Problem: The Dubliners were an Irish folk band founded in Dublin in 1962. The band started off as The Ronnie Drew Ballad Group, named in honour of its founding member; they subsequently renamed themselves as The Dubliners. The group line-up saw many changes over their fifty-year career. However, the group's success was centered on lead singers Luke Kelly and Ronnie Drew.

Drew spent some time in Spain in his younger years where he learned to play Flamenco guitar, and he accompanied his songs on a Spanish guitar. Drew left the band in 1974 to spend more time with his family, and was replaced by Jim McCann. He returned to The Dubliners five years later, but left the group again in 1995. Ronnie Drew died at St Vincent's Private Hospital in Dublin on 16 August 2008 after a long illness. Paddy Reilly took Drew's place in 1995. Some of Drew's most significant contributions to the band are the hit single "Seven Drunken Nights", his rendition of "Finnegan's Wake", and "McAlpine's Fusiliers".  Luke Kelly was more of a balladeer than Drew, and he played chords on the five-string banjo. Kelly sang many defining versions of traditional songs like "The Black Velvet Band", "Whiskey in the Jar", "Home Boys Home"; but also Phil Coulter's "The Town I Loved So Well", Ewan MacColl's "Dirty Old Town", "The Wild Rover", and "Raglan Road", written by the famous Irish poet Patrick Kavanagh. In 1980, Luke Kelly was diagnosed with a brain tumour. Occasionally Kelly was too ill to sing though he was sometimes able to join the band for a few songs. While on tour in Germany he collapsed on stage. When Kelly was too ill to play, he was replaced by Sean Cannon. He continued to tour with the band until two months before his death. Kelly died on 30 January 1984. One of the last concerts in which he took part was recorded and released: Live in Carre, recorded in Amsterdam, Netherlands, released in 1983. In November 2004, the Dublin city council voted unanimously to erect a bronze statue of Luke Kelly. Kelly is buried in Glasnevin Cemetery in Dublin.  Ciaran Bourke was a singer, but he also played the guitar, tin whistle and harmonica. He sang many songs in Irish ("Peggy Lettermore", "Preab san Ol"). In 1974 he collapsed on stage after suffering a brain haemorrhage. A second haemorrhage left him paralysed on his left side. Bourke died in 1988. The band did not officially replace him until his death.  John Sheahan and Bobby Lynch joined the band in 1964. They had been playing during the interval at concerts, and usually stayed on for the second half of the show. When Luke Kelly moved to England in 1964, Lynch was taken on as his temporary replacement. When Kelly returned in 1965, Lynch left the band and Sheahan stayed. According to Sheahan, he was never (and still has not been) ever officially asked to join the band. Sheahan is the only member to have had a musical education. Lynch committed suicide in Dublin in 1982.

Who else was in the original band?

Answer with quotes: Luke Kelly


Problem: Namdev, also transliterated as Namdeo and Namadeva, (traditionally, c. 1270 - c. 1350) was a poet-saint from Maharashtra, India who is significant to the Varkari sect of Hinduism. He is also venerated in Sikhism, as well as Hindu warrior-ascetic traditions such as the Dadupanthis and the Niranjani Sampraday that emerged in north India during the Islamic rule. The details of Namdev's life are unclear. He is the subject of many miracle-filled hagiographies composed centuries after he died.

Namdev's padas are not mere poems, according to Callewaert and Lath. Like other Bhakti movement sants, Namdev composed bhajans, that is songs meant to be sung to music. A Bhajan literally means "a thing enjoyed or shared". Namdev's songs were composed to be melodious and carry a spiritual message. They built on one among the many ancient Indian traditions for making music and singing. Namdev's bhajans, note Callewaert and Lath, deployed particular species of Raag, used Bhanita (or Chhap, a stamp of the composer's name inside the poem, in his case Nama), applied a Tek (or dhruva, repeated refrain) and a meter than helps harmonise the wording with the musical instrument, all according to Sangita manuals refined from the 8th to 13th centuries.  The musical genre of Namdev's literary works was a form of Prabandha - itself a very large and rich genre that includes dhrupad, thumri, tappa, geet, bhajan and other species. In some species of Indian music, it is the music that dominates while words and their meaning are secondary. In contrast, in Namdev's bhajan the spiritual message in the words has a central role, and the structure resonates with the singing and music. The songs and music that went with Namdev's works, were usually transmitted verbally across generations, in a guru-sisya-parampara (teacher-student tradition), within singing gharanas (family-like musical units).  Callewaert and Lath state that, "each single song of Namdev is a musical and textual unit and this unit is the basis for textual considerations". The unit contained Antaras, which are the smallest independent unit within that can be shifted around, dropped or added, without affecting the harmony or meaning, when a bhajan is being sung with music. In Namdev's songs, the dominant pattern is Caturasra, or an avarta with the 4x4 square pattern of musical matras (beat).

How do they relate to Namdev?

Answer with quotes:
Namdev composed bhajans,