Five Bands That Will Get You Hooked On Irish Trad

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4. The Bothy Band (www.folkworld.de/30/e/bothy.html)

The Bothy Band were only together for three short years during the mid-to-late '70s but their musical legacy is a ferocious one. Composed of some of the most supremely virtuosic players in Irish music, they were a revelation to younger fans who were drawn to the group's thrilling, breakneck tempos. Check out the video below and try not to get thrown by the wildly outdated hippie threads and hairstyles. In fact, you may want to just close your eyes and just let it wash over you. If you choose to keep your eyes open, enjoy the blur of Paddy Keenan's fingers as he somehow maintains absolute technical precision on the uilleann (pron. "ILL-uhn") pipes.


For starters: Track down the band's first live record, After Hours, which managed to bottle the electricity the group generated onstage.