After the Break

"After The Break" is the fourth album by the reformed Irish folk music band Planxty, recorded at Windmill Lane Studios from 18 to 30 June 1979 and released the same year. It was the band's first of two releases on Tara Records. As the title suggests, the album was the first after the group's initial split in 1975 (although Dónal Lunny and Christy Moore had departed, separately, earlier). The album was produced by Lunny and engineered by Brian Masterson, who had worked with the band since their earliest shows. It is the first of two albums to feature future Chieftains member Matt Molloy on flute, who had earlier been playing with Lunny in The Bothy Band. Two pieces recorded at the time, "Lord McDonald/The Chattering Magpie" (a set of reels) and "The Bonny Light Horseman" (a song by Andy Irvine) were not included on the LP, but were later released on the Tara Records compilation High Kings of Tara, in 1980. However, these two recordings were subsequently added to the CD and digital versions of After The Break. The album closes with the Bulgarian dance tune "Smeceno Horo" brought to the group by Irvine, who has called it "the closest I ever got to melding two traditions together".