"Cold Blow And The Rainy Night" by PLANXTY – October 1974 UK/IRELAND Third Studio Album on Polydor Records featuring Liam O'Flynn, Andy Irvine, Christy Moore and Johnny Moynihan with guest Donal Lunny later of The Bothy Band (November 1989, March 2000 and June 2002 US Shanachie Records CD Reissue – Remastered by CMS Digital in California) - A Review by Mark Barry...

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Cold-Blow-Rainy-Night-Planxty/dp/B000000E67?crid=35EZ5OCFIF7MH&dib=eyJ2IjoiMSJ9.7iPmKcYTrOlPMY2wIc7ykQ.ggcQ26Sf4P4jZ-1vfGhHCWD3rwrGMc5YcoCo9x9dtFc&dib_tag=se&keywords=016351791122&nsdOptOutParam=true&qid=1731406927&sprefix=016351791122%2Caps%2C71&sr=8-1&linkCode=ll1&tag=mabasreofcdbl-21&linkId=c63d7412497e5a7b0cc9a9afe55dd1f4&language=en_GB&ref_=as_li_ss_tl

RATINGS:

Overall *****

Presentation ***

Audio **** to *****

"…I Know A Bit More About Love Before I Travel On…"

Traditional Irish Folk supergroup PLANXTY hold a legend-like status in the old sod – their run of Seventies albums on Polydor Records being the very stuff of tear-filled nostalgia for a lot of us ageing Irish dandies. 

And platter number three from 1974 - "Cold Blow And The Rainy Night" - is as lovely as the 1972 self-titled "Planxty" debut and its 1973 follow-up "The Well Below The Valley" (see review). 

This third 10-track mix-and-mash offers up Jigs – Polkas – Reels – Ballads of Love and Betrayal – and even original material that isn't five-million years old and smelling of bogs and beermats. Buckle up me hirsute barstool people – time to get juicy around the ramblin' boys ears…

US-released 8 Nov 1989 (reissued 1 March 2000 and June 2002) - "Cold Blow And The Rainy Night" by PLANXTY on Shanachie 79011 (Barcode 0163561791122) is a straightforward reissue and remaster of their third studio album from 1974 that plays out as follows (45:40 minutes):

1. Johnny Cope [Side 1]
2. Polkas: Dennis Murphy's Polka/The £42 Cheque/John Ryan's Polka
3. Cold Blow And The Rainy Night
4. "P" Stands For Paddy, I Suppose
5. Reels: The Old Torn Petticoat/The Dublin Reel/The Wind That Shakes The Barley
6. Bǎneasǎ's Green Glade/Mominsko Horo
7. The Little Drummer [Side 2]
8. The Lakes Of Pontchartrain
9. Jigs: The Hares In The Corn/The Frost Is All Over/The Gander In The Pratie Hole
10. The Green Fields Of Canada
Tracks 1 to 10 are their third studio album "Cold Blow And The Rainy Night" – released October 1974 in the UK on Polydor 2383 301 - Produced by PHIL COULTER (recorded in August 1974)

PLANXTY was:
Christy Moore – Lead Vocals (Track 8), Acoustic Guitar, Bodhrán and Harmonium
Andy Irvine – Lead Vocals (Tracks 1, 6 and 10), Dulcimer, Hurdy Gurdy, Mandola and Mandolin 
Johnny Moynihan – Lead Vocals (Track 4 and 9), Bouzouki, Fiddle and Tin Whistle
Liam O'Flynn – Uilleann Pipes and Tin Whistle (Soloist on Tracks 2, 5 and 9)

Guest: 
Donal Lunny (later with The Bothy Band and owner of Windmill Lane Studios where U2 recorded) - Bodhrán, Bouzouki, Guitar, Organ [Portative] and Album Mixing

