Salut! Live

We had two rules when pulling this follow-up list together. The first was that we weren’t going to add more songs by singers we’d already featured (unless they were collaborating with others) so although Salut! Live is a huge Christy Moore fan, he doesn’t get a second song of his own, despite the suggestion of Missing You.

And second, the singers, or the songs, have to have some connection to folk and roots music. So we were happy to include Thin Lizzy’s Whiskey in the Jar, but have turned down the suggestion of Wings and Give Ireland Back to the Irish.

In all cases, NB denotes Nominated By rather than Nota Bene (note well). The Salut! Live team is CR (Colin Randall) and AC (Andrew Curry). We’re both resigned to the likelihood of further annoying omissions being noted.

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Side One: Women of Ireland 

Dolores Keane, My Own Dear Galway Bay. We’d had Mary Black in our St Patrick’s Day CD, but readers definitely disagreed. Here’s the much preferred Dolores Keane with one of her signature songs. 

Kate Bush My Lagan Love Drawing on her Irish roots and brother John's new lyrics, Bush brilliantly interprets one of the most renowned of Irish ballads. NB CR

Niamh Parsons We (CR) would have chosen Tinkerman’s Daughter here, but out of deference to our readers’ choices we’ve gone for Bonny Woodhall  instead. NB Craig Hannah

Mary Coughlan  Ride On. Christy Moore is also associated with Jimmy MacCarthy's mesmerising song - horses are the literal theme, MacCarthy was once a jockey but his lyrics are more broadly to do with heartbreak and separation.  does the song at least equal justice, aided and abetted by Davy Spillane's Uilleann pipes, a contribution as important to the recording as was Raphael Ravenscroft's saxophone solo to Gerry Rafferty's Baker Street. NB CR 

Muirrean Nic Amhlaoabh, Óró Sé Do Bheatha Abhaile. The celebrated Danu lead singer from Dingle, Co Kerry. This Gaelic song was recorded outside in one take for St Patrick’s Day a few years ago. NB Ian Danielsen.

Dervish Ar Éirinn ní nesfainn cé hí The singer is Cathy Jordan. This is lovely - both the song and the accompanying video. NB the prolific Tom Delaney ("this is gorgeous") .

Sinead O'Connor I'll tell me ma. Not the best Irish song you'll ever hear, but lots of fun and gives a  glimpse at the astonishing body of work left behind by the recently departed O'Connor. NB Alistair C Diamond

Grehan Sisters Cricklewood Fond memories of the vibrant English folk club scene of the late 1960s. Three Irish siblings hail a traditionally very Irish London district. NB CR

Karen Casey The Newry Highwayman  Solo or, as here, with Solas, she is up there with the finest of Irish female singers. NB Tom Delaney

Anne Byrne Willie O'Winbsury Since Salut! Live recorded Anne"s death aged 78 at the end of 2020, there has been a procession of tributes from readers, posted at intervals as they came across our site. She was a remarkable singer and this is a beautiful ballad also associated with Pentangle. NB CR

Andrea Corr and Nolwenn Leroy Mná na hÉireann (Women of Ireland). An Irish/Breton collaboration (Leroy is huge in France) for Peadar Ó Doirnín's 18th century poem as set to Seán Ó Riada's haunting air. Included in honour of Tom Delaney who deplored CR's choice of Dance to Tipperary's techno take on Fields of Athenry, live before a game at Celtic Park: "If you’re gonna throw that crap in, why not some decent pop like the Saw Doctors and The Corrs."

Side Two: In the tradition

Daoiri Farrell, The Creggan White Hare. Just one man and a bouzouki, but as one of the comments on this video says, “the whole of Ireland is in there”. NB  Andy Powell

Bothy Band Fionnghuala Hands up. Bothy Band was a shameful absentee from our compilation. Sung by Micheál O Domhnaill with Triona Ni Dhomnaill and Donal Lunny providing harmony vocals. NB Robert Tincher

The Kings of Connaught, Rocky Road to Dublin. There are lots of versions around of Rocky Road to Dublin which tells of a young man's adventures and the people he meets as he sets out to seek his fortune. This version linked above is the favourite version of Salut! Live contributor Bill Taylor.

