Tríona Ní Dhomhnaill – Tríona (CD)

Recorded for Gael Linn after the breakup of Skara Brae and before the Bothy Band lit up the Irish scene, this is the sole solo album from one of the most influential singers in the history of Irish music. Tríona surrounds herself with family and future bandmates: brother Mícheál Ó Domhnaill produces and plays guitar, sister Maighréad adds vocals, and Paddy Keenan and Paddy Glackin, soon to join her in the Bothy Band, contribute pipes and fiddle.

Singing in both Irish and English, she moves from the playful sailor song When I Was a Fair Maid through gorgeous Donegal ballads like Gamhna Geala and A Stór, A Stór, A Ghrá to a closing O'Carolan's Farewell to Music. Her harpsichord, the instrument that became the clavinet's genteel ancestor in her Bothy Band sound, gives the whole record its distinctive antique glow. Long out of circulation and endlessly namechecked, it's an essential document of the Ó Domhnaill family songbook.