Hi alinact, I'm fortunate enough to have a version of Danny Boy on a tape by Richard Thompson that a Mudcat member very kindly sent me and that's my current favorite version of that tune. It's based on the rocking Conway Twitty version mentioned above. There actually was a Public Broadcasting System TV show that was dedicated to that song that featured various artists performing it and talking about it which was pretty interesting and culminated with Eric Clapton doing an instrumental version.
Re McGuinn, were you aware that he has a website called the Folk Den which features him and various guests perfoming old folk chestnuts. At least I think it's still up and running. f