Originally released in 1974, Celtic Folkweave by Mick Hanly and Mícháel Ó Domhnaill is considered one of the most seminal albums in the folk music genre.
The album features some of Ireland's most well-regarded traditional musicians, including Mick Hanly, Mícháel Ó Domhnaill, Liam O'Flynn, Matt Molloy, Donal Lunny, Tommy Peoples, Declan McNeils & Tríona Ní Dhomhnaill.
Long considered lost, this cult classic has now been reissued with bonus and unreleased tracks. To celebrate the occasion, the mighty Mick Hanley celebrates an album finally enjoying the spotlight, almost a half-century on...
All of the musicians on Celtic Folkweave would go on to make notable contributions to the Irish and Celtic music genres, with Molloy, Lunny, Ní Dhomhnaill, Ó Domhnaill, and Peoples ending up in The Bothy Band, one of the most influential bands playing Irish traditional music in the 1970s.
In 1974, when you were in the middle of recording a song or a piece of music, it was going straight on 2'' inch tape. You had to be in the moment, know the song and accompaniment like the back of your hand, and nail it, if possible, in a single take - otherwise it was go back to the off, and begin again.
When Mícheál Ó'Domhnaill and I were recording Folkweave, we were also playing to large crowds as the opening act to Planxty, and a lot of the material on Folkweave was already 'tight’, so with the fearlessness of reckless youth on our side, we weren’t too affected by nerves.
The Eamon Andrews Studios in Harcourt Street was block booked for 3 to 4 days, and we felt that was ample time to get the job done.
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Of course, I, no more that Mícheál, didn’t think of it as a job at all. What we were doing was something we loved, and a company called Polydor was paying for it. There were no arguments with our manager Des Kelly about how much we were going to get paid for our efforts, or how much we might earn in mechanical or broadcast royalties - the thrill of recording an album was enough.
As for posterity… posterity was in 2022, an unimaginably long ways away.
Our meeting was the coming together of two very different musical backgrounds. Mícheál’s was a long established and true genre - a rich store of beautiful Donegal songs in his native tongue. He was also born with the gift of a golden voice, a roadmap in D tuning which he applied with consummate taste to his performances. Mine wasn’t even a genre, but a potpourri of Lonnie Donegan, Woodie Guthrie, Paul Simon, and the countless beat groups that emerged from Merseyside.
I was totally ignorant of traditional Irish music, and resented my mother for commandeering the radio at home on Saturday nights to listen to Sean Ó Murchú on Céilí House. It deprived me of Radio Luxembourg, which was my constant companion. However, this most unlikely combination, with the help of the best of young trad players around, produced the Folkweave that is now considered a collector's item.
When it was finished, we skedaddled off to Brittany, where we spent a wonderful four months driving from festival to Fest Noz kicking up the dust, learning to handle Ricard, while spreading the gospel. As a result, Polydor France released the album in France, where it was a minor success.
And it was in France that the master tape lay sleeping for the next 45 years. Universal/Tara Music did the rest. For Mícheál and I, it was scarcely a footnote on our careers.
When released in Ireland, the album sank like a stone. When we returned there was one date in the Munroe diary: the opening act for the Johnny McEvoy showband in the Keadeen Hotel. During our set, as the puzzled would-be dancers looked on, I said to Mícheál "I think I'll head back to France". He said "I don’t blame you". I duly did and remained there for two years… Meanwhile Mícheál and Donal Lunny put their heads together, and The Bothy Band was born.
The rest, as they say...
Celtic Folkweave is released by Universal/Tara Music
