Changing Trains

2007

We had worked on this one for a long time before it got to the studio. We had rehearsed in Glasgow in January 2005 for nearly a week, then in Japan while on tour there in April 2005. We finally got to the recording studio in Budapest in November 2005.

I missed my flight from Dublin, arriving at the airport without my passport. When I got home to retrieve it, there it was, a dark red object on a dark red carpet! Almost invisible!

We all stayed in Nikola Parov's lovely house outside the city. While we were in Hungary, we made a couple of videos, to promote the album. They are very funny! The music came together quite slowly as I recall. There was a technical problem with recording Bruce, singing and playing the fiddle at the same time. I forget how we got over that. Then there was some contention between members of the band over the arrangements. We hung in there.

The album was released first in Australia to coincide with a tour we were doing in March 2006 but we weren't totally happy with the mix and Dónal spent long hours re-mixing it in Okinawa. The finished article didn't come out till Spetember 2007, nearly two years after we had recorded it. I think this is a wonderful album. We have no plans to make another but I hope those plans are laid one of these days.

Produced by Mozaik

Andy Irvine : vocal, bouzouki, mandola, harmonica
Bruce Molsky : vocal, fiddle, guitar, 5-string banjo
Dónal Lunny : vocal, bouzouki, guitar, bodhrán
Rens van der Zalm : fiddle, guitar, mandolin, oud, low whistle
Nikola Parov : kaval, gaida, gadulka, guitar, whistle, percussion, nyckelharpa

Special guest
Liam O'Flynn : uilleann pipes, whistle

Track list:
01. O'Donoghues
02. Sail Away Ladies / Walking in the Parlor
03. The Wind Blows over the Danube
04. Reuben's Transatlantic Express (Reuben's train)
05. The Humours of Parov
06. The Ballad of Rennardine / Johnny Cuig
07. Mary Rogers (Mary Mhaggie) / Siún Ní Dhuibhir
08. Train on the Island / Big Hoedown
09. The Pigfarm Suite (The Groves of Myrtle)
10. Carrowclare (Nights in Carrowclare)