I seldom drink anything stronger than fortified wine, but I can always tell an Irish strong one from a Scottish. It is quite easy really. In Scotland they spell it “whisky” and in Ireland “whiskey.” Just look at the label. But it is a well known fact that, in spite of Scotch conquering the world, the Irish drink is much more commonly found in song titles, not to mention in the lyrics. And sometimes the song will be about whiskey, but the word itself will not be mentioned. The English often sing the praises of beer and ale, but the Irish prefer something stronger.
Therefore it is no surprise that Irish Drinking Songs starts with “Whisky You’re the Devil.” (Yes, they spell it that way on the cover.) But after that the drink is not mentioned in any title, though “The Real Old Mountain Dew” is about making it, and “The Moonshiner” has the same theme. It is one of those classic albums, which at last gets a re-issue on CD. After all, the Clancy Brothers and Tommy Makem were largely responsible for popularising Irish song all over the world. The Dubliners may be better known among the general public, but the Clancys came before them, and I have heard quite a few groups naming them as their main influence.
Irish Drinking Songs steers away from the obvious choices. There is no “Wild Rover” nor “Whiskey in the Jar” there, but you get 14 other great songs, some quite well known, like “Finnigan’s Wake,” “A Jug of Punch” and “The Parting Glass.” Then there are a few less-common ones as well. My favourites include “Rosin the Bow” (yes basically the same tune as the jig performed by Dave Swarbrick) and “Courting in the Kitchen.”
It is a great album by any standard. Recorded in 1959, in the days when you basically went into the studio to do your thing live. And the live feeling shines through. There is a freshness about these old recordings that you seldom feel in today’s sometimes overproduced musical output. And of course, the singers and players on the CD really knew their stuff, well rooted in the tradition they represent. Highly recommended to anyone, whether you are looking for some music history, some new songs to sing or just a very good record to enjoy.
Whiskey in the Jar is a strange affair. Just take the selection. There are 34 tracks on the album. Fourteen are by The Dubliners and 10 by The Clancy Brothers & Tommy Makem. The remaining 10 are divided between Frank Patterson, Dropkick Murphys (three each), The Pogues (two live tracks), The Young Dubliners and Joe Hurley & Rogue’s March (one each). The sequencing is also strange. On each of the two CDs the main idea (with a few exceptions) seems to be to play you everything by The Dubliners and The Clancys first, then give you the rest of the tracks.
And the song selection raises a few questions. It says “essential Irish drinking songs & sing alongs” on the cover, and most of the songs fit that description very well. You get “Whiskey in the Jar,” “I’m a Rover,” “The Wild Rover,” “The Rising of the Moon,” “Seven Drunken Nights” and a many others. But I would never call “Danny Boy” — in spite of it being performed very well by Frank Patterson — either a drinking song or a sing-along. And did not anyone tell the compiler that Ewan MacColl (author of both “I’m a Free-born Man” and “Dirty Old Town” on the album) is Scottish, not Irish? And how can newly written songs, like “The Dirty Glass,” be labeled essential?
All this said, the collection give you good value for your money, as I mentioned 34 tracks on two CDs and a total playing time of 110 minutes. But with all the good and inexpensive Dubliners collections around, I would rather spend my money on one of them instead of this. Or why not buy the Clancy Brothers CD mentioned above?
(Tradition Years, 1959; re-issue 2006)
(Sony BMG / Legacy, 2006)
