Clannad Clannad 2 Review

To celebrate their 50th anniversary of publishing traditional Irish music, Gael-Linnare relaunching their back catalogue over the next six months, beginning with collections from Seán Ó Riada, Paddy Keenan, Mary Bergin and Clannad.

Captured during their acoustic peak, Clannad 2 is a showcase of rural Donegal meets celtic-fusion which was populating the Irish concert halls of the 1970's.This is Clannad before they ventured into electronics. This is pre-Enya Clannad.

A mixture of mostly Gaelic sung tunes, these traditional helpings are served up using mainly harp, guitar, mandola, double bass, tin whistle and vocal and it's the tracks using this orchestration which probably stand out the most.

The opening "An Gabhar Bán" canters along defiantly only to settle down to theslowair which is a beautiful rendition of "Eleanor Plunkett" penned by Ireland's greatest harpist, Turlough O'Carolan. "Rince Briotánach" is a pretty little gavotte from Brittany. Elsewhere, however, the celtic-rock fusion displayed on "Dheanainn Súgradh" sounds, quite frankly, a little bit ludicrous. Drums and electric guitar shouldn't really mix with traditional Irish music, but then again it was 1974, so by all accounts it was probably quite groundbreaking stuff.

For this Derryman, the highlight of the record would have to be "Gaoith Barra na d'Tonn". Máire Ní Bhraonáin sings the air in a beautiful Donegal,sean-nós style. Pronounced 'shan-nos', and literally meaning 'old style', sean-nós is a specific treatment of unaccompanied singing in the Irish language paying particular attention to intonation, ornamentation, and tempo. The song itself is about a man who'd prefer to have his soul drift along the scenic landscape of Gaoith Barra than to be in Heaven itself. Judging by this track, I think mine would, too.