A duets collection, it teams the 62-year-old up with such friends and admirers as Christy Moore, Luka Bloom, Paul Brady, Frances & Mary Black, Maire Brennan and Nizlopi (who sampled one of his compositions, ‘Don’t Forget Your Shovel’, on their number hit, ‘The JCB Song’).
“It was a bit of a Johnny Cash situation, with Christie working overtime to get his vocals down while he was still well enough,” says a record company spokesman. “What blew everyone away was the warmth and affection shown towards him by all these big names he’d either collaborated with or written songs for in the past. I think it’ll make for a really fitting epitaph.”