Black 47: 20 and Still Going Strong

The French poet Jean Cocteau said, “Americans are funny people. First you shock them, then they put you in a museum.”

Nowadays, you can’t swing a cat at an Irish festival without hearing some band doing their best to blend traditional Irish melodies with bone crunching power chords nowadays.

For some of our younger readers the idea of mixing traditional Irish melodies with rock and rap would be considered dangerous, but I really thought the world was coming to an end when I first saw Black 47 in the Village almost two decades ago.

I first remember being assaulted by their music back in 1990. I just came from a cousin’s wedding in Galway, and everyone was mad for this new band called the Saw Doctors. I was thrilled when I heard Black 47 were coming to the Big Apple, and got their nice and early to soak in the soda bread sounds of home.

With a screech of feedback, Larry Kirwan, an impish redhead, hurtled toward the audience, guitar in hand, provoking the crowd, while Chris Byrne, a Times Square cop, hunched over uilleann pipes that screamed over the urban beats.

Before my eyes (and ears), the music of my heritage was shot through a grinder of rock, reggae and rap and transformed into a product uniquely Irish American.

With surgical precision, they sliced the British establishment in lyrics that were sung, rapped and spat about the likes of Michael Collins and Bobby Sands, translating the history of our heritage in an urban language I could understand. My life has never been the same since.

We haven’t gotten around to making a national Irish American museum yet, but once it is built there must be a Black 47 exhibit. Unlike other musical museum pieces like McCartney and Jagger, who trot around their musty warhorses in stadiums, Kirwan and the lads are as vibrant as ever.

They have released one of their best albums, Bankers and Gangsters, expanding on the formula of sharp social commentary and genre-bending sounds. Kirwan is touring bookstores as well, reading passages from his gritty story about Irish Americans in the Eighties called Rockin’ the Bronx.

He still hosts the wildly popular Celtic Crush on Sirius XM, and if that weren’t enough he is workshopping a new musical at the Irish Arts Center this weekend.

Kirwan is a man always looking forward, so it is rare indeed that he would stop to celebrate an anniversary.

“The owners of Paddy Reilly's have been asking us to do a one-off reunion there for some years now,” explains Kirwan of the band’s 20th anniversary show on May 7 (Paddy Reilly’s is at 519 Second Avenue) at the bar that gave birth to this legendary live act.

“There's always been something in the way, but we are on a bit of a break to allow everyone in the band to do their own thing for a while when I got a call from the producers of a Horslips documentary.

“The Horslips doc is about the emigration story of a Gaelic speaking guy who traveled from New York City to the Yukon, and they want to get footage of us playing in New York and along with some footage of the old Irish areas like Bainbridge/Kingsbridge as featured in Rockin' The Bronx. They were going to be filming in Reilly's anyway, so we decided to kill two birds as it were.”

Irish American rock might not shock anyone now, but I am still in shock that I’ve been following the band around for 20 years! Happy anniversary!

I spoke with Kirwan over the weekend about the many moving parts of the man and the band. Here’s how it went.

What kind of show can fans expect at the 20th anniversary gig?

As regards the kind of show we'll do, I would imagine that we'll perform a lot of the old songs from the nineties, ones that we first played in Reilly's on those adrenalized sweat-soaked nights. There was an intensity back then because many people were refusing to accept the type of music that the band was creating. It was very defiant and aggressive.

I don't think we've ever really lost that. We just came through five years of playing songs about Iraq, not everyone's favorite topic. So we don't have to reach too far back to re-capture the attitude, which is always the basis of great rock and roll.

And we'll do some songs from Bankers and Gangsters to bring us right up to the present. Musically, I don't think the band has ever sounded better. Should be a blast!

Are there any surprise guests planned?

Surprise guests -- who knows? But Jim Lockhart and Barry Devlin of Horslips will definitely sit in. Black 47 will be playing a Horslips song for this documentary, probably “Wrath of the Rain” or “Speed the Plough.” That should be interesting.

We very rarely do other people's material -- a bit of Dylan, Marley, Strummer -- but it will be fun to give a B47 interpretation of Horslips. And they're such great guys. Jim is a particularly under-rated keyboard player, and Barry is that voice of seventies Ireland.

What advice would you give the Larry Kirwan who played Paddy Reilly’s back in May 1990?

