Christy Moore, Botanic Gardens, Belfast

published on Dig With It June 5, 2024

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2024 Hot Press

Live Report: Christy Moore goes to the Opera

As part of a series of sold-out gigs that will see him on the road until October if not beyond, Christy Moore is going solo and audiences are loving it.

This was Christy Moore in his natural habitat, totally engaged with a Wexford Opera House full of fans, and his songs and stories teeming with heroes and villains. It sure augurs well for the rest of his current tour.

Yes we had the hilarious ‘Joxer Goes to Stuttgart’ and a fabulous solo vocal version of ‘The Ballad of Ruby Walsh’, with a standing Christy trying out his best jockey moves. But other heroes were honoured too, with Wally Page’s ‘The Biko Drum’ getting a welcome outing alongside Bobby Sands’ ‘McIlhatton’ and ‘Lyra McKee’, James Cramer’s tribute to the murdered Belfast journalist

The audience responded with vigour to Christy’s version of Martin Leahy’s fierce putdown of the cowardice of anonymous online trollers. Leahy is the somewhat unsung hero who takes up his weekly position outside Leinster House trying to penetrate the hearts of politicians with his song ‘Everybody Should Have a Home’.

But then Christy is no fan of politicians, as you would gather from the wit and venom of ‘I Hate Politicians’ which neatly segued into ‘Don’t Forget Your Shovel’.

But there was something of a privilege in hearing for the first time Christy singing Jim Page’s brand new ‘Palestine’ which got the biggest cheer of the night.

‘North and South’ was another audience winner. There were less politically-overt favourites too, ‘Beeswing’, ‘The Voyage’, ‘Welcome to the Cabaret’ and ‘The Time Has Come’, and two songs by younger brother Luka in ‘The City of Chicago’ and ‘I’m a Bogman’. They were all delivered with Christy’s voice as strong and as wholesome as ever, his wit on full alert and real anger in his rhythmic guitar accompaniment whenever the song deserved it.

Walking out onto Wexford’s High Street we felt better equipped to face the ongoing depravity of the human race. That’s what a close engagement with Christy Moore does to you. As he said himself, he’s come a long way from The Unyoke Inn to the Opera House.

Jackie Hayden

2023 Cork Marquee Review

Christy Moore Stars at 17th Marquee outing

How does Christy Moore remember all those words, eyes closed, singing and reciting around 10,000 words in two of the most joyful hours ever in the Marquee?

Could Shakespeare recite his hit eyes closed? Total recall. Christy [Moore] is the Arnie [Schwarzenegger – legends don’t need surnames] of Irish folk. It’s just one of his many blessed mysteries. He truly has the gods in his pocket.

With thunder and lightning threatening earlier in the day, we were hoping that Christy’s show in Cork’s Marquee would enjoy a degree of calm between the storms. The gods smiled.

Mercurial, magical, and never one to pull his punches when a point of principle is at stake, Christy Moore really is so much more than Ireland’s undisputed champion of acoustic folk music.

His sold-out show was a thing of beauty, but it was more than that. It was a moment to reflect on the issues currently facing society, not least homelessness. He’s not just shaking a fist at authorities either. When Christy plays Dublin’s Vicar Street in July, the entire proceeds will go to the homeless charity Focus Ireland.

At the Marquee, his passion is evident. “I saw a woman begging on the streets on my way here today, she was in an awful way,” he says. “I’d like to sing this song for her. It’s called ‘Lemon Sevens’, which are tablets that some people crush and smoke.”

He also played “They’re Afraid to Use Their Names’, a new song about social media trolls written by Bandon’s Martin Leahy, with Christy also urging people to visit YouTube to view ‘Everyone Needs A Home”, the protest song Martin sings outside the Dáil every week.

An RTE poll placed Christy as Ireland’s greatest living musician. He’s adored in the Marquee, which he sells out every year. He’s loved like a local for a good reason. “This is my 17th time playing in this tent. I tried to have a song ready for last year’s show, I was writing it on the way down, I have it [‘The Big Marquee’] ready tonight.

Huge applause, name-checking everyone listed in the Cork phonebook, from The Two Norries, John Spillane, Ricky Lynch, and the Irish Examiner.

Christy played solo, though ‘solo’ is too small a word – he’s bigger, both in terms of performance and charm than any 15-piece band. The songs are huge: ‘Ordinary Man’, ‘Delirium Tremens’, ‘Viva la Qunita Brigada’, ‘Lisdoonvarna’, ‘Ride On’, ‘Beeswing’, ‘Lingo Politico (I Hate Politicians)’, with a sprinkling of ‘Don’t Forget Your Shovel’ and ‘Sonny’ (dedicated to the late Christy Dignam).

