The Well Below The Valley

Planxty's second album from 1973 is something that raises the awareness of Irish music with its inventive arrangements and superb playing. All the musicians are luminaries--Christy Moore, Donal Lunny, Liam O'Flynn, and Andy Irvine--and for a quartet they make a massive sound that's nearly as big as their impact, which still reverberates throughout Irish music today. O'Flynn's pipes are especially wonderful on slip jigs like "The Kid on the Mountain." Irvine's original song, "Time Will Cure Me" fits quite seamlessly into the traditional music beside the title track and an utterly beautiful "As I Roved Out." So much of the material here--and, more important, the style in which it's played (with grace rather than at breakneck speed)--has become part of the repertoires of Irish bands in the time since, confirming not only the importance of Planxty but the value of a powerful song or tune. --Chris Nickson