The Dubliners - The Transatlantic Anthology (Live) (2013)

The Dubliners' Transatlantic Anthology presents 42 tracks on two CDs drawn from their first three albums, with the venerable Irish group heard almost invariably in a live setting performing some of its best-known songs, including "The Wild Rover," "The Patriot Game," "The Leaving of Liverpool," and "Greenland Whale Fisheries." The presence of an audience to sing and laugh and clap along gives the collection the feel of a lengthy set in a pub, as the group makes its way through drinking songs, songs of love and leaving, and periodic lively instrumentals. Different singers, alone and together, alternate, while playing guitar, banjo, mandolin, fiddle, and tin whistle. The collection makes a convincing case for the Dubliners as Irish folk archivists, keeping a musical tradition alive by entertaining listeners night after night, with a few of those shows recorded and compiled here. © William Ruhlmann