The Blue Idol
Encyclopedia
The Blue Idol is the eighth studio album by Irish traditional band Altan. It was released in 2002 on the Narada
Narada Productions
Narada is a record label formed 1983 as an independent New Age music label and distributed by MCA Records. Now a fully owned subsidiary of EMI, Narada evolved through an expansion of formats to include music from other styles including world music, jazz, Celtic music, new flamenco, acoustic guitar...

 label and was mixed and engineered by nine-time Grammy Award-winner Gary Paczosa
Gary Paczosa
Gary Paczosa is a nine-time Grammy Award winning audio engineer. He has also been nominated 5 times for the Grammy Award for Best Engineered Album, Non-Classical. He is best known for working with Alison Krauss and Dolly Parton numerous times....

.

The Blue Idol features guest artists such as Dolly Parton
Dolly Parton
Dolly Rebecca Parton is an American singer-songwriter, author, multi-instrumentalist, actress and philanthropist, best known for her work in country music. Dolly Parton has appeared in movies like 9 to 5, The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas, Steel Magnolias and Straight Talk...

 on "The Pretty Young Girl", which was translated by Mairéad Ní Mhaonaigh
Mairéad Ní Mhaonaigh
Mairéad Ní Mhaonaigh is an Irish fiddler and the lead vocalist for the Irish traditional band Altan.-Biography:Ní Mhaonaigh grew up in Gweedore , County Donegal, on the northwest coast of Ireland....

's father Proinsias
Proinsias Ó Maonaigh
Proinsias Ó Maonaigh or Francie Mooney was a fiddler from Gweedore , County Donegal, Ireland. He is known for his distinguished fiddle playing and his unique and vast contribution to Irish music and culture....

 and Paul Brady
Paul Brady
Paul Joseph Brady is an Irish singer-songwriter, whose work straddles folk and pop. He was interested in a wide variety of music from an early age...

 on "Daily Growing".

Track listing

  1. "Daily Growing [Song]" – 4:53
  2. "Uncle Rat
    Frog Went A-Courting
    "Frog Went A-Courtin'" is an English language folk song. Its first known appearance is in Wedderburn's Complaynt of Scotland under the name "The frog came to the myl dur", though this in Scots rather than English...

     [Song]" – 2:18
  3. "Roaring Water [Jig]" – 3:15
  4. "The Pretty Young Girl [Song]" – 4:39
  5. "The Blue Idol/The Butchers March" – 3:05
  6. "The Gatehouse Maid/The Ashplant/The Trip to Cullenstown" – 3:52
  7. "Cuach Mo Lon Dubh Buí [Song]" – 3:02
  8. "Mother's Delight/Ormond Sound/Mike Hoban's Reel" – 4:22
  9. "The Low Highland/Moneymusk/Duncan Davidson Highlands/The Wild Irishman Reel" – 3:39
  10. "The Sea-Apprentice Boy [Song]" – 3:50
  11. "Sláinte Theilinn – A Health to Teelin [Air]" – 4:00
  12. "An Cailín Deas Óg [Song]" – 4:40
  13. "Comb Your Hair and Curl It/Gweebarra Bridge" – 3:45


All titles are traditional, with the following exceptions:
  • "Roaring Water" – composed by Ciaran Tourish and Mark Kelly
  • "Cuach Mo Lon Dubh Buí" – lyrics traditional, music composed by Mairéad Ní Mhaonaigh
    Mairéad Ní Mhaonaigh
    Mairéad Ní Mhaonaigh is an Irish fiddler and the lead vocalist for the Irish traditional band Altan.-Biography:Ní Mhaonaigh grew up in Gweedore , County Donegal, on the northwest coast of Ireland....

  • "Sláinte Theilinn – A Health to Teelin" – composed by Mairéad Ní Mhaonaigh

Personnel

  • Mairéad Ní Mhaonaigh
    Mairéad Ní Mhaonaigh
    Mairéad Ní Mhaonaigh is an Irish fiddler and the lead vocalist for the Irish traditional band Altan.-Biography:Ní Mhaonaigh grew up in Gweedore , County Donegal, on the northwest coast of Ireland....

     – Fiddle
    Fiddle
    The term fiddle may refer to any bowed string musical instrument, most often the violin. It is also a colloquial term for the instrument used by players in all genres, including classical music...

    , vocals
  • Ciaran Tourish – Fiddle, whistle
    Tin whistle
    The tin whistle, also called the penny whistle, English Flageolet, Scottish penny whistle, Tin Flageolet, Irish whistle and Clarke London Flageolet is a simple six-holed woodwind instrument. It is an end blown fipple flute, putting it in the same category as the recorder, American Indian flute, and...

