Never Tire of the Road

BBC Northern Ireland has posted a relaxed interview with Andy Irvine conducted by the composer Neil Martin. Among other things, we learn that Andy was shipped off to boarding school when he was three and a half, that he once sold his blood in Greece to buy a bouzouki, and that he keeps a Landcruiser in Australia, where he has toured more than thirty times. He loves to drive across Australia and sometimes writes songs while driving, but doesn't like to listen to music when he's behind the wheel. There's an interesting discussion of why the bouzouki was so quickly adopted by Irish musicians (its tuning is more suited to modal music than a standard-tuned guitar). The interview was conducted in early October, a few weeks before the death of his old bandmate Dónal Lunny.

Andy is now eighty-four but still tours regularly, most recently with a Swedish group named Quilty.