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Donald's Encyclopedia of Popular Music

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JOHNSTONS, The

Irish folk group of late '60s-- dc0 early '70s, with nucleus of Paul Brady, Adrienne (d '75) and Luci Johnston and Mick Moloney, not all of whom lasted throughout. They played a role in Britain similar to Judy Collins in USA, popularizing songs by writers like Jacques Brel ('Port Of Amsterdam'), Leonard Cohen ('Hey, That's No Way To Say Goodbye', 'Seems So Long Ago, Nancy', 'Story Of Isaac'), Gordon Lightfoot ('If I Could'), Ewan MacColl ('Sweet Thames Flow Softly' and 'The Travelling People', a no. 1 in Eire), Ralph McTell ('Streets Of London') and Joni Mitchell ('Both Sides Now', a no. 1 hit in Eire). Albums for Transatlantic '67- -71 were well received, The Johnstons, Give A Damn, The Barley Corn (the last two combined on a Castle CD '96), Bitter Green and Colours Of The Dawn, by which time '60 per cent of the material on the LP' was original. Give A Damn and The Barley Corn were especially noteworthy, effectively a double album released as two single LPs, Give A Damn concentrating on contemporary songwriting, The Barley Corn on a trad. focus nowhere better essayed than on the unaccompanied incest and murder ballad 'Who Put The Blood'. Moloney departed '71 leaving the team of Adrienne Johnston and Paul Brady to produce If I Sang My Song before they too called it a day. Several vinyl compilations of their work appeared: perhaps the most representative of their hits was Streets Of London (Sonas); while Ye Jacobites By Name (Contour) contained a variety of mainly trad. material incl. 'Paddy's Green Shamrock Shore', which Brady would later significantly improve on: he became a major solo act and band member in the British folk scene and later a rock performer and songwriter (see his entry), while Moloney released excellent albums under his own name such as Mick Moloney With Eugene O'Donnell and Strings Attached, as well as guesting on albums by James Keane, Martin Mulvihill and Eugene O'Donnell and producing the Irish Tradition, Paddy Tunney and the Irish-American anthology, Cherish The Ladies.