Andy Irvine 70th Birthday Concert, Extra Show Added

Harmonic presents

Andy Irvine 70^th Birthday Concert

Featuring:

Sweeney’s Men, Paul Brady,

Dónal Lunny, Liam O’Flynn,

Paddy Glackin & Mozaik

Vicar Street, doors 7pm / show starts 8pm

June 16^th, SOLD OUT

June 17^th, EXTRA DATE

"Often copied, never equalled" – The Irish Times

It’s funny, whenever I mention Andy Irvine’s impending birthday I’m greeted with a raised eyebrow. He couldn’t be 70! He doesn’t look it! Maybe it’s the timeless presence of his music since he set foot on Irish soil in the early 1960s. Or maybe it’s the fact that he continues to maintain a seemingly impossible global touring schedule. If you’re interested in Irish music, and its possibilities to extend and alloy with other cultures, then Andy Irvine is no doubt a musician you’re familiar with.

He graduated through the vibrant scene centred around O’Donoghue’s pub of Merrion Row, whose stalwarts included young folk singers such as Ronnie Drew and Luke Kelly as well as elder traditionalists such as Joe Heany and Seamus Ennis, and from which emerged the group Sweeney’s Men.

Andy recently captured this time of his life in the brilliant ‘O'Donoghues’ featured on the 2007 Mozaik album ‘Changing Trains’.

Paddy and Maureen very very sound

Though she liked to camp on the moral high ground

If you had long hair you were outward bound

Go down you blood red roses

Ronnie Drew in his fine suit of blue

And a voice like gravel that would cut you in two

We thought he was Dublin through & through

But he blew in from Dun Laoghaire

Joe Ryan and John Kelly in the front bar

Their fiddles are from the county Clare

Joe Heaney sings in the cold night air

In the laneway after closing

Our sea shanties in perfect tune

And Seamus Ennis in the afternoon

It was all over much too soon

Days of Wine and Roses

In the afternoon you might find there

Luke Kelly and his banjo and his red hair

Oh, what a time, what an atmosphere

What more could a young man wish for?

How I’d spent my time was never in doubt

This is what life was all about

A bowl of soup and a pint of stout

Agus Faigamid siud mar a ta se

Putting up a note on the message board

Sweeney’s Men have a gig, Oh Lord

We have to meet at 12 o’clock

For the journey down to Galway

But the Sweeney van broke down at the door

And we didn’t get started till a quarter past four

To the merry tune of the Dolan snore

Haul away me Rosie

Sweeney’s Men are perhaps one of the great lost bands of the 1960s Irish folk world but they are as ground-breaking and important as any of the more talked-about ensembles of the time and very much laid the foundation for what was to follow. The trio consisted of Andy, Johnny Moynihan and (Galway) Joe Dolan - later replaced by Terry Woods - and their alchemic mix was made up of all sorts influences: Andy’s obsession with Woody Guthrie, the exotic twang of Moynihan’s Greek bouzouki, and a deep well of Irish, Scottish, American folk songs to tamper with.

Throughout the 1970s there continued to exist a dichotomy in Irish music; the ballad bands and traditionalists who kept straight to the script and those who were compelled to experiment and interpret and embrace the melting pot approach to music. Andy Irvine, Dónal Lunny and Johnny Moynihan were three idealists very much coursing through the veins of the latter concept.

Andy went on to enjoy great acclaim and success with Planxty, a band with Lunny, Christy Moore, and piper Liam O’Flynn who changed the landscape once again in the early 1970s. From there he made a timeless, peerless record with Paul Brady in 1976, established a cult-like solo career, formed Patrick Street with the cream of Irish musicians in the mid-1980s,  and continued to collaborate with musicians from every corner of the world, notably his mid-00s Mozaik project with Lunny, Dutch fiddler Rens van Der Zalm, American old-timey fiddler Bruce Molsky, and Hungarian multi-instrumentalist Nikola Parov.

Perhaps the most remarkable aspect of Andy’s long and complex career is his steadfast passion to tour. A born adventurer, of the musical variety, he never lost hold of his mantra, inspired by his hero Woody Guthrie: Never Tire of the Road.

This concert celebrates 70 years of Andy Irvine, decades of incredible Irish music, how it’s evolved and changed and engaged with cultures around the world.

Extra date tickets on sale Monday April 30th @9am priced  €35 (including booking fee) from www.ticketmaster.ie & Ticketmaster outlets nationwide. 0818 719 300 - Republic of Ireland customers 0844 277 4455 - Northern Ireland customers 00353 1 456 9569 - International customers

www.andyirvine.com