Dónal Lunny - Biography
By J Poet
Dónal Lunny is one of the most important musicians of the Irish folk renaissance of the 1960s. He was a member of two seminal Irish folk bands Planxty and The Bothy Band, as well as being the long time friend and accompanist of Christy Moore, another major player in the Irish folk revival. In 1980, he started Moving Hearts, a folk/rock/jazz/funk band, with Moore and rock guitar ace Declan Sinnott. Since 1984 he’s become well known for his production work with artists like Kate Bush, Elvis Costello, Rod Stewart, Indigo Girls, Sinéad O'Connor, Loreena McKennitt, Altan, Tommy Makem, and Clannad.
Lunny grew up in Newbridge, County Kildare. His mother was a Gaeltacht, an amateur folklore expert, as was the Nancy Moore, mother of his best friend, Christy Moore. Nancy Moore made everyone who visited her home sing, so Lunny grew up surrounded by traditional music. He picked up guitar, then bouzouki, while still in his teens. Lunny and Moore performed as Rakes of Kildare, sometimes with Frank Lunny, Dónal’s brother, on pennywhistle.
Their first professional band, The Emmet Spiceland, cut The First (1968 Page One, Ireland). One of its tracks “Mary From Dungloe,” became a big hit, but the band soon broke up. Moore launched a solo career, and after an album of traditional songs, he put together a more progressive band to make Prosperous (1972 Tara Ireland). The backing band included Dónal Lunny, guitarist Andy Irvine and Liam O'Flynn on Uillean pipes. The sound of the band was so unique they decided to continue on as Planxty, and cut some of the best and most influential albums of the Irish folk revival. Their first single “Cliff of Dooneen” was a hit. Lunny cut three albums with Planxty - Planxty (1973 Shanachie), also known as The Black Album for its stark cover, The Well Below the Valley (1973 Shanachie), and Cold Blow and the Rainy Night (1974 Shanachie), which he also produced. His main instrument was the Irish electric bouzouki which he developed himself; it gave the music an otherworldly quality.
Lunny left Planxty over disagreements in musical direction. He started his own label, Mulligan Records, deciding he wanted to be a producer rather than band member. Nonetheless, he joined one of the first groups he signed, The Bothy Band. The group lasted a brief three years, and cycled through quite a few musicians, but produced three legendary studio albums and one stunning live set - The Bothy Band (1975, Mulligan Ireland, Green Linnet US), Old Hag You Have Killed Me (1976 Green Linnet), Out of the Wind into the Sun (1977 Green Linnet), and After Hours (1977 Green Linnet) the live set.
In 1979, Moore asked Lunny to participate in a reunion gig of the original Planxty members. The reunion tour went so well that the band stayed together and made three more albums: After the Break (1979 Tara), The Woman I Loved So Well (1980 Tara) and Words & Music (1979 Tara Ireland, 1983 Shanachie).
In 1980 Moore and Lunny were writing new tunes that didn’t fit their folk style. They broke up Planxty and created Moving Hearts with Declan Sinnott, one of Ireland’s best-known rock guitar players. They also added saxophone, bass, drums, keyboards and percussion, and moved in a rock/funk/jazz direction. Again the band was plagued with personnel instability (Moore left after Dark End of the Street) but produced four great albums: Moving Hearts (1981 Green Linnet), Dark End of the Street (1982 51%, 1999 WEA International), Live Hearts (1983 Green Linnet), and The Storm (1985 Tara).
He made his first solo album Dónal Lunny (1987 Gael-Linn) then turned his attention to producing and composing for movies and TV. In 1991 he put together Bringing It All Back Home (1991 BBC/Victory), the soundtrack of a massive multi-part documentary hat traced traditional Irish music from its origins in Ireland to the united states and back to Ireland. It included contributions from Elvis Costello, the Waterboys, Everly Brothers, Dolores Keane, Mary Black, and Emmylou Harris; Bringing It All Back Home, Vol. II (1999 BBC/Victory), and Bringing It All Back Home, Vol. III (2000 BBC/Victory) followed. In 1995 he helped with the soundtrack of A River of Sound (1995 Virgin) a documentary that looked at modern Celtic music.
In 1997 he produced Sult - Spirit of the Music, a TV series for the Gealic TV station Telefis na Gaeilge. The house band for the show, fiddler Nollaig Casey, guitarist Steve Cooney piper John McSherry, and Sharon Shannon on accordion joined him for his second solo album, Coolfin (1998 Metro Blue) an innovative world/Celtic fusion session. Songs from the series can be heard on Sult - Spirit of the Music (1998 Hummingbird Ireland). He composed soundtrack music St. Patrick 2000 (Keltia Musique) and This Is My Father (2003 Hummingbird)
Moore rejoined the Moving Hearts for a series of reunion gigs in 2007. They released a new album, Live in Dublin (2007 Ruby Works Ireland), and plan to continue touring for the next few years.