This album has been germinating in my mind for well over thirty years and I am very grateful to the Arts Council here in Ireland for viewing this project positively, so that I have, finally, been able to bring this dream to fruition. ~ Andy Irvine.
LONDON (June 30, 2026) — One of the most revered and enduring voices in traditional music, Andy Irvine will release his eighth solo album, DEVOTED, on 4th September via The Last Music Company. DEVOTED is the first tribute album to envision selections from the Woody Guthrie songbook through a distinctly Irish lens.
For Irvine, the project is deeply personal. Guthrie's songs have inspired his storied musical journey—from the moment he first encountered them as a teenager to the friendship they later forged through correspondence while Guthrie was hospitalized with Huntington's disease.
Recalling that first encounter, Irvine writes:
"...on the sleeve of one of Lonnie Donegan's early EPs I first saw the name that was to motivate me through my life—Woody Guthrie."
He soon found an album titled “More Songs by Woody Guthrie and Cisco Houston,” took it home, and dropped the needle.
"The instrumental intro was followed by an Oklahoman voice... and I knew I had found my treasure."
Years later, after meeting Pete Seeger, Irvine learned Guthrie was a patient at Greystone Park Psychiatric Hospital in New Jersey. Unable to write because of Huntington's disease, Guthrie dictated letters through family friends Sid and Bob Gleason, allowing the two musicians to begin a correspondence.
"It is not too much to say," Irvine reflects, "that we became friends in this way."
More than sixty years later, DEVOTED stands as the culmination of that lifelong artistic dialogue.
The album features eleven Guthrie compositions, each accompanied by Irvine and noted Guthrie scholar Will Kaufman’s thoughtful annotations exploring their history. It concludes fittingly with Irvine's own tribute, "Never Tire of the Road." Produced by Flood, DEVOTED features an exceptional ensemble of longtime collaborators and fellow multi-instrumentalists: Dónal Lunny, Bruce Molsky, Mike McGoldrick, John Doyle, Rens van der Zalm, and Nikola Parov.
Among the album's highlights is "Rambling Round Your City," which Kaufman describes as "a sober reflection on the migrant worker's weariness and despair—Woody's ode to the humanity of those whose labor brought forth whatever richness was to be found in America's Pastures of Plenty."
Another centerpiece is "Tom Joad," Guthrie's musical retelling of John Steinbeck's The Grapes of Wrath. The album notes recount the famous story that, upon first hearing Guthrie's recording, Steinbeck reportedly exclaimed: "That fuckin' little bastard! In 17 verses he got the entire story of a thing that took me two years to write!"
Themes of mass migration, economic inequality, labor, resilience, and the search for dignity are interwoven throughout DEVOTED. Though rooted in the Dust Bowl and Depression-era America that inspired Guthrie's writing, these songs continue to resonate across generations and beyond borders, speaking to struggles that remain strikingly familiar today.
Rather than simply revisiting Guthrie's repertoire, Irvine brings these songs into conversation with his own deeply rooted Irish musical sensibility. The result is a collection that honors Guthrie’s voice while adding a fresh dimension to his work.
Andy Irvine received the Lifetime Achievement Award at the inaugural RTÉ Radio 1 Folk Awards in 2018. He remains one of the great Irish singers, with a voice that pours forth from the very soul of Ireland. Hailed as "a tradition in himself," his career spans more than six decades, from early work with Sweeney’s Men in the mid-1960s to the landmark success of Planxty with Christy Moore, Dónal Lunny, and Liam O’Flynn. His acclaimed collaboration with Paul Brady, Andy Irvine & Paul Brady (1976), is widely considered to be a masterpiece of Irish traditional music and continues to be regarded as a benchmark for the genre.
A pioneering figure in contemporary folk, Irvine has consistently explored the meeting points of Irish, Balkan, and American musical traditions. Through projects such as Mozaik, he helped forge musical connections long before the term "world music" entered the common vernacular. DEVOTED is another thread in that tapestry.
Today, Irvine remains the consummate troubadour. Whether performing an Irish ballad, a Woody Guthrie song, a Balkan dance tune, or one of his own compositions, he brings the same curiosity, passion, and commitment that have defined his extraordinary career. Having performed throughout Europe, North America, Australia, New Zealand, South America, Japan, and beyond, he continues to follow the path he first set for himself decades ago: a teller of tales, a seeker of songs.
Andy Irvine will tour the United Kingdom, Ireland, and the United States beginning in July and continuing through autumn 2026.
DEVOTED will be released on CD, 12-inch vinyl, and digital formats on September 4, 2026.
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TRACKLISTING
1. Buffalo Skinners
2. Waiting At The Gate
3. Wallace-Taylor Train/Bet On Wallace
4. Pastures Of Plenty
5. Rambling Round Your City
6. Tom Mooney Is Free
7. Seamen Three
8. 1913 Massacre
9. Tom Joad
10. Rangers Command
11. Mister Charlie Lindbergh
12. Never Tire Of The Road
TOUR DATES
JULY 2026 (USA – Solo)
Sun 19 – Fri 24 | The Swannanoa Gathering | Swannanoa, NC, USA
Sat 25 | White Horse Black Mountain | Black Mountain, NC, USA
AUGUST 2026 (Ireland – Solo)
Fri 28 | The Cornerstone | Gurteeny, Co. Galway, Ireland
SEPTEMBER 2026 (Ireland – Solo)
Wed 9 | Tower Records In-Store Appearance | Dublin, Ireland
Thu 10 | Musiczone In-Store Appearance | Cork, Ireland
Sat 12 | Dún Laoghaire Folk Festival @ Pavilion Theatre | Dún Laoghaire, Ireland
Sun 13 | Spirit Store | Dundalk, Ireland
USA – Solo
Wed 16 | Martyrs’ | Chicago, USA
Thu 17 | TBA | Detroit, USA
Fri 18 – Sun 20 | Michigan Irish Music Festival | Muskegon, USA
UK TOUR WITH QUILTY
Thu 24 | Birnam Arts | Birnam, Dunkeld, UK
Sun 27 | National Centre for Early Music (NCEM) | York, UK
Mon 28 | The Lowther Pavilion Theatre | Lytham St Annes, UK
Tue 29 | Victoria Hall | Settle, UK
Wed 30 | The Greystones | Sheffield, UK
OCTOBER 2026
UK TOUR WITH QUILTY (cont.)
Thu 1 | Irish Centre Birmingham | Birmingham, UK
Fri 2 | Irish Cultural Centre | Hammersmith, London, UK
Sat 3 | St Mary’s a Creative Space | Chester, UK
Sun 4 | The Queen’s Hall | Edinburgh, UK
IRELAND – SOLO
Sat 10 | Tuar Ard Arts Centre | Moate, Co. Westmeath, Ireland
NOVEMBER 2026 (Ireland – with QUILTY)
Wed 4 | Black Box | Belfast, UK
Thu 5 | Pavilion Theatre | Dún Laoghaire, Ireland
Fri 6 | Séamus Ennis Arts Centre | Naul, Ireland
Sat 7 | The Riverbank Arts Centre | Newbridge, Ireland
Sun 8 | The Seantí | Kilmacow, Co. Kilkenny, Ireland
Wed 11 | Town Hall Theatre | Galway, Ireland
Thu 12 | Dolan’s Warehouse | Limerick, Ireland
Fri 13 | Live at St Luke’s | Cork, Ireland
Sat 14 | De Barra’s | Clonakilty, Ireland
