Donal Lunny had the (un)enviable task of sifting through the work of over 150 irish and international acts from the annals of the legendary lisdoonvarna festival to compile one definitive CD of 17 tracks (plus a bonus album of five tracks). Here be the giants of Irish music past and present, such as Planxty, Rory Gallagher, Clannad, Paul Brady and Van Morrison featured alongside the tastiest overseas talents, acts of the stature of Emmylou Harris, and Richard and Linda Thompson. Lunny himself played at three Lisdoons and featured live on stage with Planxty and Moving Hearts. And, as he explains here, he was very enthused about the new project from the start.

“The project was the brainchild of Janet Kingston of Warners Ireland who asked me to look at doing a definitive series of compilations. Once I knew I’d have a realistic input into the project I felt very relaxed about it, took it on and started to listen to the available tracks. Some tracks were practically automatic choices. From the first time I heard it I loved the life and the joy in the Chieftains track ‘The Kilfenora Set’, so that had to be there. Christy’s ‘Lisdoonvarna’ was another obvious one, but the Phil Lynott track ‘Old Town’ had to go on too. It’s such a great representation of the man, isn’t it?

“One of the strange things about the six Lisdoonvarna festivals that took place was the barrage of great music. It was very eclectic for it’s time, but it wasn’t always compatible. It was also unusual back then to get that mix of Irish musicians at an Irish festival with international acts of the standing of, say, Jackson Browne, but it’s all brilliant, and that’s reflected in the selection on the CD.

“Listening to the tracks was an experience for me too in that there were some tracks, like the Jackson Browne’s ‘The Pretender’, that I wasn’t so familiar with, but I began to see what it was about and how it might work.

“There were a lot of time pressures to get the compilation ready for this year’s gig, so in some cases we couldn’t clear the permissions for some of the tracks on our wish-list in time. It’s ironic that with the festival being put back, we would have had that extra space to chase stuff. For instance, we asked Liam O’Flynn for a track, and he was well up for it, but we couldn’t sort out the material in time. That’s a measure of the damage this year’s cancellation did.

“Lots of local people were expecting Lisdoonvarna to happen as originally planned, and they’ve lost money. That’s very sad. No harm was going to be done by holding the event in Lisdoon. In fact, Lisdoonvarna would have benefited enormously. In the past it generated lots of good will, so they’ve lost out both musically and commercially.

“My personal memories of Lisdoonvarna, especially the three years I did the sound for, are very, very sweet, a lovely atmosphere among the people working there, and much of it generated by Paddy Doherty and Jim Shannon who set it all up initially. Their attitude to people was very positive. We were all aware we were making it up as we went along, dealing with the logistics of a gig at that level. But somehow it all turned out so well.

“Back then traditional music was a more introverted affair back then compared to what it is now. Today we’ve developed a stage culture, a rock culture that didn’t exist back then. People in Ireland now know how to run a gig at the highest level and take care of all the essentials, from sound to security. The standard of musicianship has shot up too in the country generally, and that’s obvious from the tracks on the bonus CD.

“I really like Halite, who I’ve included on the extra CD, in the company of The Frames and David Kitt, who I also think is very good. These newer artists are benefiting from the recent tendency for Irish artists to record their own records which in general I believe is a good thing, although it can have a down side in that sometimes the overall sound quality is less than you’d get in a fully kitted-out modern studio.

“In fact, given the enormous wealth of material available, my main problem was keeping it all down to one CD, and I could only do that by promising myself I would do another couple of follow-up volumes. The Lisdoonvarna festivals were truly magical occasions and I hope that’s reflected in this compilation.”