• Adrienne Johnston - vocals
• Lucy Johnston - vocals
• Michael Johnston - vocals, guitar - left June 1967
• Mick Moloney - vocals, guitar, banjo, mandolin - joined April 1967
• Paul Brady - vocals, guitar - joined June 1967

l-to-r: Lucy Johnston, Adrienne Johnston, Mick Moloney, Paul Brady

Bio:

The Johnstons were a family folk group who were immensely popular in Ireland in the late 1960s. They recorded both traditional and contemporary folk material, some of the latter straying into folk-rock and pop-folk areas on occasion.

The original lineup consisted of sisters Adrienne and Lucy Johnston singing close-harmony, backed by their brother Michael on acoustic 12-string guitar. This trio signed to Pye Records in 1965 and scored their only Irish #1 hit with their first single, a cover of Ewan MacColl's "The Travelling People". Several more successful singles followed over 1966-67 which are collected on the "Travelling People" album released on Marble Arch in 1968.

Mick Moloney joined the band as second guitarist to boulster their live sound in late 1966 or early 1967. Moloney was a traditional musician who'd been with The Emmet Folk Group with Donal Lunny and Brian Bolger and had opened a folk club on Harcourt St in Dublin where the Johnstons had performed.

Michael Johnston left the group somewhat relucantly in June 1967. His replacement was Paul Brady. This created the line-up which signed to Transatlantic Records in 1968 and recorded seven albums over a five year period, ending in 1972. This is the lineup that is best known today.

The self-titled debut album released in 1968 contains all traditional folk material. After it's release the band relocated to London, in January 1969, and recorded two albums designed to show both sides of the band, traditional folk ("The Barleycorn"), and contemporary folk ("Give A Damn"). These were released by Transatlantic Records on the same day. By the end of the year Lucy decided to leave and returned to Ireland in November 1969. She became a successful photographer.

The remaining members continued as a trio, recording the fourth album "The Bitter Green" (1969) which contained both contamporary folk and traditional folk songs but also brought imaginative contemporary-influenced arrangements to the latter. It was the first sign of the band stretching the formula but is still mild by folk-rock standards.

Traditional material was absent completely from "Colours Of The Dawn" (1970) which found a more natural home on Vangaurd Records in the USA (the band's previous US label was Tetragramaton). Half the songs were Brady originals, who was now emerging as a songwriter.

The Johnstons began to spend more time in the USA, appearing at the Philadelphia Folk Festival in 1971. The contemporary material began to dominate and for this reason Mick chose to leave towards the end of the year. He favoured the traditional material but his bandmates preferred the contempary. Mick later emigrated to the USA to study and released solo albums.

Now a duo of Adrienne Johnston and Paul Brady, The Johnstons released one final LP, "If I Sang My Song" (1972), the majority of the songs coming from the pen of Brady and his co-writer Chris McLoud. The album boasted backing musicians such as Tim Hart, Royston Wood, and Rick Kemp but would prove to be the band's last.

A replacement for Moloney was eventually found in Gavin Spencer but the band split soon after in 1973. Adrienne remained in the USA where she recorded a solo LP but died tragically in 1981.

Paul Brady went on to Planxty, solo albums on Mulligan Records, the superb Brady & Irvine album and eventually a highly successful if artistically bland singer-songwriter solo career in the 1980s and beyond.

1969 Transatlantic promotional booklet

side one:
They'll Never Get Their Man
The Tunnel Tigers
'Fhir A' Bhata
O'Carolan's Concerto
The Lark in the Morning
The Whistling Thief
The Rounding of Cape Horn

side two:
The Dublin Jack of All Trades
The Apprentice's Song
Caillerch an Airgid
Reels (Hand Me Down the Tackle and Jenny's Welcome to Charlie)
The Lambs on the Green Hills
The Frog's Wedding

UK Tracklisting
side one:
Give a Damn (Dorough/Scharf)
You Keep Going Your Way (Cousins)
Urge for Going (J.Mitchell)
Port of Amsterdam (Brel/Shuman)
Funny in a Sad, Sad Way (Healy)
Hey, That's No Way to Say Goodbye (L.Cohen)

side two:
Both Sides Now (J.Mitchell)
Julia (J.Ledingham)
Sweet Thames Flow Softly (E.MacColl)
I Loved (Blau/Brel/etc)
I Don't Mind the Rain on Monday (Bowen/Caroll)
Walking Out on Foggy Mornings (J.Ledingham)

US Tracklisting
side one:
Wherefore and Why (G.Lightfoot)
Give a Damn
You Keep Going Your Way
Amsterdam
Funny in a Sad, Sad Way
Hey, That's No Way to Say Goodbye

side two:
Both Sides Now
My House (P.Sarstedt)
Sweet Thames Flow Softly
I Loved
I Don't Mind the Rain on Monday
Walking Out on Foggy Mountains

Notes: Released on the same day as the more traditional "The Barley Corn" LP, this is a collection of imaginative arrangements of contemporary material, all covers. This album came out in the US under a different title "Both Sides Now" with tracks resequensed and two tracks substitued ("Urge for Going" and "Julia" omitted in favour of "Wherefore and Why" and "My House").

side one:
Ye Jacobites By Name
The Coleraine Regatta
The Newry Highwayman
Joseph's Fancy/A Trip to Durow
What Put the Blood?
The Fenians from Cahirciveen

side two:
The Barleycorn
Sorry the Day I Was Married
The Flower of Northumberland
Paddy's Green Shamrock Shore
Fuigfidh Mise 'N Baile Seo

Notes: All tracks trad.arr.

side one:
The Spanish Lady
Both Sides Now
The Barleycorn
The Dublin Jack Of All Trades
Lord Thomas & Fair Eleanor (misprinted sleeve says Ellender)

side two:
O'Carolan's Concerto
The Frog's Wedding
You Keep Going Your Way
The Kilfenora Jig
The Flower of Northumberland

Notes: compilation 1968-70 including non-LP tracks.

side one:
Hello Friend (P.Seeger)
Crazy Anne (McCloud)
Brightness, She Came (P.Brady)
If I Could (G.Lightfoot)
Angela Davis (McCloud)

side two:
Colours of the Dawn (P.Brady/McCloud)
I'll Be Gone in the Morning (P.Brady/McCloud)
Seems So Long Ago, Nancy (L.Cohen)
Old Man's Tale (Campbell)

side one:
Bitter Green
The Barleycorn
If I Sang My Song
Streets of London
The Story of Isaac
My House
Give A Damn

side two:
Both Sides Now
O'Carolan's Concerto
If I Could
The Wind In My Hands
The Flower of Northumberland
Continental Railways Bus
The Tunnel Tigers

Adrienne Johnston

Bio:

Adrienne Johnston remained in the USA after the Johnstons split in 1973. She recorded just one solo album, in 1975, which included contributions from several notable musicians including Simon Nicol, Gerry Conway and Pat Donaldson. She died in 1981.

Help!: We need your help to complete this entry. If you can tell us more about this band then please do! We welcome any corrections, missing details, connections to other bands, where are they now, etc. We also need photos, scans, copies of releases or live or demo recordings, and any other memorabilia gathering dust in the attic.