I'm catagorising this as traditional material played on acoustic instruments - so Fairport et al are out of the running.
Richard Thomson's pick is, I believe I read somewhere, Jock Tamson's Bairns - The Lasses Fashion. Which as a choice I have a lot of respect for - innovative, fresh material showcasing some of the more harmonically unusual Scottish songs and tunes not heard elsewhere, with just a hint of a modern slant presaging The Easy Club. I don't think this ever got a cd release, so as far as I know its vinyl all the way if anyone who hasn't heard it wants to check it out.
Plenty of people who's opinion I respect would rate And Irvine and Paul Brady's eponymous classic as the best ever. Has CD availabiltiy.
Planxty's first album...plenty of time for those whose choice is this too. Cd released so no availabiltiy issues.
Seventies/eighties, as with rock, produced some astonishingly beautiful and innovative material, although SQ can be variable. Honourable mentions to Ossian's Seal Song, Pentangle's Solomons Seal, The Oldham Tinkers - Oldhams Burning Sands, Alan Stivell's Renaissance of the Celtic Harp, The Bothy Band's Afterhours, Kevin Burke and Mícheál Ó Domhnaill's two albums Promenade and Portland. I don't think current material equals these, but that's a personal opinion and others may differ!
Richard Thomson's pick is, I believe I read somewhere, Jock Tamson's Bairns - The Lasses Fashion. Which as a choice I have a lot of respect for - innovative, fresh material showcasing some of the more harmonically unusual Scottish songs and tunes not heard elsewhere, with just a hint of a modern slant presaging The Easy Club. I don't think this ever got a cd release, so as far as I know its vinyl all the way if anyone who hasn't heard it wants to check it out.
Plenty of people who's opinion I respect would rate And Irvine and Paul Brady's eponymous classic as the best ever. Has CD availabiltiy.
Planxty's first album...plenty of time for those whose choice is this too. Cd released so no availabiltiy issues.
Seventies/eighties, as with rock, produced some astonishingly beautiful and innovative material, although SQ can be variable. Honourable mentions to Ossian's Seal Song, Pentangle's Solomons Seal, The Oldham Tinkers - Oldhams Burning Sands, Alan Stivell's Renaissance of the Celtic Harp, The Bothy Band's Afterhours, Kevin Burke and Mícheál Ó Domhnaill's two albums Promenade and Portland. I don't think current material equals these, but that's a personal opinion and others may differ!