Shanachie Records of the USA first put out the "Cold Blow And The Rainy Night" album as a reissue in 1979 on Vinyl and Cassette - then came the 1 November 1989 CD with a Remaster by CMS Digital in California. Their further CD reissues of 2000 and 2002 are based on that 1989 version (the 2002 issue has a barcode on the rear and a 2002 date on the artwork and CD - I think the 1989 CD version does not have a barcode - that's how you differentiate which issue is which). But why mess with a good thing is my point - because the Audio here is sweet and clean and full of the air of life. For sure the gatefold slip of paper that acts as an inlay is hardly spine-tingling - but it does give a potted history on all the songs written by the boys themselves. To the music…

The second medley on Side 1 is a trio of Polkas handled by Andy Irvine and Donal Lunny on Mandolin and Bouzouki respectively and when that pipe-drone comes a-sailing in - you catch a glimpse of The Bothy Band sound that would explode onto the Traditional Irish Folk Scene in March 1976 with their fabulous self-titled debut album "The Bothy Band" (also on Polydor Records in both Ireland and England). The three lads combine their vocal prowess on the album's title track "Cold Blow And The Rainy Night", an Inn-Lady letting a cold soldier in from the rain, but after she has let him have his merry way, a proposal goes unheeded and its then she curses the rainy night. 

Johnny Moynihan makes his lone vocal lead on ""P" Stands For Paddy, I Suppose" where Johnnie roved out on a May morning only to hear two lovers making up for lost time and as he is to go away soon – Johnnie listens in (lyrics from it title this review). Liam O'Flynn lets rip on his Uilleann Pipes for a trio of reels "The Old Torn Petticoat/The Dublin Reel/The Wind That Shakes The Barley" - soon joined by that magic Irish Rhythm Section of Bouzouki, Harmonium and Bodhrán. Andy Irvine brings Side 1 to a close with a lovely air of his own – the sung-and-played two-part "Bǎneasǎ's Green Glade/Mominsko Horo" based on his stay in Baneasa Forest outside Bucharest in Romania. And as it goes into that Bulgarian Dance portion – the Audio is magnificent. 

Side 2 opens with the crystal clear tale of 24 ladies watching a troop of soldiers parading by where one of those impressionable lads has his heart taken by one of the finest in the crowd. He dons his hat, waistcoat, pocket watch and best duds - only to find she initially has ambitions bigger than a poorly Drummer Boy. But soon she falls for the rolls of "The Little Drummer". Christy Moore instils his vocal timbre on the magnificent American-Cajun ballad "The Lakes Of Pontchartrain" – a slow air of foreign-shores-longing and heart-stealing ache on board. Paul Brady would do justice to this gorgeous Creole Girl (with jet black ringlets) love song on his 1978 Folk LP "Welcome Here Kind Stranger" on Mulligan Records (lyrics from the song literally title the album). Time for some dancing - a trio of jigs on Penny Whistle, Harmonium and Irish Uilleann Pipes (Liam O'Flynn soloist, Johnny Moynihan vocals for Part 3 "The Gander In The Pratie Hole")  - and one minute in - the magic of this music kicks in as does a tale of Potatoes and Foul. The "Cold Blow And The Rainy Night" album comes to an epic end with a long near seven-minute slow air book-ended by a plaintive Pipe solo - "The Green Fields Of Canada". Andy Irvine's echoed olde-Irish voice captures the melancholy of people leaving home only to find they are taxed to the nines and life is just as harsh and then they die abroad - hurting on a bed in a croft building for what they left behind away across the Ocean vast.

Both Planxty and The Bothy Band are held in high esteem everywhere for damn good reason - they were the real deal. For sure this 1989 US CD - reissued God knows how many times since - has never been presented in a manner that the music warrants/deserves - but it's a small compromise. The audio and the music for "Cold Blow And The Rainy Night" are both ace. 

So, in the native tongue of the weary traveller looking for solace and kindness in "The Lakes Of Pontchartrain" - me money spent here is plenty good. Recommended…