For those of you in ignorance of Luke Kelly, he was the finest interpreter of traditional Irish and folk ballads bar none, both as a member of the Dubliners and on his own – ask Dave King or Shane MacGowan and I think they’ll second me.

“Thank you for the days” contains 9 (out of 10) previously unreleased versions of very well known Luke Kelly standards (McAlpines, Rocky Road, Galway Races etc.) recorded in the rough and ready in some very primitive studios back in the early ‘60’s and recently rediscovered in some dusty folk archives during research for a Noel Pearson film on the life of Luke Kelly, “Luke”. The 10th track, “Thank you for the days”, recorded in the early ’80 just before Luke’s death seems a little too polished and out of place in this collection, a great song though.

Probably not the best place to start discovering Luke Kelly (The Luke Kelly Collection is a much better starting point) but it’s a strong collection that show cases the raw power and passion of Luke’s voice.

July 2004