The Johnstons
Colours of the
Dawn
Wooded Hill HILLCD 9; 35 minutes; 1996 CD reissue of 1971 LP
Perhaps no Irish band from the 1960s has dated as much as
The Johnstons who recorded six albums for the Transatlantic label between 1968
and 1972. Colours of the Dawn was the fifth of these and it is not just
Paul Brady’s horn-rimmed spectacles which gives away its age, but both the
choice of material (Pete Seeger, Leonard Cohen, Gordon Lightfoot) and its
subjects/titles (Angela Davis, the title track itself, Brightness,
She Came) as well as the tinny sound and often twee arrangements. 
Indeed, only one track of the nine present here, Ian Campbell’s Old Man’s Tale, specifically written to sound like a traditional song and played traditional style, does not sound of its time.
Nobody’s to blame, of course, but the album’s really only of interest to anyone wanting to catch an aural glimpse of Mick Moloney’s mandolin technique, keen to trace the development of Paul Brady’s voice and career or smile happily at Lucy Johnston’s somewhat fey harmonies.
Geoff Wallis
16th March, 2004