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1975. The First Album

By The Bothy Band

Added by paul19 .

  1. The Kesh
    The Swaggering
    The Flower Of The Flock
    The Famous Ballymote
  2. The Green Groves Of Erin
    The Flowers Of Red Hill
  3. Do You Love An Apple?
  4. Julia Delaney
  5. Patsy Geary’s
    Coleman’s Cross
  6. Is Trua Nach Bhfuil Me In Eirinn
  7. The Navvy On The Line
    The Rainy Day
  8. The Tar Road To Sligo
    Paddy Clancy’s
  9. Martin Wynne’s #2
    The Longford Tinker
  10. Pretty Peg
    Craig’s Pipes
  11. Hector The Hero
    The Laird Of Drumblaire
  12. The Traveller
    The Humours Of Lissadel
  13. The Butterfly
  14. The Salamanca
    The Banshee
    The Sailor’s Bonnet

Seventeen comments

the one and only one, it’s amazing that it wasn’t listed yet. If there is only one ITM record to possess that’s the one. For many of us it all started with this record.

1975 The First

I’m amazed as well -I took it as read that it would be one of the first posts -am I the only person that has it on Vinyl, Tape and CD?!!

Bothy Band

I just got the CD, hadn’t heard this album before. From the first chords in Kesh, the impression is of awesome power, truly a collaboration of (some of) the world’s most powerful musicians.

The first 30 seconds says it all……

This recording rocked the foundations all right - from the opening rhythm preceding the Kesh, one is temporarily unsure if the correct track has been selected, then all hell (gradually) breaks loose.

As a statement of intent, the first track says it all, in fact the first 30 seconds if you’re in a hurry.

The first 30 seconds says it all……couldn’t agree more!!

I first heard this on cassette in 1978 or so, the opening rhythm is such a statement of intent as it’s so rocky. Before this I was into rock music exclusively and didn’t really entertain trad. This album changed all that, a heady mix of virtuoso pipes, fiddle an flute underpinned by an equal number of accompanists who kicked ass as well as many heavy metal bands of the day!

At time of writing this album is over 30 years old but still manages to hit the spot. I don’t believe that any trad band has surpassed the quality of this debut, though many have openly plagiarised the ideas.

Just heard this on vinyl

Full volume….wow

A real shock, a true revelation!

As a neophite, I started playin ITM two years ago, inspired by Lùnasa…then I gradually ran the path backwards…first time I pressed play on this album, its very start was a real shock for me…just like first time I listened to Sgt.Pepper’s…Jimi Hendrix, or Jaco Pastorius’ debut lp!
IMHO no one ever reached the same “momentum”; when I watch their live performance at the Embankment, well, they really seem to levitate!

Strange that the lineup notes here don’t mention Tommy Peoples, whose playing did so much to energise this recording.

Re: 1975 The First

Erased a comment I just made … was listening to the wrong track!

Re: 1975. The First Album -- Not Tommy Peoples….

“Strange that the lineup notes here don’t mention Tommy Peoples, whose playing did so much to energise this recording.”

I’m not being snarky, but isn’t it Paddy Glackin playing on this first CD of The Bothy ? Or am I wrong?

Re: 1975. The First Album

It is Tommy Peoples, without doubt, on my vinyl copies. That fiddle can can only be him. The sleeve shows a picture of the band with TP second on the left. On the rear is a snapshot with Tommy (Peoples) and Dónal (Lunny) dated 7/11/75. He is also listed in the line-up. He was with them, I seem to remember, when they played at UMIST in the Reynold Building a few months later. Brilliant LP!

Re: 1975. The First Album

No David - Tommy Peoples was on the first album, - he’s on the photos on the LP sleeve - although Paddy Glackin did play with them before Peoples joined full time. I first heard of the Bothy Band in the summer of 1974, I think. I was at home in Perthshire for the summer, and met some girls from the North of Ireland who had come over to Scotland for summer work. We got to talking about music, and they were the first ones to ask if we’d ever heard of the “Bothy Band”. A few months later I got to hear of them being on a TV programme on BBC, and as I remember, I left a party early to go home to see them. Paddy Glackin was certainly playing fiddle with them on that programme - I often wonder if it was preserved or recorded anywhere. I think it was later that year, November, maybe, when they came over to play a gig in Aberdeen at the start of their 1st UK tour. Peoples was the fiddler that night, and I still have the cassette tape recording I made.
They did one of the best set of reels I ever heard, which they never got round to recording in that form - I had to put it on “Youtube” for posterity - here’s the link if you haven’t heard it before :
https://youtu.be/r54K97kprdY

[ the scan accompanying the recording came later when Kevin Burke had in turn replaced Peoples ]
Hope you are well, David - maybe meet up in Miltown again some day.

Re: 1975. The First Album

Thanks Kenny. I was about to post “Original fiddler Glackin was replaced by Donegal fiddler Tommy Peoples on the band’s début album. Peoples in turn was replaced by Sligo-influenced fiddler Kevin Burke on the second release.”
Yes, definitely we’ll meet up for some quiet tunes. Maybe next summer at Willie Week, GW. We hope to come back to Kilshanny this winter. We’d be happy to put you up if you want a winter break to Co Clare.
Thanks for the clip. Bunch of hippies. Old hippies now, them that are left. I do see Paddy every so often.