Musically, artistically, I don't think there's anything I'd do differently.

When we last spoke, you were about to release the new CD, Bankers and Gangsters. What has been the reaction from the fans now that they have had a chance to listen to it on record and on stage?

Critics and fans are calling it our best album since Fire of Freedom, Home of the Brave or Green Suede Shoes. I don't know -- to me, the songs have been top shelf all along and we've done our best on every album, but I really like the sound of this one.

Sometimes you know just exactly how you want something to sound, and we succeeded this time. A number of people seem to like the fact that we've gone back to the "Black 47 formula." That is, some political, some humorous, some songs of regret, some songs of relationships, etc.

You also released a novel, Rockin’ the Bronx, which paints the picture of the Irish American scene in the eighties. How do you think the scene has changed since then?

A lot of things have changed since the eighties. Rockin' the Bronx is set between 1980-82. New York City changed dramatically at the end of '82. AIDS was finally identified and people began taking Ronald Reagan seriously.

I always maintain that the sixties lasted until 1982. The city was much more lawless through the eighties. It was possible to live very cheaply in New York back then. Thus people had time to go out at nights, socialize much more and be in bars.

From our inception in late 1989, Black 47 was playing three to five nights a week. We did our rehearsing onstage and we became tight within the first months -- also fearless.

Within six months we were playing pretty much all original music and taking it into bars where before they'd only previously heard cover bands. Your own songs had better be top-of-the-line and distinctive if you're going to do that.

You can't play five nights a week anymore so bands can't take that risk. Consequently bands can't develop their own material because they're constantly falling back on popular songs by other artists.

You're got to develop your own sound -- there's only one Pogues, one Dropkick Murphys, one Flogging Molly and one Black 47. If you're going to be yourselves, then you should drop everyone else's song no matter how popular. You'll suffer for it, but it's the only way to make it.

You also have a new musical coming out. Tell us about how Transport came about?

For over 10 years Tom Keneally and I have been working on Transport, a musical based on his wife's great-grandmother who was sentenced to penal servitude in Australia back in 1838 for stealing a bolt of cloth.

Transport tells the tale of four such women on a convict ship during their voyage from Cork to Botany Bay. Tom is a great storyteller and one of the few men who can really create and bring to life women characters.

My job was to turn this story into music and song. I would say that the music is a mix between Irish trad and Broadway show tunes, if you can imagine such a dichotomy. We'll workshop it for five days and then put it up onstage at the Irish Arts Center (553 West 51st Street), Friday, April 30, Saturday, May 1 and Sunday the 2nd. Tony Walton is directing and Aidan Connolly and his team at the Irish Arts Center are very much behind it.

It will be a great opportunity for people to see the birth of a large scale musical in a very intimate setting.

Log onto www.black47.com for more information.

Maria Doyle Kennedy has lots of ability

If you’re anywhere near the Bowery Electric (327 Bowery, New York) on April 23, make sure you check out the next big thing out of Ireland.

Maria Doyle Kennedy is out to make a name for herself here in the States and duplicate the success she has had in her native Dublin. Based on the collection of songs from her album Mutter, she is off to a great start!

Frantic bagpipes announce the arrival of “F***ability,” a distorted, strutting rocker that was a minor hit for Doyle.

“You take one step forward/two steps back/and three steps sideways,” she sings over an industrial goose-step that calls to mind U2’s “Zoo Station.”

“Opera” is built on tentative piano tinkling and tense strumming. Her acoustic music is not pretty. It’s almost as though she strums with a broken bottle chip on rusty strings, producing music that begs for a tetanus shot.

One can hear the goth of Concrete Blonde and the Cure in these spooky melodies, so make sure you pack your black lipstick and ripped fishnets if you go! Girls, you can wear that, too!

Kennedy is an accomplished actress, proving that God blesses some of us more than others. Her movie credits include The Matchmaker, Moll Flanders and The Commitments, and she has also popped up on the smaller screen in shows like The Tudors, Queer As Folk and Father Ted.

I spoke with Kennedy over the weekend as she was packing her bags for her showcase tour, which includes a stop in Toronto as well. Here’s how it went.

How would you describe your sound/this CD to someone who has never heard of you?

