[Hidden Gem] Skara Brae

To many, the idea of Irish folk means Clannad or the Dubliners. Neither option is necessarily wrong, of course. But there is far more to our music, and this album is one of the most incredible hidden gems of the genre.

I discovered this album two years ago. And I didn't come to it the usual way.

At that time, I was granted Irish citizenship, a wonderful and emotional moment. Leading up to it, I became very immersed in our culture, going deeper than ever before in all my years living here. Naturally, a big part of that journey focused on the music.

I began to dig deep and eventually came across this album. And it turned out one of the most exciting musical discoveries.

Skara Brae recorded their debut in one afternoon in a room in Dublin in 1970. There was no fancy studio, just two microphones hung from the ceiling, a reel-to-reel tape, and four musicians. The youngest was 15, the eldest 20.

They cut the record practically live, with almost no overdubs. They just did what they've been doing all along - sat around and sang beautiful Irish songs together.

Some they sang a capella. In others, they used a guitar or a clavinet. The result had no studio polish. But it has an incredible atmosphere.

Skara Brae's debut is, by far, the most exciting Irish pastoral folk record I've heard.

It's sung entirely in Irish. It features songs these young people would have heard growing up. And it is served in a way no one else has done before.

When reading more on the album, I discovered that their approach to those songs even caused some controversy at the time. As one of the musicians, Maighread Ní Dhomhnaill, recalled in an interview in 2021:

Some people saw it as a total desecration of the old songs.

Imagine causing such a stir.