User:Pdebee/Sandbox for bands

The Gathering
Sometime during 1977, Irvine also recorded The Gathering, along with Paul Brady, Dónal Lunny, Matt Molloy, Tommy Potts and uilleann piper Peter Browne. This album was funded by Diane Meek, a Guggenheim heiress who had used the pseudonym 'Hamilton' as her maiden name to disguise her wealth. She was the owner of Tradition Records and a patron of traditional music in Dublin at the time. She had lent Mulligan Records money in the early days and had also formed a small record label for traditional music called Srutháin [a stream or small stretch of water], on which she had intended to release The Gathering. However, the album was finally released in 1981 on Greenhays, a label connected with Rounder Records.

Irvine contributed two songs to the album, and also accompanied Brady on a third track:


 * "There's Sure To Be A Row" is a song Irvine learnt from "an old tape of the inimitable, much loved, late Willie Clancy." It is "obviously of Music Hall origin and sung to the ubiquitous tune [of] "Star of the County Down". Irvine sings the song, accompanied by Brady (tin whistle) and Lunny (bouzouki and guitar)
 * "The Mall of Lismore" is a song written in the first person&mdash;and as a warning to "other fair maids"&mdash;by a girl who was disowned by her father for falling in love with a "dashing young soldier" who, in turn, leaves her "all alone on the Mall of Lismore, when to Dublin his regiment was ordered". Irvine sings and plays harmonica & mandolin, accompanied on harpsichord by Tríona Ní Dhomhnaill.
 * He also plays mandolin and harmonica on Paul Brady's cover of "Heather on the Moor".

http://www.discogs.com/Various-The-Gathering/release/3189424 The Gathering at discogs website.

http://www.theballadeers.com/fc/fc_1981_gath.htm The Gathering at The Balladeers website.

https://thewildrovershow.wordpress.com/2011/04/26/the-gathering/ Schedule page for the radio programme featuring The Gathering on The Wild Rover Show (3 May 2011).

http://members.shaw.ca/chieftains/matt.html Matt Molloy's biography at The Chieftains' website.

http://www.acousticguitar.com/How-To/Play-the-Irish-Love-Song-Heather-on-the-Moor How to play "Heather on the Moor", at Acoustic Guitar website.