HAPPY TO MEET, SORRY TO PART

Horslips’ first studio album is said to also be the first true ‘Celtic rock’ album, although I suspect Christy Moore might argue that point. It is in fact quite Celtic in nature, full of jig arrangements on both ends of the record; and with instrumentation that included Uillean pipes, mandolin, flute, fiddle, harpsichord, celeste, banjo, acoustic guitar and tin whistles the album has all the right credentials for a Celtic folk recording.

While the album opens and closes with distinctly Irish jig ditties, many of the tracks in between are unmistakable progressive folk compositions with beautiful piano arrangements, pleasant and unusual tempos, and fanciful imagery. “Hall of Mirrors” may be the finest progressive folk song on the album, with a keyboard track and vocals that evoke some of the same emotions as Genesis’ ‘Wind and Wuthering’ that would come some years later. “The Clergy's Lamentation” is similar but not quite as distinctive.

But the band cannot stray from their roots too long, as the romping jig titled “An Bratach Bán” demonstrates. This is followed by the slower number “The Shamrock Shore” which sounds like it’s going to be an instrumental until nearly halfway through when Barry Devlin and John Fea break in with a soft, folksy duet accompanied mostly by pipes and acoustic guitar; followed by a very similar tune (“Flower Amang Them All”) that actually is an instrumental, and in which I believe a flute, Uillean pipes and a smallpipe are the main instruments.

“Bím Istigh Ag Ól” is another jig-like number but with some fairly heavy electric guitar and weird keyboards, while “Furniture” is about as close to a normal soft rock tune as the band would ever approach.

Jim Lockhart takes center stage on harpsichord for “Ace and Deuce”, a rather short instrumental that is understated and consists primarily of the harpsichord and acoustic guitar with a bit of violin coming in at the end. This is a prototypical Celtic folk number that previews the type of sound the band would become well known for throughout the early and mid seventies.

The rest of the album is largely heavy Celtic jigging music, although “The Musical Priest” shows a bit of a progressive bent in the guitar and violin tracks. For the most part though the last ten minutes or so will only appeal to big fans of strongly Celtic sounds.

I was never a big Horslips fan back in the seventies, although some of their music has grown on me over the years. Their epic rendition of ‘The Tain’ remains one of the finest Celtic folk albums ever recorded in my opinion. This one is a bit more uneven, to be expected of a band just starting out and considering the music here was collected from the band’s first couple years of existence and recorded rather unconventionally in an old mansion reputed to be haunted and in which the band employed hay bales and stage curtains for baffles and sound management. As a seminal Celtic rock album ‘Happy to Meet…Sorry to Part’ deserves a place on the shelf of just about any serious collector of progressive folk, and probably most fans of world music as well. I wouldn’t call this a masterpiece or anything, but it is quite decent and is worth listening to a few times if you get a chance. Three stars a mildly recommended.

peace