The inspiration for this album came from the Clancy Brothers' performance at
Bob Dylan's
30th Anniversary Concert Celebration, where the group performed, "
When the Ship Comes In". Except for this live number, which they re-recorded in a studio, the Clancy Brothers had never before recorded any of the tracks on this album. Liam Clancy performed the most solos. The Clancy Brothers and Robbie O'Connell focused this album largely on the theme of aging and nostalgia. Three of the numbers, "When the Ship Comes In" and "Ramblin' Gamblin' Willie" by Bob Dylan and "
Those Were the Days" by
Gene Raskin, were written by the Clancys' old friends from
Greenwich Village during the
American folk music revival of the 1960s. Bob Dylan had originally based "Ramblin' Gamblin' Willie" on the Clancy Brothers' version of the Irish rebel song, "
Brennan on the Moor," one of the group's most popular songs in the early 1960s. The tavern mentioned in the song, "Those Were the Days," referred to the
White Horse Tavern in Greenwich Village, where the Clancy Brothers used to drink and informally sing. Paddy Clancy's one solo on the album, "Let No Man Steal Your Thyme," was a song that he recorded Robin Roberts performing in 1959 for
Tradition Records, a small record label that he ran at the time. The numbers, "Roll on the Day" and "
Lily Marlene," deal with themes of death and loss, respectively. The Clancys had known "
The Boys of Wexford" since their boyhoods, and a few other songs on the album were written by old friends, including "
The Flower of Scotland," by the late
Roy Williamson of
The Corries. The group recorded the album at Ring Studios next to Liam Clancy's home in
County Waterford, Ireland.
Older But No Wiser was the Clancy Brothers' first studio album since their 1974 LP,
Greatest Hits. ==Reception==