- Format: MP3
Japan 24-Bit Remaster
The Emmet Spiceland was a band formed when brothers Brian and Michael Byrne of The Spiceland Folk Group joined forces with Donal Lunny, Brian Bolger and Mick Moloney's Emmet Folk Group around 1968.
The Emmet Spiceland hold a special place in Irish music history as the first of their kind, bringing what was, at the time, a modern sound, to the previously stiff and conservative national airwaves. They were known for beautiful harmonies, pin-up good looks, mod dress sense and previously unheard of contemporary arrangements of Irish classics. The band enjoyed screaming Beatlemania-style scenes at public appearances after a number of chart successes, with the single "Mary From Dungloe" hitting number one. The single was taken from their album, 'The First' featuring songs by Shay Healy and Christy Moore, with orchestral arrangements by Phil Coulter. Christy Moore praised the band in a documentary of his life, accompanied by footage of a performance at the All Ireland final at Croke Park in Dublin.
The band's management employed marketing and poster campaigns said to be ahead of their time, with band members in glamorous settings not common to the day. The success of their song 'Mary From Dungloe' inspired the creation of the Mary From Dungloe International Festival which is still going strong today.
Brian went on to further fame in London's west end with Jesus Christ Superstar and Joseph, amongst other successes. Michael's interests took him toward the visual arts, following up an unfulfilled desire to attend art school in his teens. Donal Lunny moved on to now legendary projects such as Planxty, Moving Hearts and The Bothy Band. He's produced, played and arranged for the likes of Kate Bush, Paul Brady, Elvis Costello, Rod Stewart, Indigo Girls, Clannad, The Waterboys and Baaba Maal.
Michael and Brian Byrne are from a family of musical and performing talent- their father, Tommy Byrne won the Feis Ceoil three years in a row in the 1930s. In 1967, Michael and Brian Byrne had won the Wexford Ballad Contest, in which the Emmet's had taken second place the year before. Relations Clannad have credited the brothers' success with inspiring their interest in performing. Younger sisters, Maire, Paula, Louise and Anne spent a lot of time on UK television in the 1970s, making appearances on many of the biggest entertainment and variety shows of the day.
Emmet Spiceland was not a man, but a 1960s Irish folk group with several members who went on to more famous bands and projects, though not all of them were in the group at the same time. They grew out of the Emmet Folk Group, formed by Dónal Lunny, Brian Bolger, and Mick Moloney. The lineup changed, however, when Moloney left to join the Johnstons, one of the few Irish folk vocal groups of the time to make some impact on the pop scene abroad. Lunny and Bolger then joined with brothers Michael Byrne and Brian Byrne of Sheffield's Spiceland Folk, naming the new aggregation Emmet Spiceland. When Bolger left, Emmet Spiceland continued as a trio, in which guise they recorded their sole album, 1968's The First.Emmet Spiceland's recordings, which also included a string of non-LP singles, usually leaned toward the tame acoustic side of harmonized folk-pop. To listeners from the U.S. and U.K., their late-'60s records might sound a few years out of date, as if they're refugees from the slightly more commercial side of the early- to mid-'60s folk revival.
Within the context of the Irish folk scene, however, their sound was more contemporary than the norm, as was their image, since they looked as much like pop/rock musicians as folkies. With a repertoire favoring (though not limited to) earnest and polite if good-naturedly executed ballads (sometimes with orchestration), they topped the Irish charts in 1968 with "Mary from Dungloe." "Baidin Fheidhlimi" and "Buncloudy" made the Irish Top Ten the same year, and some of their non-LP singles opted for material and production with slightly more of a pop/rock influence, as heard especially on their cover of Leonard Cohen's "So Long Marianne.
"In 1969, Leo O'Kelly replaced Lunny, who intended to give up music to focus on art. They did a few tours with O'Kelly, including a final one that saw them go to the United States, Lunny back in the lineup in place of Michael Byrne. They broke up after this last 1969 tour, with O'Kelly forming the Irish folk-rock group Tir Na Nog, and Lunny, after a time making jewelry, joining Christy Moore in one of the most respected Irish folk groups of all time, Planxty. With Brian Byrne (who had performed in the London stage production of Jesus Christ Superstar in the early '70s) in the lineup, Emmet Spiceland did re-form a few years later for a 1973 single.
Though other musicians passed through Emmet Spiceland's lineup in the 1960s, on their sole album, they were a trio with future Planxty member Dónal Lunny and brothers Michael Byrne and Brian Byrne. The First offers pleasant, well-harmonized Irish folk-pop, though it's on the cheerily bland side. There's variety, including the kind of rousing singalongs the genre is known for, an a cappella vocal ("Slieve Gallon Braes"), classical-influenced harmonies ("O' Carolan's Concerto"), and a jig (in "A Couple o' Jigs," naturally), as well as wistful, sober ballads with very '60s orchestration like "Lover's Ghost" and "Mary from Dungloe.
" Those more reflective ballads proved to be their most popular songs, with "Mary from Dungloe" topping the Irish charts, and "Buncloudy" making the country's Top Ten, though their other big Irish hit, "Baidin Fheidhlimi," is not on this LP. The overall tone is stirring yet restrained and polite, and since in Britain and the US that mood was more at home in the early-mid-'60s folk scene than the more tumultuous sounds of the late '60s, it's not surprising that the record didn't catch on abroad. Note that the version of "Mary from Dungloe" here is different from the one released on a single, which prominently uses a flute in the arrangement.[ Unsorted Source unknown]