An Irish Music Primer
They're not all drinking songs, folks.
Happy Saint Patrick’s Day 2024.
This “news”letter will deviate from its normal form today. Ireland has exported much to the wider world — not least the Irish themselves. But, as close readers have likely noticed, dearest to this author’s heart is the music.
Many people seem to think Ireland’s musical oeuvre consists drinking songs, jigs that sound Leprechaun-composed, and maybe some fiddle music (which could fall into the second category also). To dispel this dreadfully, awfully, disastrously wrong notion, below are is a woefully incomplete primer for the uninitiated.1
Modern Bracket
The Best: The High Kings
The Most Underrated: The Kilkennys
The Most Unexpected: Hozier (sometimes)
Old-Timer Bracket
The Men Who Stormed America: The Clancy Brothers and Tommy Makem
The Ones Everybody Knows: The Dubliners
Rock Bracket
The Godfathers: The Pogues
The Young Guns: The Young Dubliners
The Commercialized Bracket
Best Harmonies: Celtic Woman
Humor Bracket
Banjo Bracket
Best Tenor Banjo Player: Gary O’Connor
This list largely omits instrumental folk music, which deserves extensive treatment — but from somebody who knows the genre better than this author. The artists included here mostly come from a less-than-perfectly-traditional strain of Irish music.