A new/old release from Irish folkists Clannad

It is said that old music is only old if you have heard it, otherwise it is new. So it is with the latest release from Clannad, the Irish folk ensemble whose various versions date back to 1970. “Turas 1980” is a double album available in CD and vinyl of a Clannad concert in Germany in, well, 1980.

But it is new. The recording by Radio Bremen was never broadcast or released, much to the disappointment of the band at the time.

So here is it — and very nice too.

I confess I was hesitant when I got the album. I had loved an early Clannad I once owned, but then bought another years later when it had all gone a bit New Age (which is just one up from elevator music in my humble opinion). This though is the old stuff – solid Irish folk with all the emotion, poetry and bathos that goes with it. Flutes, whistles, mandolins, harps – all there.

Most of the songs are very traditional. There is , for example, the haunting  lone flute of  “Paddy ‘s Rambles Through the Fields”. Then there is a rollicking (and somewhat naughty) “Gathering Mushrooms”.

This is one for anyone who likes traditional Irish folk. And given its age — 38-years since 1980 if you can believe it — the recording is remarkably fresh. In fact, it could be new.