Anne Briggs - Johnny Moynihan

Johnny Moynihan

While touring England, The Dubliners met Anne Briggs and decided that she would be the perfect musical partner for a folk singer they knew in Dublin, called Johnny Moynihan. In 1965 they accompanied her to Ireland and for the next four years she spent her summers there, travelling by horse-drawn cart and singing in pub sessions. During the winter months she earned money by touring English folk clubs. Her time in Ireland introduced her to the solo Sean-nós singing heard in the songs of Irish folk artists, and this was an influence on her later singing style, when blended with the elements of traditional English music which she had already taken up.

She was notoriously wild at this time and there are many stories, from this period, about her antics, such as pushing Johnny Moynihan and Andy Irvine out of a hay loft and, on another occasion, jumping into the sea at Malin Head, Donegal, to chase seals. In an episode of Folk Britannia (a documentary history of UK folk music aired in 2006) Richard Thompson recalled that he only ever encountered Anne Briggs twice; and on both occasions she was drunk and unconscious. Her attendance at bookings was so erratic that it was said she turned up only 5 times between mid-1963 and early 1965.

In 1966 Johnny Moynihan and Andy Irvine formed Sweeney's Men. Anne Briggs joined them on tours and learned to play the bouzouki, at that time a rare instrument in the British Isles. She wrote "Living by the Water", which was to appear on her 1971 album, accompanying herself on the instrument.