In Conversation With: Donal Lunny
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A Conversation with Donal Lunny
Donal Lunny has been a consistent and hugely influential presence in the emergence of Irish traditional music over the past five decades. As a founding member of
both
The Bothy Band, his unique approach has altered the genre s sound forever.
In this segment of A Celtic Sojourn, host Brian O Donovan talks with Donal Lunny about his career in music, his incorporation of new instruments in his early days, his partnership with Andy Irvine, and a journey into rock and jazz with the ground-breaking band Moving Hearts. The conversation also touches on many of Lunny s other collaborations since the early 1970s.
Dónal Lunnyâs musical curiosity is indefatigable. Heâs the ultimate collaborator: always exploring new territories, and well-worn paths too, where he inevitably unearths sparkling new possibilities in old sounds.
Lunnyâs steered so many ships through picaresque adventures, including with Planxty, The Bothy Band, Moving Hearts, Coolfin, Patrick Street, Usherâs Island, LAPD and Mozaik, many of them with Andy Irvine as his co-pilot. These lockdown days are seeing him steer a different course, through Atlantic waters, in the company of a whole new gathering of musical confreres.
This time the lure is shaped by geography, and heâs loving the commonalities and differences itâs unearthing.