The Johnstons – The Johnstons
Label: Mercury/SRM 1 640 | Release: 1972 | Genre: Folk-Rock
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The Johnstons were a family folk group who were immensely popular in Ireland in the late 1960s. They recorded both traditional and contemporary folk material, some of the latter straying into folk-rock and pop-folk areas on occasion.
The original lineup consisted of sisters Adrienne and Lucy Johnston singing close-harmony, backed by their brother Michael on acoustic 12-string guitar. This trio signed to Pye Records in 1965 and scored their only Irish #1 hit with their first single, a cover of Ewan MacColl’s “The Travelling People”. Several more successful singles followed over 1966-67 which are collected on the “Travelling People” album released on Marble Arch in 1968.
The Johnstons began to spend more time in the USA, spending three months touring there in 1971, including an apparance at the Philadelphia Folk Festival in August. This tour coincided with the release of “Colours Of The Dawn” on Vanguard Records in September 1971. The contemporary material began to dominate and for this reason Mick chose to leave towards the end of the year. He favoured the traditional material but his bandmates preferred the contempary. Mick later emigrated to the USA to study and released solo albums.
By 1972 the band was duo of Adrienne Johnston and Paul Brady, who signed to Mercury Records in the USA in May that year. The Johnstons released one final LP, “If I Sang My Song” (1972, The Johnstons in US), the majority of the songs coming from the pen of Brady and his co-writer Chris McLoud. The album boasted backing musicians such as Tim Hart, Royston Wood, and Rick Kemp but would prove to be the band’s last.
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