It is difficult to describe your own music as you feel it rather than hear it ... but ... in an attempt to … it is exciting, melodic, inventive, sometimes comforting, sometimes hilarious and best of all when heard live.


What/who is “F***ability” about? AMAZING song, by the way!

Thanks, glad you like it. I like it so much I released it as a single! Not a lot of airplay due to the title, as you can imagine.
I wrote it after overhearing a conversation between a girl and a guy (they were friends) in which they listed the qualities they expected in a prospective partner and the kind of lives they expected for themselves people have such notions sometimes.

How does your acting feed your music? Vice-versa? Are there distinctions in inspiration between the two?

They are completely separate for me, and never the twain shall meet.

What is the most surprising reaction you have gotten to your music?

A long time ago I did a gig in a squatters’ commune in Switzerland. I was midway through a very gentle song when a huge, burly ,shaven-headed, right-wing kinda guy pushed his way to the front of the stage, stuck his fingers down his throat and made himself vomit over Kieran’s shoes. It was quite a moment!

What do you think of the state of the Irish/Dublin rock scene? Any bright stars we might not know about?

I love a band called Fight Like Apes, noisy, clever craters full of attitude. There’s a young singer/songwriter who has just released his first album, James Vincent McMorrow. He has a very beautiful voice.

You run the record label with your husband, correct? If so, what is that like?

Well, you do get complete control over what you do, but it’s up to you (two in our case) to do absolutely everything. I still look at the bookkeeping stuff some days and feel like running screaming from the house and full tilt into the arms of a three-day bender.
That said, the new album is coming along so beautifully, I sort-of feel anything is possible.

Louis Walsh tries to sign you -- do you pick up the pen or tell him to get lost, and why?

Never gonna happen.

For samples of her music, log onto myspace.com/mariadoylekennedy.

Malcolm McLaren, the ultimate punk, passes on

Speculation abounds about who will fill the last seat on the judge’s bench ever since Simon Cowell announced his retirement from American Idol earlier this year.

The press has anointed Howard Stern as the favorite replacement (I hope to God that is true), and I remember thinking at the time the news broke of another acid-tongued Brit who would inject a much needed punk flair to the stale and moldy reality show.

With the passing last week of Malcolm McLaren, the icon of the punk movement that swept Great Britain in the mid-seventies and launched the career of the Sex Pistols, my horse bowed out of the race. Even to the end, he was a potent critic of culture.

“The music business has gotten too damned corporate,” he said with a sneer during one of his last interviews in Manhattan on GakTV. “Kids are on the Internet doing things for themselves, just the way we used to do. It’s good for the culture.”

Could you imagine him dismissing the pop tarts onstage with a nasally “aw, piss off?” Like Cowell, he was responsible for cultivating talent when he saw an opportunity.

Apart from the Sex Pistols, he discovered and managed Bow Wow Wow and Adam Ant. Without him, MTV would have been boring television when it launched in the early eighties!

Of course, the Sex Pistols are the godfathers of punk rock that made a star of one of the most cantankerous Irishmen on the planet. John Lydon (otherwise known as Johnny Rotten) said in a statement, “For me Malc was always entertaining, and I hope you remember that. Above all else he was an entertainer and I will miss him, and so should you.”

He was much more than a music industry veteran. McLaren got his start as a fashion designer who opened up a clothing shop with girlfriend Vivienne Westwood called Let It Rock. As Charles M. Young wrote in his 1977 cover story for Rolling Stone magazine on the Sex Pistols, “(McLaren) was the first to understand the democratic implications of punk -- rather than pay 10 pounds for an ugly t-shirt with holes in it, he took a Pink Floyd t-shirt, scratched holes in the eyes and wrote I HATE over the logo.”

McLaren had an ear for music, but his real talent was his eye for style and how he bent sight and sound to create the punk ethos.

Later in his career, McLaren became a well-known musician in his own right. His 1983 hip-hop-flavored album Duck Rock produced the U.K. Top 10 singles “Buffalo Gals” and “Double Dutch.” A year later, McLaren also had a hit with “Madame Butterfly,” a song inspired the opera of the same name.

His music might be dismissed as being a dated novelty today, but the blending of turntable scratches and global rhythms on tracks like “Soweto” made McLaren’s music groundbreaking at the time.

