“I have never heard a singer as good as Liam, ever.”  Bob Dylan

Darkness intruded at the break of noon with the passing on December 4, 2009 of Liam Clancy, honey-tongued baritone of the Clancy Brothers, the Irish group in white Aran sweaters who played a major role in the folk revival of the sixties and in Bob Dylan’s songs.

I was but dimly aware of how deep Dylan’s connection to Liam and Irish music was until, inspired by Van Morrison’s collaboration with the Chieftains, Irish Heartbeat, in the early nineties, I started bringing my guitar and harmonica to “sessions” at the Irish Heritage Center and various pubs in Chicago like Abbey’s and The Hidden Shamrock. From time to time someone would break into a tune I knew I’d heard before but couldn’t always place till sooner or later it would hit me—that’s the melody for such and such a Dylan tune! Something similar would happen once I started collecting Irish recordings from the likes of Planxty, Ewan Maccall, The Dubliners, Liam Clancy, Christy Moore, and others too numerous to mention. In  Chronicles, Dylan spelled out his affection for Liam and Celtic balladeers:

“I got to be friends with Liam and began going after hours to the White Horse Tavern on Hudson Street, which was mainly an Irish bar frequented mostly by guys from the old country.  All through the night they would sing drinking songs, country  ballads, and rousing rebel songs that hit the roof . . . .  The singer always had a merry light in his eye, but had to have it.   I loved those songs and could still hear them in my head long after and into the next day” (P. 83)

If record companies were more inventive and perhaps less platinum mad, they’d see that there are many ways of packaging music that would both illuminate and entertain. Why not a St. Paddy’s Day Dylan to bookend with his Christmas CD? It might not go gold, but it would certainly pay for itself, wouldn’t it?  Being a fan of both Dylan and Celtic music, I’d buy about a dozen myself as gifts.  Anyway, since such a CD is likely to be long time a comin’, I thought I’d fill the void with a sampling of Celtic tunes and Dylan’s covers of them.

In a few days Rockademia U will offer a podcast of Irish tunes that Dylan drew on for his own.  It will be set in an imaginary version of the White Horse Tavern, and to give you an experience similar to mine, the Dylan titles won’t be provided. I hope it will prove a fun way to celebrate St. Patrick’s Day and the influence of Celtic music on Dylan. J.B.

The set list: Lang-a-Growin’, Blackjack Davy, Wild Mountain Thyme, Rosin the Bow, The Lake of Ponchartrain.

The artists: Liam Clancy, Planxty, Cathy Ryan, Clancy Brothers w/ Tommy Makem, Planxty.  All of them worthy of your green . . .

Dylan Does (Mostly) Celtic V. 1