Dónal Lunny
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Dónal Lunny (born 10 March 1945) is an Irish folk musician. Lunny has been at the cutting edge of the evolution of Irish music for more than thirty-five years and is generally regarded as having been central to the renaissance of traditional Irish music in that time period. Born in Tullamore, then moved to Newbridge, County Kildare, as a teenager he joined a band called Rakes of Kildare, with Christy Moore. Lunny's Emmet Folk Group and Michael and Brian Byrne's Spiceland Folk Group joined forces to form The Emmet Spiceland. Their debut album 'The First' was released in 1968. They were a vocal harmony group and reached number one in Ireland with the single "Mary From Dungloe". In 1971 he played on Prosperous, the first album by Christy Moore.
The musicians from Prosperous assembled in 1972 under the name Planxty. The band became a leading proponent of Irish traditional instrumental music for the next ten years. In 1975 Lunny left them to form The Bothy Band, playing guitar and bouzouki.
They disbanded in 1978. Lunny became a session musician on Davey and Morris, the first album to feature Shaun Davey. Lunny then got together with Christy Moore again in 1981, to form Moving Hearts. Another founding member was the young uilleann piper, Davy Spillane.
[edit] Dónal Lunny as producer
When Moving Hearts broke up in 1985, Lunny diversified. He learned keyboards and mandolin and became a producer. He played on several Christy Moore albums, and was a producer and session musician on Kate Bush albums. He played bouzouki and bodhrán on Shaun Davey's Granuaille. He played on the soundtrack of the film This Is My Father and the TV program "The River of Sound".
He was the producer of Bringing it all Back Home. He produced albums for Paul Brady, Elvis Costello, Rod Stewart, Indigo Girls, Clannad and Baaba Maal. He appeared on compilation albums - Gathering (1981) and Common Ground (1996). He pushed new boundaries with the his band Coolfin (1998) which included uilleann piper John McSherry. He appeared at the 2000 Cambridge Folk Festival, and the album that commemorated it. In 2001 Lunny collaborated with Frank Harte on the album My Name is Napoleon Bonaparte.
As an arranger he has worked for The Waterboys, Fairground Attraction and Eddi Reader. Journey (2000) is a retrospective album. In 2004 Lunny was part of the reunited Planxty concert. Manus Lunny, also a musician, is Dónal's brother.
Dónal Lunny is married to Japanese musician Hideko Itami, a member of the musical group Soul Flower Union. The couple now make their home in Okinawa, Japan.
[edit] The Irish bouzouki
Both Dónal Lunny and Andy Irvine have some claim to popularising the bouzouki in the Irish music sphere after its initial introduction by Johnny Moynihan. Lunny ordered a custom-built bouzouki from English luthier, Peter Abnett (who still makes instruments to this day), with a flat back instead of a traditional Greek rounded back. This made it more comfortable to play. In 1981 he went one step further by creating an electric bouzouki, though this failed to catch on.
