Japan Papersleeve
Released 1972/2008
2007 Digital remaster by Abbey Road Studios; great vinyl replica in Accordeon shape!
Happy to Meet - Sorry to Part is the name of an album by Irish rock band Horslips. It was first released in Ireland by the end of 1972 as their debut album. Before this, they had released the same year three singles: Johnny's Wedding/Flower amang Them All and Green Gravel/Fairy King in Ireland and The High Reel/Furniture overseas. Happy to Meet - Sorry to Part was also released the following year in United Kingdom, Germany, France and United States.
Review by Bruce Eder
Get ready for the ride of your life through Irish folk-rock styles. The opening track of the group's debut album, with its pipes, button accordion, and percussion, could pass for any Chieftains record, but then the electricity kicks in on "Hall of Mirrors," and the rest is melodic rock, not so much folk-rock as folkish rock, recalling early Genesis. John Fean sounds like he's playing folk melodies even as he plays runs on his electric guitar on "The Clergy's Lamentation," and the group follows this with an anthem-like piece of Gaelic rock ("An Bratach Ban") with a dance-like instrumental break. "Bon Istgh Ag Ol" is probably the best track on the album, and "Hall of Mirrors" and "Furniture" remained in their stage act for years, the latter, with its superb middle section -- favorably recalling Steve Howe's playing with Yes on their early albums -- transformed into a 15-minute epic. And just when you think you've got them pegged as a progressive folk-rock outfit, they deliver the exquisitely languid, almost impressionistic "The Shamrock Shore" and the playful "Dance for Yer Daddy," which sounds like the Chieftains with vocals until Fean's electric guitar kicks in. And Fean's playing on "The Musical Priest," by itself, is worth the price of the album.
* Jim Lockhart - organ, concert flute, piano, celesta, Uilleann pipes, pipe organ, tin whistles, backing vocals
* Johnny Fean - guitars, banjo, vocals
* Charles O'Connor - vocals, fiddle, mandolin, concertina, Northumbrian smallpipe
* Barry Devlin - bass guitar, vocals
* Eamon Carr - drums, backing vocals