Sweeney's Men - Sweeney's Men & The Tracks Of Sweeney (2on1 CD)

2 original recordings on 1 CD:

-Sweeney' Men
-The Tracks Of Sweeney's Men

Sweeney's Men is an album by Sweeney's Men. It was re-released on CD in 1996, packaged together with their second album, The Tracks of Sweeney. The final banjo riff on The House Carpenter is identical to the riff on Steeleye Span's The Lowlands of Holland, where Terry Woods is again the banjo-player. Irvine's version of Willy O'Winsbury is almost identical to the version by Anne Briggs. She was a roadie for the band for two years.

Woods, obviously a fan of The Byrds, borrowed some of Roger McGuinn's delivery for My Dearest Dear. Which is appropriate, since McGuinn based his 1968 track Space Odyssey on the melody of the standard The Handsome Cabin Boy.

The Tracks of Sweeney is an album by Sweeney's Men. It was first released in 1969 and re-released on CD in 1996, packaged together with Sweeney's Men. One track on this album is frequently anthologised: Hall of Mirrors. It is possibly the best folk-acoustic psychedelic Irish song, with mysterious images and echoes. The opening track Dreams For Me is another outstanding track, with an insistent guitar bass which transforms into a polka and back to a lament. Afterthoughts appears to show the influence of Nick Drake, but it is unlikely that Woods had heard songs from Drake's first album, released later in 1969.