Incredible repertoire, but his personality is even bigger than the songs. Down these parts, he can do no wrong. He walks on water.

Joe Dermody
Cork Examiner

2021 Irish Times Review

Christy Moore: Flying Into Mystery
Solid Outing from Ireland’s greatest treasure

Moore revisits songs by namesake Gary and Bob Dylan alongside a few new of his own.

“It has been a very different recording process this time around,” writes Christy Moore in the liner notes. “Since 1969 I have been involved in recording but never with a total absence of live performance. Since March 2020, all my focus has been on this album.” You would imagine that Moore might have basked in the socially enforced leisure time, but a restless spirit is a restless spirit, and so he did what every other musician does as downtime looms – forget about relaxing, pick up a guitar and write songs.

As is usual for Moore, however, Flying Into Mystery revisits the work of other songwriters as well as throwing some of his own into the pot. He is as astute a curator and collector as he is an original songwriter, and the crux of the album lies primarily in two songs, cover versions that Moore effortlessly makes his own. The opening track, Johnny Boy, was written in the 1980’s by a different Moore (Gary), as a tribute to his friend, Phil Lynott. It connects thematically with the closing track, I Pity the Poor Immigrant, written in the 1960’s by Bob Dylan.

The filling in the sandwich includes revisions of songs not only from his back catalogue but also known songwriters. This isn’t Moore by numbers, however, rather another solid outing from (not that he would ever think of himself as such) Ireland’s greatest living national treasure.

Tony Clayton-Lea

2022 UNCUT Review

Christy Moore
Flying Into Mystery
Legendary Irish veteran still hitting the mark

As someone who has always road-tested his material before recording it, Moore faced a new challenge during lockdown: for the first time in a career lasting 50 years he was forced to make a studio album without having first developed the songs in front of an audience. He’s responded bravely with a mature set of exquisitely crafted ballads, his simple guitar picking burnished with elegant piano-and-strings arrangements. From his stirring climate change protest on ‘Clock Winds Down’ (“The ice caps melt, the Amazon burns, the grid goes down) to his deathless take on Dylan’s ‘I Pity the poor Immigrant’, the results are both masterful and moving.

Nigel Williamson

2022 RnR Magazine Review

Christy Moore
****
Flying Into Mystery

Bookended by ‘Johnny Boy’, Gary Moore’s heartfelt tribute to Phil Lynott, and Bob Dylan’s ‘I Pity the Poor Immigrant’, Flying Into Mystery is everything you’d expect from the esteemed son of County Kildare: well chosen contemporary songs, a smattering of trad.arr. and a few originals with the usual mix of politics, romance, humour and social commentary.

Right from the start Christy Moore’s unparalleled skills as a storyteller draw the listener in, whether he’s putting his own spin on traditional songs ‘Van Diemen’s Land’ and ‘Myra’s Caboose’ (aka ‘The Gander’) or taking contemporary songs, including Mick Hanly’s ‘All I Remember’ and Lynch’s ‘December 1942’, and making them his own thanks to a warm vocal performance that belies his seventy-six years.

Politically, Moore is bang on the money once again with ‘Clock Winds Down’, Jim Page’s timely and powerful reflection/reaction to the climate crisis but, as ever, he doesn’t dwell on the negative, tempering the doom and gloom with the humour of ‘Bord Na Mona Man’, his own homage to the ubiquitous Irish peat company.

Closing with ‘Zozimus & Zimmerman’, an autobiographical tale of watching Bob Dylan perform, Flying Into Mystery is yet another glorious release from a true master of his art.

Dave Haslam

Chat with Ronan Collins

Dear Listeners,

In case you missed it, here is a link to my recent chat with Ronan Collins:

Ronan Collins Collection

Christy at Vicar Street 2023-2024

Dear Listeners,

Tickets for the annual run of shows in Vicar St.are on sale now.

November 22, 26, 29, 2023

December 4, 11, 29, 2023

January 2, 7, 11, 16, 19, 2024

Christy Moore **** Flying Into Mystery

We have announced four new Autumn shows.

We have the following date on sale for 2023

We have the following dates on sale for 2023

University Concert Hall Limerick May 4th, Castlecourt Hotel Westport May 24th Cork Live at the Marquee June 17th, Slieve Russell Cavan June 23rd INEC Killarney June 30th, TLT Drogheda July 5th Theatre Royal Waterford July 19th and 21st Great Northern Bundoran September 26th

Christy Moore
****
Flying Into Mystery

University Concert Hall Limerick May 4th,
Castlecourt Hotel Westport May 24th
Cork Live at the Marquee June 17th,
Slieve Russell Cavan June 23rd
INEC Killarney June 30th,
TLT Drogheda July 5th
Theatre Royal Waterford July 19th and 21st
Great Northern Bundoran September 26th