Rest in peace, Malcom. Thanks for the music and madness that fuelled this teenager’s fantasies way back when.

The Irish Tenors are in harmony for "Ireland"

With our homeland under siege from many angles, this is certainly one of the most perilous times to be Irish. The motherland has sunken even deeper than we are in a global economic funk, and the church sex abuse scandals have torn the fabric of the Irish national identity that has been so woven into Catholicism.

I must confess that The Irish Tenors’ music is not necessarily the first thing I reach for, yet there is something soothing on their new CD, "Ireland," given our times.

To hear Finbar Wright lift the spirit with “Lift the Wings” from the Riverdance soundtrack is an example of the soothing tonic this collection provides.

Karl Scully’s read of the Northern Ireland/Scottish folk song “The Water Is Wide” is so good that you forgive the group for their cloying read of “Toora Loora/Irish Eyes.”

“A romantic sight on sunny days with the rivers running and the birds singing,” is how Anthony Kearns describes the fictional “Glocca Morra,” and his strong melodious delivery takes the listener there and makes the place real.

The Tenors have a few tricks up their sleeve, including a surprisingly spry take on Steve Earle’s “Galway Girl.”

The Irish Tenors are home and reloading for a summer tour of outdoor amphitheaters, where they will give their huge fan base a taste of Ireland. I caught up with Kearns about the new album and the threat of bugs on the road. Here’s how it went:

I would imagine that with the crumbling of the economy and the church in Ireland, audiences will respond to your look backward?

You might be right, but I suppose at the time it didn’t come into play. It was the repertoire of the songs, trying to come up with a title that summed it all up and bring it back to what we were about -- bringing a bit of home to the audience. Bring them back to the Irish boreens and turf fires.

So, yes, I think in these complicated times, it might make what we do that much more appealing.

You definitely bend the tenor genre quite a bit with a song like “Galway Girl” from Steve Earle. That really is a dung-kicking country song. How do you choose these diverse songs?

We have been known for our upbeat tempos. We need some of that. If you give one slow song after another you offer a depressing show and you’re definitely going to lose people.

We mix it up a bit and have the audience tapping the toes so that you don’t lose them or they fall into a depression. The arrangements are fantastic and it is fun to do. The ear can only take so much and you need to change it and mix it up a bit.

I was fortunate with “Nock Machea.” It was a fantastic song that took me back to the sean nos style. It is a wonderful track and I am glad to have the opportunity to record it.

We have been thrashing it out for a number of months and try not to copy ourselves, since we have done so many albums before.

I think “Danny Boy” and “Fields of Athenry” are nostalgic songs the Irish Americans love, though I don’t think you’ll hear many Irish people sing them in the auld sod. Do you see differences in the tastes of the Irish versus the Irish Americans in your performances?

First and foremost, you have to like the song yourself. It is well written and I think it works for my voice. You look to things like that as opposed to worrying about if this is an Irish song or an Irish American one.

That said, a lot of Irish Americans are attracted to the MGM vision of Ireland. The Irish Americans are approaching their freedom with the loud colors, and it is different from the Irish experience.

St. Patrick’s Day is a bit different on both sides of the Atlantic. The one bond is that they love the island and have a love of heritage.

You just released a Christmas CD a few months ago and now you have another album. How do you keep up with this kind of schedule?

We do get down time. The lads are already gone home and I am here because in two hours I am performing in a solo concert. I set out to do a few dates after the Tenors tour and then I have eight to 10 days of down time when I am back on the road again.

Summer, March and Christmas is the time that we are on the road. You know that, so you plan your life around that.

How was your St. Patrick’s season?

Fantastic! On St. Patrick’s Day we were in New York in the morning with Martha Stewart and then we flew down to Raleigh, North Carolina. There was no recession there or in Charlotte. Everyone came out and it was brilliant.

How has the recession impacted your touring?

We are in tough times, but we are tough right back. We rise above it, tighten our belts and plow on.

I think people love to get out for a good show and forget our troubles. We have accepted the terms to get on with it. You can’t grind to a halt.

What do you think of Ronan Tynan switching teams from the Yankees to the Red Sox?

I don’t know what to make of it at the moment. It is a comedy of errors. He moved fairly swiftly from New York and went to Boston. How the Yankee fans will take it are another thing.

