Paul Brady - The Missing Liberty Tapes (Reissue) (2010)

The performances on this album were recorded live in concert in July of 1978; the concert was organized to celebrate the release of Welcome Here Kind Stranger, Brady's first solo album and his last (for a long time, anyway) recording of traditional Irish music. The recording was never intended for commercial release, and the tapes were lost for 20 years before Brady came across them again in his attic; they sounded good enough, and the performance was of a high enough quality, that he changed his mind and decided to have them transferred to CD and released commercially. He is joined during the concert by a number of illustrious guests, including bouzouki player Donal Lunny, multi-instrumentalist Andy Irvine (who contributes some fine hurdy-gurdy playing on "I Am a Youth That's Inclined to Ramble" and "Jackson and Jane"), and flutist Matt Molloy, among others. Brady's voice is not quite as strong as it would later become, but he acquits himself nicely on such popular Irish songs as "Paddy's Green Shamrock Shore" and "The Lakes of Ponchartrain" and plays fine guitar on a couple of instrumental sets. The album is almost worth the price just for the inside photo of Brady, who looks for all the world like Robert Fripp circa 1969. Recommended.