Biography

Compass Records Group is excited to announce the release of a special edition version of the Mulligan Records classic Andy Irvine / Paul Brady. In 1976, Irvine and Brady, fresh from the demise of the Irish supergroup Planxty, entered legendary Rockfield Studios in Wales with mystic producer/bouzouki player Dónal Lunny and fiddler Kevin Burke to record what has become an Irish Music classic. ANDY IRVINE / PAUL BRADY propelled them forward to be viewed as one of the most accomplished Irish traditional duos that ever recorded. The collection is available for purchase here.

For nearly half a century, this legendary album has been regarded as of as one of the most important in the Irish music cannon. All these years later, no record more pointedly reflects the time and the spirit of innovation within one genre of music. Over the past nearly half a century, the music Irvine and Brady created has reached across genres topping the personal playlists of iconic artists including Bob Dylan (who recorded Paul Brady’s arrangement of “Arthur McBride and The Sergeant”), Bono, Liam O’Maonlai (Hothouse Flowers), Radie Peat and Daragh Lynch (both of Lankum) and Mary Chapin Carpenter.

The 2022 special edition CD and LP release of Andy Irvine / Paul Brady is the ultimate version of this classic album. It’s the first time since the 1970s that an LP version has been pressed. Before pressing, the ten track album was remastered from the original analog tapes, which were transferred at 192k/32 bit to maintain the highest resolution and mastered with the best combination of classic analog and state of the art digital equipment. The packaging for both the CD and LP versions was approached with painstaking detail and features a tri-fold CD wallet and a gatefold LP.

Perhaps best of all, both formats include a 12,000 word essay by noted music journalist Gareth Murphy (Cowboys and Indies – The Epic History of the Record Industry and Siren Song: My Life in Music [with Seymour Stein]) which tells the fascinating story of how the record came together and includes brand new interviews with Andy Irvine, Paul Brady, Dónal Lunny and Kevin Burke, as well as testimonials from artists including Glen Hansard, Liam O’Maonlai, Brian MacGloinn of Ye Vagabonds, Daragh Lynch of Lankum, Consuelo Nerea Breschi and Lucie Azconaga of Varo, PJ Curtis and more.