He is a braver man than I am. I have sung for the Red Sox and they are a really great bunch of fans. Maybe I’ll sing for the Yankees, who knows? They might need a younger man for the scene.

I know Ronan’s heart and one thing I know is that he is not is a bad person. He throws back plenty of comments. I’ve know him since 1993 and he is a larger than life person. He has the mouth the size of Galway Bay, but he is a good man.

What’s next for the Tenors?

‘Tis the shed season in the summer. We will be playing in places like Wolf Trap outside of D.C. The sheds have 8,000-10,000 people in these crowds. It’s a lovely vibe. People bring picnics and eat wine and cheese on the lawn as we are up there swallowing half million flies.

The humidity can sometimes wreak havoc on your voice. I remember Ronan swallowed a fly once and went straight to the lung and it really silenced him.

(Ireland is available on Razor and Tie Records.)


Slane Concert Nixed

IT appears the Irish economy has even hit the castle set. News came from Lord Henry Mountcharles that there will be no gig at Slane Castle this year.

According to Hot Press magazine, Mountcharles had previously said that he was planning to run the 2010 event on August 28, subject to himself and MCD finding the right headliner. Lord Henry denied reports that he’d been in talks with Sir Paul McCartney, only to be knocked back by the former Beatle who’s playing the RDS in Dublin in June for rival promoters Aiken Promotions.

This columnist has had the pleasure of attending a Slane gig once in 1982, when the Rolling Stones played one of the first gigs there. The venue has played host to rock’s biggest names since then, including Madonna, Oasis, U2 and Robbie Williams.

Acknowledging the Facebook campaign to bring Kings of Leon to Slane, Mountcharles revealed that they’re one of the acts on his shopping-list for 2011, which will be the 30th anniversary of him running concerts, and his own 60th birthday.

U2 mixes it up for diehard online fans

Okay, I admit it. I am closing in on 44 years old and I still subscribe to the fan club of my favorite band. God, that is embarrassing to read and I pray my kids don’t get teased in school when this news breaks around town.

Fortunately, the embarrassment proved worthwhile this week. The good folks at U2.com periodically release special goodies to the dedicated fans in cyberspace.

Sometimes they include standard fan club perks like advance ticket sales, but U2 has always delivered more. Their remix collections and live CDs get sent as well, the latest being Artificial Horizon.

One thing that is worth the price of admission to this collection is the infectious dance remix of “I’ll Go Crazy if I don’t Go Crazy Tonight” from No Line on the Horizon. In concert, this track merged with the famous light show on their 360 Claw stage to create a nightclub in the middle of a football stadium. The song was taken from the Croke Park stop of the band’s last tour and whets the whistle for the next leg of the tour this summer!

Remix tracks at their worst are desperate ploys to distract the listener from the fact that the artist ran dry of ideas toward the end of the album’s recording process; at their best, remixes splice the genetic makeup of a song’s melody to create a transformative listening experience that reveals new pleasures.

On Artificial Horizon, U2 achieves a little of both. The David Holmes of “Beautiful Day” brings the taut bass line front and center and makes the main riff struggle through atmospheric feedback. It is the musical equivalent of dissecting a fetal pig in sophomore biology class; you get to look at the inner guts of this anthemic masterpiece for a deeper appreciation of the guts.

The stripper-strut beat and Elton John-like piano melody on the “Justice Mix” of “Get on Your Boots” allowed me to warm to a song I originally judged as the weakest link on No Line on the Horizon.

Of course, you get your pick of producers when you are the biggest band on the planet, and U2 uses this industry clout to attract the best in the business.

Trent Reznor, famous for his dramatic punky stops and starts with his Nine Inch Nails outfit, adds dreamy electronic soundscapes and dirties up the straight-ahead riff.

Is it as good as the original? No, but that’s not the point. It is interesting to see one artist re-interpret the art of another artist and it is good fun for the fans of both bands.

Artificial Horizon is not without trouble spots. Another superstar producer, Jacknife Lee, ruins the flamenco fun of “Fast Cars,” a rare B-side from How to Dismantle an Atomic Bomb that proved to be a fan favorite of that tour. He replaces the dramatic flourish of an acoustic guitar for a bland electronic musical bed that waters down the punch of the original.

