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Features Disc of the day
Sweeney’s Men
The Tracks of Sweeney
(Transatlantic, 1969)
They popularised Irish folk, and transformed into Steeleye Span, but don’t hold that against them.
When Andy Irvine, Johnny Moynihan and Joe Dolan came together in Galway in 1966, their goal was a simple one. Taking their name from the followers of King Sweeney in Flann O'Brien’s anarchic At Swim Two Birds, and fired up by the revitalised traditionalism of The Chieftains, Sweeney’s Men attempted to bring about a revolution in Irish folk akin to that which had swept the British and American scenes. Those brave enough to check out their 1966 debut would be hard pushed to find a whiff of revolt, as this is an album that soon became the template for the worst kind of maudlin Celtic folk dribbling. However, by 1969 the band had been reduced to a barely-speaking, always drinking, duo of Moynihan and future Pogue Terry Woods. Blending traditional folk styles with a Tim Hardin confessional style and the then-vogue for cryptic psych-couch psychedelia, the duo attempted to outdo each other with each composition and arrangement. From Moynihan’s dope dream reworking of the Trad. Arr. enchantment Standing On The Shore and Terry Woods’ mystical Go By Brooks to the broken country Stones sadness of Dreams For Me and Brain Jam’s tripped-out folk reel, Moynihan and Woods accidentally produced a mystical, melancholy riddle of an album that could easily stand as the soundtrack to another Flann O'Brien classic, that cyclical folk nightmare The Third Policeman. The band folded a fortnight before the album’s release with Moynihan leaving to form Irish folk berserkers Planxty while Woods joined Orphanage with Phil Lynott before uniting with Ashley Hutchings to set up Steeleye Span, sealing their strange Sweeney’s Men collaboration as a true one-off.
Andrew Male
Posted by Danny_Eccleston at 5:40 PM GMT 18/08/2008
Further Listening
Steeleye Span – Hark! The Village Wait (Mooncrest, 1970)
The Woods Band – The Woods Band (Greenwich, 1971)
The Pogues – If I Should Fall From Grace With God (EMI, 1987)
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Great album of one othe most underrated band of irish folk.Simplicity and freshness.
Posted by carneham at 8:10 PM GMT 22/08/2008 Report Abuse
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Sweeneys_men.. OMG! :)
Posted by www.mojo4music.com at 2:33 AM GMT 20/04/2011 Report Abuse
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