Released 1982 Folk Friends 2
(1980) Parallel Lines
(1982) Artists Dick Gaughan, Andy Irvine Label Appleseed Recordings | Length 42:33 Parallel Lines
(1982) Rude Awakening
(1991) Release date 1982 Genre Folk music of Ireland | |
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Recorded August 1981, at Tonstudio in
St Blasien/Herrenhaus, Northeim, Germany Producer Dick Gaughan, Andy Irvine, Carsten Linde Similar Andy Irvine albums, Folk music of Ireland albums, Other albums | ||
Dick gaughan andy irvine parallel lines full album
Parallel Lines is a one-off album by Dick Gaughan and Andy Irvine, recorded in August 1981 at Günter Pauler's Tonstudio in St Blasien/Herrenhaus, Northeim, Germany, and released in 1982 on the German FolkFreak-Platten label.
Contents
- Dick gaughan andy irvine parallel lines full album
- Dick gaughan andy irvine lads o the fair leith docks parallel lines
- Background
- Overview of the original album
- Two versions of the CD
- Bonus track Thousand Are Sailing To Amerikay
- Track listing
- Personnel
- Songs
- References
It was produced by Gaughan, Irvine and Carsten Linden with a line-up including Gaughan (acoustic and electric guitars, bass guitar and vocal), Irvine (bouzouki, mandola, mandolin, harmonica, hurdy-gurdy, vocal), Nollaig Casey (fiddle), Martin Buschmann (saxophone), Judith Jaenicke (flute) and Bob Lenox (Fender Rhodes piano). Dónal Lunny also overdubbed the fiddle parts and remixed the album at Lombard Studios in Dublin.
Dick gaughan andy irvine lads o the fair leith docks parallel lines
Background
In his online autobiography, Irvine recalls:
About the recording of Parallel Lines, Irvine would add in a later interview:
Overview of the original album
"The Creggan White Hare" is a fairly modern ballad that Irvine learned from the singing of Vincent Donnelly from Castle Caulfield, Co. Tyrone, on an old BBC disc recorded in 1952 by Sean O'Boyle and Peter Kennedy. It relates the hunting of hares with greyhounds, a popular pastime in many rural areas in Ireland. However, "the white hare of Low Creggan was too smart for them all".
"The Lads O' The Fair" / "Leith Docks". The first part, sung here by Gaughan, is a modern ballad written by Brian McNeill "(...) to commemorate a piece of his home town’s social history, the Falkirk Tryst, the great meeting at which the cattle of the Highlands, herded from the north by the drove roads, would be sold to southern buyers. (...) The song takes three characters; a weaver who wants to sell his cloth, a drover who’s looking forward to a good drink at the end of his work, and a ploughman who wants a new job, and it lets each of them tell of their expectations of the Tryst". "Leith Docks" is a short instrumental coda composed by Gaughan and lasting approximately 20 seconds.
"At Twenty-One" is the heartbreaking story of a poor young man who watches his sweetheart sail away after she gave her hand in marriage to a rich young man. Irvine learned it from the singing of Robert Cinnamond who lived on the banks of Lough Neagh, Co. Tyrone and who had many songs collected for the BBC by Sean Boyle in 1955.
"My Back Pages" / "Afterthoughts". The first piece is Gaughan's interpretation of Bob Dylan's song.
"The Dodger's Song" was first recorded by the Almanac Singers in 1942, which included Woody Guthrie. Irvine and Gaughan "added a few extra verses for good measure".
"Captain Thunderbolt" is usually called "The Shannonside", but Irvine learned it from Tom Moran of Mohill, Co. Leitrim, who had changed it to "Lough Allen Side" to make it more localized. Captain Thunderbolt was a pseudonym often used by the United Irishmen around the time of the 1798 rising.
"Captain Colston" is the story of a ship of poverty-stricken Irish emigrants being attacked by pirates on their voyage to the new world. However, Captain Colston's wife comes on deck "And with a pistol ball/She took the pirate captain's life". Irvine heard this song from Brigid Tunney and filled out the story from a longer version he learned from an old recording of Peter O'Donnell, also from Castle Caulfield, Co. Tyrone.
"Floo'ers O' The Forest" is Gaughan's interpretation of "Flowers of the Forest", an ancient Scottish folk tune commemorating the Scottish defeat at the Battle of Flodden in 1513.
Two versions of the CD
The original, 1982 vinyl LP was re-released twice on CD:
Bonus track: "Thousand Are Sailing To Amerikay"
While most emigration ballads are in the first person and concern themselves with the general misfortune of leaving Ireland, this song is related by an observer and describes the emigrants' last night at home, the packing of trunks, the tearful farewell to friends, relations and neighbours, his journey to the train and the final heartbreak of pulling away from the shore. Irvine first heard a version of this song on a recording by Cathal McConnell and Robin Morton and afterwards, another version by Eddie Butcher from Magilligan, Co. Londonderry. This version of the song was first recorded by Irvine and Gaughan during the Folk Friends 2 sessions in 1980.
Irvine would re-record "Thousands Are Sailing to Amerikay" with Planxty in December 1982, for release—under the shorter title of "Thousands Are Sailing"—on their album Words & Music.
Track listing
- "The Creggan White Hare" (Text: Trad. with new words by A. Irvine/Music: A. Irvine/Arr. A. Irvine & D. Gaughan) – 4:45
- "The Lads O' The Fair" (MacNeill) / "Leith Docks" (Dick Gaughan) – 3:45
- "At Twenty-One" (Text: Trad. with new words by A. Irvine/Music: A. Irvine) – 3:57
- "My Back Pages" (Bob Dylan) / "Afterthoughts" (D. Gaughan) – 5:25
- "The Dodger's Song" (Text: Trad. with new words by D. Gaughan/Music: Trad./Arr. D. Gaughan & A. Irvine) – 2:58
- "Captain Thunderbolt" (Text: Trad. with new words by A. Irvine/Music: A. Irvine/Arr. A. Irvine & D. Gaughan) – 4:06
- "Captain Colston" (Text: Trad. with new words by A. Irvine/Music: A. Irvine/Arr. A. Irvine) – 5:34
- "Floo'ers O' The Forest" (Text: Trad./Music: Trad./Arr. D. Gaughan) – 7:36
- "Thousands Are Sailing to Amerikay" (Text: Trad. with new words by A. Irvine/Music: A. Irvine/Arr. A. Irvine) – 4:27 (*)
Personnel
Songs
1The Creggan White Hare4:44
2The Lads O' The Fair / Leith Docks3:34
3At Twenty-One4:00