The “Monster Truck” mix of “Staring at the Sun” is an unforgivable assault on one of the best ballads U2 has ever made. I think the producer was trying to achieve an ambient club vibe but missed the mark; the “Brothers in Rhythm Ambient Mix” of the song does a much better job at that.

And speaking of duplicates, do we really need two mixes of “Get on Your Boots?” It would have been great to hear a reworking of something like “Love and Peace or Else” from Atomic Bomb, or how about we put some block-rockin’ beats to something like “Man and a Woman?”

But hey, who am I to complain and hate on something that was free with the purchase of a $50 annual membership? Artificial Horizon was a nice surprise in the mailbox, great fun that keeps fans like me panting for what comes next from Bono and the boys and makes the abuse I get from being a middle aged fan club member worth it!



Stand Delivers in Asbury Park


I know Manhattan is the cultural capital of the world, but there’s something about Asbury Park, New Jersey that encapsulates no nonsense rock and roll that eludes the Big Apple ever since CBGB’s was taken from its core.

Irish bars playing host to Irish artists are as rare as hen’s teeth in the big city, but clubs like the Stone Pony and the Saint put out the welcome mat for up and coming artists from the Emerald Isle.

Over the weekend, Dublin’s Stand completed their winter tour in support of their excellent disc, 100,000 Ways to Harvest Hope. I feel fortunate to have seen them in such a small venue as the Saint. They played one radio friendly hit after another, and I get the sense this might be the last time we’ll be seeing them in a club.

The town was buzzing on this night, with the Garden State Film Festival taking place at the beach. Local favorites the Amboys were up first, delivering a concoction of punk, rock, and hillbilly soul that scorched you going down like high octane moonshine.

This might be my new favorite band! Check them out at www.theamboys.com.

Stand opened their set with “Nature My Mother” from the new album, a tentative track sung through clenched jaw over a basic piano melody. The full throttle of “Love Will Never Creep in Tonight,” another track from the new disc, hit the ear like a full beer bottle to the side of your head, and the crowd resumed their high gear cheering.

“Living for the Weekend,” a track from their Hoop’La collection, was one of only a few nods to their back catalog. Stand was committed to getting as many of their new songs out into the universe as possible, and for good reason.

“Feelings only f*** up your life,” sang Doyle, a dead ringer for Eddie Vedder in both style and charisma that did his best to keep to himself. He seemed like a reluctant frontman, letting Neil Eurelle do most of the talking to the audience.

“We want you to get raucous tonight,” joked Eurelle. “That means you’ll have to get drunk and take off your clothes before we finish up here.”

It was advice Doyle never took. He looked at the floor or closed his eyes for most of the set, allowing a brief smile to escape after “The Living Kind.”

If God is a music fan, he will make “She Is” a worldwide hit. “Olivia” is a song David Walsh wrote about his daughter.

“He spent a year of her life being off the road and that’s what came out,” Eurelle told me during our interview a few weeks ago. “It has so much energy and it’s a bit of an anthem. It’s another example of where we found ourselves writing about the family growing up around the band, and I really love the direction we’re all heading now.”

That makes two of us. 100,00 Ways to Harvest Hope is a great album that should be in your collection, but you really don’t appreciate how great this band is until you see them live.

They are going back to Ireland this week for some much needed rest before coming back to the States sometime this year. Visit www.standland.com.



Bloom’s Sweet Dreams

IT’S hard to believe that it has been 20 years since Christy Moore’s kid brother changed his name to Luka Bloom and set off to conquer America and the world. Though he claims to be allergic to nostalgia, he is preparing to bring his disc Dreams in America to our shores.

No word on a US release, though the disc is always available on the LukaBloom.com website, where he writes an essay about the inspiration behind the reworking of some of his best known songs.

“Twenty years later I decided to honor those times in New York with a record,” he says. “It is not a 'best of,’ with tracks lifted from old records. I chose to revisit songs from the last 10 albums since, and bring them back to life with new versions.

“Sometimes it's a song where I don't like the original recorded version anymore; sometimes it's just a new feeling for a song. Sometimes it's the words, sometimes it's the rhythm, and sometimes it's just the sounds on these guitars. This is raw. It's in my living-room.”

He is on tour in Germany through May. Let’s hope he’s using those gigs as practice for a tour on this side of the Atlantic later this year!