The Rocky Road to Dublin: The Best of Irish Folk (2006)

The Rocky Road to Dublin: The Best of Irish Folk is a 64-track, five-CD set on which numerous performers provide a comprehensive look at the breadth of traditional music from Ireland. (Comprehensive, but somewhat spread out: with only 12 or 13 songs to a disc, the collection could have been compressed somewhat.) The basic style heard on the collection is that of the Dubliners, who are represented by the title song and five other tracks, untutored but enthusiastic voices heard over traditional folk instruments including ... Read More

The Rocky Road to Dublin: The Best of Irish Folk is a 64-track, five-CD set on which numerous performers provide a comprehensive look at the breadth of traditional music from Ireland. (Comprehensive, but somewhat spread out: with only 12 or 13 songs to a disc, the collection could have been compressed somewhat.) The basic style heard on the collection is that of the Dubliners, who are represented by the title song and five other tracks, untutored but enthusiastic voices heard over traditional folk instruments including guitar, banjo, mandolin, fiddle, and tin whistle. But the performers sometimes lean toward more pop-oriented sounds, notably Dominic Behan, who on his four songs reveals a somewhat stagier approach to singing; Michael O'Duffy, who sounds like an Irish tenor in the John McCormack tradition on "Come Back Paddy Reilly" and enjoys a string accompaniment on "Kitty Magee"' and the Ludlows, who resemble the harmony-filled folk-pop act the Seekers on "The Enniskillen Dragoons" and "Johnny Lad." As might be expected, the lyrics touch on issues of special interest to the Irish, though they are not always identified with the Irish Free State; sometimes, Northern Ireland's interests are at least balanced out, such as on Grehan Sisters' "The Orange and the Green." The Tinkers' "The Jolly Ploughboy," on the other hand, concerns a young man who goes off to join the I.R.A.; oddly, the song, which ends the third disc, is followed four tracks into the fourth disc by a version of the same tune, now called "Off to Dublin in the Green" and performed by the Dubliners, for whom it is the second track in a row after "The Wild Rover." The same composition also appears on the fifth disc listed as "Sally O" by the Broadsiders. (Similarly, Johnny Kelly & the Capitol Showband's "Black Velvet Band" on Disc 3 and "The Irish Soldier" by Pat Lynch & the Airchords which leads off Disc 5, are the same song; so are "The Sash My Father Wore" by the Broadsiders and "The Glenside, Nos. 1 & 2" by the Glenside Ceili Band.) Otherwise, the selection and sequencing of the album are more balanced, however, and if this is not really "the best of Irish folk," it is a very good assemblage of some of the highlights of the genre. ~ William Ruhlmann, Rovi Read Less

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2008, UPC: 5050749412744 CD See All