Robin Denselow 

The Dubliners: 50 Years – review

None of its original four members is now alive, so this may be the final, comprehensive Dubliners compilation, writes Robin Denselow
  
  


Billy Connolly once called the Dubliners "folk music's Rolling Stones", but the rousing wild men of the Irish traditional scene sadly never reached their 50th anniversary in the same lucrative style. The death of Barney McKenna earlier this year means there are now no surviving members of the original bearded four-piece that shook up Paddy O'Donoghue's Bar in Dublin back in 1962 with an approach that defined folk-punk long before punk was invented. There have been a string of Dubliners compilations, but this (presumably) final set is the most comprehensive, with 50 songs on three CDs. There are gutsy traditional ballads, new songs and instrumentals; the many highlights include an early unaccompanied duet between Ciaran Bourke and Luke Kelly, Ronnie Drew's treatment of Behan's classic The Auld Triangle, and the rousing collaboration between Drew and The Pogues on The Irish Rover.

 

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