The Johnstons 

The Curragh of Kildare Such a great group, Paiul Brady and Mike Moloney, Lucy and Adrienne. Track chosen from numerous possibilities . NB CR 

The Wolfe Tones, Whelan’s To mark their retirement tour this year after an astonishing 60 years of performing. NB Joseph Shinkwin

Clancy Brothers Bold Fenian Men The band that paved the way for so many of the others. A big shoutout to Dori Bruce, whose succinct nomination was “Liam Clancy singing the phonebook.” NB Darian Nelson

Ye Vagabonds Lowlands of Holland Ye Vagabonds are one of Irish folk music’s younger bands, winning a stack of awards in 2019. This performance of Lowlands of Holland was on RTE’s Other Voices programme in 2018, before their breakthrough year. NB Lynda Seal Miller

Clannad Siúil, a Rún The traditional song from the 17th century, with English verses and a Gaelic chorus—Máire Brennan sings the vocal. NB Tom Gregg 

The Barleycorn, The Men Behind the Wire. Written by the band's Paddy McGuigan about British military raids in Northern Ireland and the hundreds held without trial at prison camps such as Long Kesh.  NB Bill Taylor

The Boys of the Lough Angus Polka No. 1, Angus Polka No. 2, Donegal Barn Dance John Hammill actually recommended the much-loved and well-covered song The Flower of Magherally, in which Cathal McConnel, according to the indispensable Mainly Norfolk folk site, sings of a "surpassingly beautiful women" from near Banbridge, Co Down. But sadly that seems unavailable online—and possibly completely out of print—so we have put in one of their dance sets here instead.  NB  John Hamill

Side Three: Home and away

La Lugh: The Emigrant's Farewell (NB Kit Bailey, who says "Try it, it’s the most beautiful performance. ) 

Rev Cait Finnegan County Woodside Described as a "simple song about growing up Irish in Woodside, Queens, NYC". NB John Noctor

Planxty Hewlett  One of so many beautiful airs composed by the blind harper Turlough O'Carolan, and performed by the band that broke the mould of Irish traditional music. And an opportunity to hear Liam O’Flynn’s wonderful tone on the pipes.  NB  Gerry Gooper

Christy Moore with Stockton's Wing St Patrick was a Gentleman Christy Moore gets to sneak in again after all, flanked by Stockton’s Wing. Here he is with a lot more hair than he has these days, and the original line up of Stockton’s Wing, back in 1980. NB John Egan, among readers who rightly wanted to see Stockton's Wing featured.

Jimmy Crowley St Brendan’s Fair Isle It’s  described as an amusing song about the voyage of St Brendan in search of the “blessed isle”. A legendary US folk musician, Jimmy Cliftwood, wrote it (among more than 6,000 songs credited to him). NB Dave Winder

Dick Gaughan Song For Ireland Dick Gaughan grew up in Scotland, but his father was Irish, and this song could easily easily be a candidate for an Irish national anthem should the country ever move on from The Soldier's Song. It was written by Phil and June Colclough, who were English, after a stay in Ireland. NB Barbara McNinch

Carlos Nunez St Patrick’s An Dro Galician musician, Breton song, celebrating the Irish saint. The Chieftains join Carlos Nunez for this performance. NB Remy Le Fer

Phil Coulter The Town I Loved So Well As if to make up for having also written Puppet on a String, Coulter gave us the minor glory of this lament, ultimately optimistic, for Stroke City (London/Derry, as it says on the city’s buses). The Dubliners recorded the song in classic form. Coulter simply plays it, beautiful at the funeral of John Hume. NB CR

Side Four: St Patrick goes pop

The Pogues, Sally MacLennane Inexplicably we managed to miss the Pogues in our St Patrick’s Day playlist. Fortunately someone noticed this large gap. Here’s Sally McLennane, “apparently inspired by a bar Shane MacGowan's uncle ran in Dagenham which catered to Irish workers at the nearby Ford plant. Great, raucous, boozy fun,” says Bill Taylor.

Van Morrison, with the Chieftains, Carrickfergus One of the great Irish voices sings one of the great Irish songs—a dying man in exile takes a bittersweet look back at his life. NB Bill Taylor, Jessica Chaves

Elvis Costello, Any King’s Shilling. Declan McManus has tried on any number of different musical styles down the years, but Spike is an Irish-infused record, and this track has Christy Moore, Donal Lunny and Davy Spillane playing on it.  NB Dave Winder

Horslips, The High Reel. The Horlips definitely took Irish music into electric territory, but this is a high energy performance of a traditional Irish reel. NB Pat Vander Reest

Thin Lizzy, Whiskey in the Jar. Irish, not Scots whiskey, obviously. Whiskey in the Jar is a traditional classic - but not a traditional version. Nor is it the heavy metal Metallica rendition (which I love, writes Bill Taylor). This is Thin Lizzy: Irish song, Irish band, and their breakout hit.

De Dannan How to make Hey Jude sound like an Irish reel. 

The Saw Doctors Joyce Country Ceili Band The Irish rockers and chart-toppers celebrate the rural roots of Irish music. NB Ricky Clarke

The Byrds, Wild Mountain Thyme. The song has a mixed ancestry - originally written as The Braes of Balquhither by the 18th century Scottish ‘weaver-poet’, Robert Tannahill, and adapted about a century later by Belfast's Francis McPeake, who died in 1971. There are enough versions of this to be worth a Salut! Live ‘Cover Story’. NB Bill Taylor

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