CLANNAD

How a young group of unknown musicians form West Ireland (Donegal) got a label, producer, studio, and engineer to record a first album with such clarity and depth I'll never know, but this is one album whose original arrangements of their native musical traditions has been rendered close to perfection. The presence of rock drum kit is the most surprising element in these musical mixes but the nature sound recordings, use of their native spoken Gaelic, and warm depth in the soundscapes are the most delightful elements that defy all expectations. I've read that the band had accumulated a catalog of over 500 songs from their family, regional, and national lore by the time they started performing live in small regional venues (in their school years.) While I love original compositions, I have always appreciated the dedication of the artists of the folk scene to the preservation and (modern) reinterpretation of their musical traditions--and I can think of no band who has done a better job than Clannad at this task (mission).

1. "Níl Sé Ina La" (4:50) drums! Amazing melodies and vocal harmonies--all using the beautiful Gaelic tongue. Both the warmth and the depth captured in the sound engineering is quite remarkable. (9/10)

2. "Thíos Chois Na Trá Domh" (2:55) a more traditional drum-less arrangement renders this one more in the realm of true Celtic folk music. Beautiful lead vocal from Máire. (8.6667/10)

3. "Brian Boru's March" (3:50) a gentle instrumental that has a near-Spanish-Andalusian feel to it. Harp, mandola, guitars, double bass and congas sound perfectly spaced. Wonderful! (8.875/10)

4. "Siobhán Ní Dhuibhir" (4:30) working again with drummer John Wadham (the producer/label's choice?), this one has such great chord play from the harp. (I'd always assumed that Máire had started out on the steel-stringed Celtic harp à la Alan Stivell but, no: she plays a mid-size nylon string harp like Jon Anderson!) Great jazzified vamp in the middle and then great vocal choir arrangements for the b vox singers in the final minute. Once again, something about the recording and mix of this one renders the music into both rock and prog domains. (9.25/10)

5. "An Mhaighdean Mhara" (2:10) an a cappella song sung by Máire that I've heard different versions of (from later in Máire's life) but is here performed with amazing confidence and maturity (despite the fact that she was a mere 21 years old when this album was being recorded. This remarkable precociousness has always struck me about Máire's confident presence--both on stage and in recorded renderings.) (5/5)

6. "Liza (3:05) mixed and performed like a California flower-child pop song: Mama & Papas choral vocal arrangements (with a male in the lead!), busy bass, guitars, congas, and drums. Different! So surprisng to learn that this is the album's only song to have been totally written by the band. (8.6667/10)

7. "An tOileán Úr" (4:03) there is no doubt that this song's harp (the opening instrument) is steel stringed. What a collection of instruments the young band had access to! Again a male vocalist takes the lead on this one as tin whistle and drums add their rock talents. Impressive play from the double bass and what sounds like electrified guitar strumming behind the mandola and acoustic guitar picking. The background vocalists are mixed a bit further in the back than I'd like. Surprising (not "traditional") chord and rhythm patterns. (8.75/10)

8. "Mrs. McDermott" (3:03) beautiful little flute-led instrumental rendition of a nineteenth century Irish tune. (8.75/10)

9. "The Pretty Maid" (2:40) gentle acoustic guitars and bass dancing around one another beneath the angelic vocal performance of Máire (in English!). The second verse is started by a male vocalist before Máire takes over and this pattern is repeated in the third verse (with the addition of ghostly background harpie voices). (9/10)

10. "An Pháirc" (3:00) the band's submission to Eurovision 1973. Starts out with gentle music supporting Máire's floating vocal but then fills out with the whole band singing in harmonic support during the second and successive verses. (8.75/10)

11. "Harvest Home" (1:40) a beautiful little instrumental. (4.75/5)

12. "Morning Dew" (3:45) a gorgeous arrangement and rendering of this popular North American folk song. It is realized as if something from an album by The Pentangle or even Peter, Paul and Mary. Amazing! (9.75/10)

Total Time 38:26

Always a little more circumspect about debut albums from traditional folk artists, I now understand what made Clannad an outlier among calcified Irish patriots: they were definitely open to the influences of developments and innovations occurring in the modern musical world. Thus, the rock settings and constructs of many of this album's songs definitely subjects it to the criticisms of their own native purists. At the same time, this is exactly what offers this album, music, and band to Prog World: brave experimentalism and modern sound manipulation in the recording process.

Whereas the trajectory of the band's 1980s output connotes a leaning toward pacifying "New Age" sounds and textures, their 1970s legacy is more of a band trying to figure out how to make their beloved traditional folk fare popular with the masses.

A minor masterpiece of Prog Folk and, I think, an album of many delights for any true lover of progressive rock music; perhaps not an essential masterpiece to Prog World in general, but a definite landmark in the expansion and development of the scope and practice of Prog Folk music.