    , backing vocals
  • Ciarán Curran – Bouzouki
    Bouzouki
    The bouzouki , is a musical instrument with Greek origin in the lute family. A mainstay of modern Greek music, the front of the body is flat and is usually heavily inlaid with mother-of-pearl. The instrument is played with a plectrum and has a sharp metallic sound, reminiscent of a mandolin but...

    , mandolin
    Mandolin
    A mandolin is a musical instrument in the lute family . It descends from the mandore, a soprano member of the lute family. The mandolin soundboard comes in many shapes—but generally round or teardrop-shaped, sometimes with scrolls or other projections. A mandolin may have f-holes, or a single...

  • Mark Kelly – Guitar
    Guitar
    The guitar is a plucked string instrument, usually played with fingers or a pick. The guitar consists of a body with a rigid neck to which the strings, generally six in number, are attached. Guitars are traditionally constructed of various woods and strung with animal gut or, more recently, with...

    , bouzouki, backing vocals
  • Dermot Byrne – Accordion
    Accordion
    The accordion is a box-shaped musical instrument of the bellows-driven free-reed aerophone family, sometimes referred to as a squeezebox. A person who plays the accordion is called an accordionist....

  • Dáithí Sproule
    Dáithí Sproule
    Dáithí Sproule is a guitarist and singer of traditional Irish music from Derry, Northern Ireland. His niece is the singer songwriter Claire Sproule.-Biography:...

     – Guitar, backing vocals

Guest musicians

  • James Blennerhassett – Bass
    Double bass
    The double bass, also called the string bass, upright bass, standup bass or contrabass, is the largest and lowest-pitched bowed string instrument in the modern symphony orchestra, with strings usually tuned to E1, A1, D2 and G2...

     (track 1, 2)
  • Paul Brady
    Paul Brady
    Paul Joseph Brady is an Irish singer-songwriter, whose work straddles folk and pop. He was interested in a wide variety of music from an early age...

     – Vocals (track 1)
  • Harry Bradley – Flute
    Flute
    The flute is a musical instrument of the woodwind family. Unlike woodwind instruments with reeds, a flute is an aerophone or reedless wind instrument that produces its sound from the flow of air across an opening...

     (track 5, 8)
  • Richie Buckley
  • Steve Cooney – Bass (track 11)
  • Jim Higgins – Bodhrán
    Bodhrán
    The bodhrán is an Irish frame drum ranging from 25 to 65 cm in diameter, with most drums measuring 35 to 45 cm . The sides of the drum are 9 to 20 cm deep. A goatskin head is tacked to one side...

     (tracks 1-3, 5, 6, 8, 9, 11, 13)
  • Dónal Lunny
    Dónal Lunny
    Dónal Lunny is an Irish folk musician. Lunny has been at the forefront of the evolution of traditional Irish music for more than thirty-five years and has participated within the renaissance of traditional Irish music in that time period...

     – Bouzouki (tracks 1, 4, 11, 12), keyboards
    Musical keyboard
    A musical keyboard is the set of adjacent depressible levers or keys on a musical instrument, particularly the piano. Keyboards typically contain keys for playing the twelve notes of the Western musical scale, with a combination of larger, longer keys and smaller, shorter keys that repeats at the...

     (track 1)
  • Neil Martin – Cello
    Cello
    The cello is a bowed string instrument with four strings tuned in perfect fifths. It is a member of the violin family of musical instruments, which also includes the violin, viola, and double bass. Old forms of the instrument in the Baroque era are baryton and viol .A person who plays a cello is...

     (track 11)
  • Anna Ní Mhaonaigh
  • Liam O'Flynn
    Liam O'Flynn
    Liam O'Flynn is a master uilleann piper and prominent Irish folk musician. In addition to an impressive solo career and his work with the Irish traditional group Planxty, O'Flynn has recorded with many prominent international musical artists, including Mark Knopfler, the Everly Brothers, Enya,...

     – Uillean pipes (track 3)
  • Dolly Parton
    Dolly Parton
    Dolly Rebecca Parton is an American singer-songwriter, author, multi-instrumentalist, actress and philanthropist, best known for her work in country music. Dolly Parton has appeared in movies like 9 to 5, The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas, Steel Magnolias and Straight Talk...

    – Vocals (track 4)

Production

  • Gary Paczosa – Engineer
  • Alistair McMillan – Assistant engineer
  • Amelia Stein – Band photography
  • Shaughn McGrath/Four 5 One Design – Design
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