February 16, 2011
By Staff Reporter
Its time signatures (5/16, 7/16, 9/16, 11/16, 15/16), however, are difficult to master by non-native performers. “I hauled a bunch of records back to Ireland, locked myself away, and tried to get the hang of the rhythms,” admitted Irvine, who was born in 1942 in London to a mother from Lisburn, Co. Antrim, and a Scottish father with Donegal roots.
On 1974’s “Cold Blow and the Rainy Night” by Planxty, of which Irvine was a founding member, he and his bandmates obviously got the hang of these rhythms on two tracks, “Baneasa’s Green Blade” and “Mominsko Horo.” On Planxty’s 1979 album, “After the Break,” was “Smeceno Horo,” a 9/16 Bulgarian dance tune, and Irvine’s solo debut a year later, “Rainy Sundays . . . Windy Dreams,” had “Romanian Song/Paidushko Horo,” the latter in 5/16 time.
In 1983-84, not long after Planxty disbanded a second time, Andy Irvine formed Mosaic, a group whose name reflected its intention. Playing Celtic and Balkan music, Mosaic originally comprised Irvine, Hungary’s M