In Search for a Traditional Irish Anthology Boxset

DAVIDDOLAN

Iv been looking for a long time for a traditional Irish anthology collection that would be in the same realm and time period maybe of the anthology of American folk music which was put together by Harry Smith or The Bristol Sessions (the Big Bang of country music recordings 1927-1928)

I'm a big fan of planxty and Sweeney,s men but I really want to hear the music that came way before this and way before even the Clancy brothers. Who influenced these guys. It would seem tragic if these early recordings were never ever captured like those early blues, folk and country recordings were captured in the US. Has there been any compilations made over the years or do the recordings even exist.???

squonk

There seems to be plenty. In fairness much of it baed on what I know, is based on recordings from the US. I can't name specifically some of the artists involved but I do remember hearing people like John Carty saying they were very influenced by those recordings. Back home I'm not sure how much there was available. From what I know the tunes that Planxty and co played were picked up personally from older generations of musicians.

If you don't get any decent feedback here you could always try contacting the Irish Traditional Archive and another good person to tweet or contact might be Aine Hennessy who, to my mind, has always seemed incredibly knowledgeable on the music. Her shows are always excellent.