fisherman's blues

The Waterboys relocated to Ireland and immersed themselves in traditional Celtic music to create this sweeping folk rock tour de force.  After the artistic triumph of 'This is the Sea', Karl Wallinger left the band to form World Party.   Scott considers 'This is the Sea'  "the creative peak of my life thus far, and the song itself was the top of that particular mountain...When I got up there and looked at the landscape ahead I could see a new land beckoning, one in which, instead of me imagining the record and then making it according to my blueprint, the musicians would concoct their own parts and play spontaneously in a spirit of freedom, and a different kind of energy would be channelled. This is what led to 'Fisherman's Blues'."

Mike Scott and  violinist Steve Wickham went to Dublin to pursue a new direction for the band. They would eventually decide to stay there and record their new album.  The sessions took place over two year at Windmill Lane Studio in Dublin and at Spiddal House in Galway, where Scott was living.  Mike Scott, Vinnie Killduff, Bob Johnston & John Dunford all shared production duties and the expanded lineup of the band featured:  Mike Scott on vocals, guitar, piano, hammond organ, drums, and bouzouki; Anthony Thistlethwaite on saxophone, mandolin, harmonica, and hammond organ; Steve Wickham and Charlie Lennon on violin; Trevor Hutchinson on bass guitar and double bass; Roddy Lorimer on trumpet; Colin Blakey on piano, flute, and border horn; Vinnie Kilduff on guitar; Noel Bridgeman on tambourine and congas; Mairtín O'Connor on accordion; Alec Finn and Brendan O'Regan on bouzouki; Paraig Stevens on bells; Kevin Wilkinson, Peter McKinney, Dave Ruffy, Jay Dee Daugherty, and Fran Breen on drums; with Tomás Mac Eoin, Jenne Haan, Ruth Nolan, Rachel Nolan, and The Abergavenny Male Voice Choir on vocals.  

Scott recalls:  "We didn’t do demos. We just played. And I didn’t remix anything for the box set because the desk mixes from the night were always superb. We had a great engineer, so it all sounded great. It would spoil it to remix it, really... It was an incredibly creative time for The Waterboys, and I’m happy that it still has a currency. The 'Fisherman’s Blues' era was some of the best music we made, and think some of the albums since haven’t been as good as that. I don’t count Mr. Yeats; I think Mr. Yeats is a top-line Waterboys album, one of the top three or four we’ve ever made. But I do feel that some of the other albums were not as good as Fisherman’s Blues, so I think it’s fair ...  If there was anything we did think about it was the Pogues; they were just breaking through at that time. We really liked their combination of instruments with the tin whistle and accordion. At that time we didn’t have those instruments, but we really liked the mix of a punky beat and these very authentic, old-sound instruments. The voice of those instruments was memory. I could hear the past of great cities into those instruments. Our version was fiddle and mandolin. I could hear it there as well. There was the sound of America too in those instruments."

'Fisherman's Blues' charted at number seventy-six in the US, sixty-seven in Ireland, eighteen in Sweden, fifteen in New Zealand, thirteen in the UK, and seven in Norway.  It became the best selling album of the Waterboys career, being certified Gold in the UK.  This month the band released a seven disk box set featuring one hundred and twenty-one songs from the sessions plus another unreleased eighty-five songs.  



http://www.mikescottwaterboys.com/















'Fisherman's Blues' 
full album: 



01 00:00 "Fisherman's Blues"
02 04:16 "We Will Not Be Lovers"
03 11:17 "Strange Boat"
04 14:17 "World Party"
05 18:14 "Sweet Thing"
06 25:25 "Jimmy Hickey's Waltz"
07 27:29 "And a Bang on the Ear"
08 34:54 "Has Anybody Here Seen Hank"
09 38:10 "When Will We Be Married"
10 41:08 "When Ye Go Away"
11 44:50 "Dunford's Fancy"