Essential 10: British & Irish Folk Abums

Planxty  

Planxty  

(Polydor, 1973) 

Also called The Black Album, this groundbreaking debut brought together Christy Moore, Andy Irvine, Dónal Lunny and Liam O’Flynn, each of them giants of the music scene. It opens with ‘Raggle Taggle Gypsy’ and closes with ‘The Blacksmith’, with haunting renditions of tunes like ‘Planxty Irwin’ drawing up drone roots that the likes of Lankum would go on to explore in the 21st century.

The Bothy Band

Old Hag You Have Killed Me 

(Mulligan Records, 1976) 

A classic set, and a signifier of what was to come, bringing Irish traditional music to life the way Fairport had done in England, and featuring a cracking line-up of star players on whistle, bodhrán, fiddle, guitar, flute and pipes, including Paddy Keenan, Matt Molloy and Dónal Lunny, and the amazing vocals of Tríona and Mícheál Ó Dhomhnaill. 

The Gloaming

The Gloaming  

(Real World Records, 2013) 

With each of its five members – sean nós singer Iarla Ó Lionáird, fiddler extraordinaire Martin Hayes, and Caoimhín Ó Raghallaigh on hardanger d’amore among them – bringing their distinctive approaches to Irish folk music, The Gloaming sold out concerts before releasing a note. A sparse, minimalist lyricism of epic beauty populates their studio and live albums. 

Steeleye Span 

Please to See the King  

(B&C Records, 1971) 

Martin Carthy + Telecaster = excellent. No more so than on Steeleye’s second album, packed with classics. With striking arrangements, the mighty fiddle of Peter Knight and Maddy Prior at her best on ‘The Lark in the Morning’, this is essential Steeleye, with Carthy taking the vocal mic on superb takes of ‘Boys of Bedlam’ and the haunting ‘False Knight on the Road’. 

Fairport Convention 

Liege & Lief  

(Island Records, 1969) 

Discovering forgotten traditions in their own back yard, Fairport produced an epochal game-changer with Liege & Lief. It remains among the most popular and admired of folk-rock albums, an inspiration to generations of players and listeners. What with Sandy Denny, Richard Thompson and Dave Swarbrick at the helm, alongside Ashley Hutchings, Dave Mattacks and Simon Nicol, this is a career peak for pretty much everyone involved. 

Waterson:Carthy 

Waterson:Carthy 

(Topic Records, 1994) 

The great family band of English folk music, Norma Waterson, Martin Carthy and Eliza Carthy released their debut Waterson:Carthy in 1994, helping to make folk music ‘cool’ again after an excoriating 1980s. Subsequent British folk would follow the course taken by Waterson:Carthy, and I’ve yet to hear a more profoundly beautiful song of sadness than Norma’s ‘When First I Came to Caledonia’. 

Jackie Oates

Hyperboreans  

(Unearthed, 2009) 

British folk flowered and spread wide through the noughties, and among its stars, few compare to the fiddle and divine voice of Jackie Oates. With her brother Jim Moray producing and a host of musicians guesting, including Alasdair Roberts on the title-track, this remains her finest hour, a stunning and eclectic set, with a captivating highlight in the shruti-and-voice desolation of ‘Past Caring’. 

The Boys of the Lough 

The Boys of the Lough 

(Trailer, 1973) 

An incredible line-up including singer-guitarist Dick Gaughan and Shetland fiddle player Aly Bain set down in Cecil Sharp House to record the Boys’ debut, making them pioneers in taking Celtic music to a wider world. Gaughan shines on the likes of ‘Andrew Lammie’ and ‘Farewell to Whisky’, while Bain and Fermanagh-born flautist-whistle player Cathal McConnell run rings round the jigs and tunes.  

Martyn Bennett  

Grit  

(Real World Records, 2003) 

Not only a groundbreaking album that employed samples of Scottish Traveller singers including Sheila Stewart and Lizzie Higgins, as well as his own bagpipe and fiddle playing, Grit melds the organic loam of its sources with a mesh of beats and 1990s rave and electronica. Sadly, two years after its release, Bennett was dead, at the age of 33.  

Alasdair Roberts & Friends

Too Long in This Condition  

(Drag City, 2010) 

Roberts is one of Scotland’s finest, and this, one of his numerous sets of traditional songs, is among his best. A brilliant bringing-to-life of some seriously haunted and shaded songs – ‘Long Lankin’ must be one of the darkest of all murder ballads – it’s an album of death, curses and violence; once it takes hold, it won’t let you go. 

This article originally appeared in the June 2023 issue of Songlines magazine. Never miss an issue – subscribe to Songlines today