (phil & h).
the sense i construed from the wording on disc and rear inlay was that although the disc was a sony records (uk) ltd. disc, in ireland it should be ordered from them at the dublin address (or from your usual wholesaler?), rather than from their uk address, in london - nor in belfast, if they distributed thence to norn iron - bicvwbw.
(- wasn't it a moot point by then, or had we in the yuk-of-gb-&-ni not yet transished to the full free trade terms of the dreaded ee-yeww! under which any product legally for sale in one member state could and must be freely exportable to any other member state° - ?)
° - excepting only newly-joined members still undergoing their transitions to full free trade within the eu
the cd is undated, as is the rear inlay; the saddle-stapled six page insert booklet is undated, save for christy moore's introduction on p.2, which he signed off on 26/7/1994, so this cd cannot antedate this - and is prob'ly 1994, possibly 1995. (philmh's phenomenal memory banks may come to my/our assistance...)
i've given this as european because the disc bears the sacem logo, above mcps/biem. (LC)0162).
the disc states made in austria 31-477704-10, the booklet 4777042000 and contains full lyrics.
philmh: there's a further possibility as might be worth considering: on at least two, fairly widely-separated occasions, ordinary retail recorded music sales in the uk, at least, crashed so badly that virgin shops (including virgin-ames°) sourced massive amounts of stock ultra-cheaply from anywhere they could, including on the first occasion italy, whence they obtained inter alia a wide variety of very variable quality (and rather dubious legality (?)) audio cassettes; and cds with minimal, single-fold printed paper front inserts whose outward-facing panel might match the previous saddle-stapled booklet or multiply-folded inserts, but also music on previously unknown-in-the-uk labels with typically single-side-printed, folded paper front inserts - or even single, unfolded front inserts.
is it not possible that these bulk purchases included warners' (and their wholesalers'?) overstocks being shifted to territories for which they were not originally intended, but where warners did hold the rights (or there being little chance warners could ever trace the particular wholesalers selling such "mega job lots" of their overstocks to virgin in the uk, as they weren't meant to) ?
° - the second occasion that i recall was well after the closure of all the virgin-ames shops, including that in lancaster, and well after the prerecorded audiocassette had disappeared
image 1304548 is of the back of the card sleeve slipped over the standard crystal cd case.
the rear inlay bears no barcode block, number, indica etc.
the sanctuary records group ltd. / essential / castle music indica, barcode block and number are printed in black upon a peelable white label upon the outside bottom right of the cd case.
images 1304541 & 2 are of the front & back of the card sleeve slipped over the standard crystal cd case.
the rear inlay bears the transatlantic lp cat# top left corner, and
transatlantic records ltd 120 marylebone lane london w1 bottom left corner
no barcode, number, other indica block is printed upon it:
the sanctuary records group ltd. / essential / castle music indica, barcode block and barcode number are printed in black upon a peelable white label bottom on the outside bottom righthand corner of the standard case.