Live music review: Paul Brady & Andy Irvine at Cork Opera House

5/5

The ovation was thunderous and sustained. If this is how our heroes are received for the mere act of coming onstage, then how rapturous will the acclaim be when they’ve well and truly blown the dust off the seminal album we are here to commemorate?

Back in the wake of the demise of Planxty in November 1975, the band’s co-founder Andy Irvine decided to continue the musical relationship he had began with Paul Brady when the younger musician joined the outfit 16 months previously. Less than a year later the pair entered a studio to record their first album together. Former Planxty member Dónal Lunny was on hand to produce it and contribute to it, as was fiddler Kevin Burke. When it was released the following year the album, simply titled with the names of Irvine and Brady, was instantly recognised as an important document, its place in folk history assured.