Peddlers of Oirish shtick to the Yanks

[Aidan]

At the moment I'm going though a backlog of artist submissions that have been submitted to the site to determine which ones are 'worthy' of IrishRockers.com. I get a fair number of submissions of American based bands that play some form other of punked up Irish (or 'Oirish') folk music which is all the rage there these days. Generally I decide on whether to accept or reject them based on whether they have Irish born members, play original music, have released any recordings, have a decent following, appear to be more than just a pub band etc. One submission I was reviewing today was this Los Angeles based band called The Mighty Regis, that claims to be originally from Sligo. But after giving a listen to some of their songs on MySpace (with titles such as 'The Real Deal Irishman', 'Reilly's Daughter', 'The Brothers Rafferty', etc.) I sincerely doubt that they could possibly have been written by an Irish born person. For Chrissake the chorus of 'The Black Shamrock' starts off 'From the green fields of Mayo...' - any eejit with half a brain who's ever set foot in Mayo would know it would make more far more sense to say something like 'From the brown bogs of Mayo (no offence to any Mayomen reading). So I quickly drew the conclusion that these pisstakers are no more Irish than than pint of green beer on St. Patrick's Day. I'm thinking of putting up a sign 'Peddlers of Oirish shtick to the Yanks not wanted here'!

[Mairtin]

   Aaagh... but the fields of Mayo were actualy once green when the Gobby Eoghnachta roamed the land -you'll have to read this link to find out why...
http://www.theryan-o-riain22.mfbiz.com/#/ataleoftwoamys/4525996066
... Maybe they were realy Welsh!
                  Ten out of ten for musical discernment Aidan
                   Thank God you didn't add them to the poll
                                                 Mairtin

[bmc]

It's a tough job managing a discussion group online, running a forum like this, etc. - so well done Aidan for having the energy and patience to do it. Nice to know there is a 'bouncer' at the door of Irish Rockers. Maybe if they brought their own beer - and some for us too - we could consider letting them in!!
Peace
Barry

[Mairtin]

 just a quick follow up - and apology for the shameless plug (but I thought you might find it amusing) But I had a similar problem a few months ago when I was swamped by emails from horrendously untalented bands who wanted a spot on our site...I think they thought I'd welcome them on board just because they claimed an Irish lineage and thought of themselves as 'indie' bands. I was very polite but suggested they tried somewhere in Hong Kong -the next thing I knew was a whole bunch of them started using the link from my site to advertise on the Hong Kong Gumtree (...I only put the link up as an example for bands to view!!)  needless to say gumtree (which is a 'local community only' network weren't too pleased...but I did offer to pay  to move the bands over there.

[loralee]

Boy could I talk at length about this topic! (with 500 CDs sitting here at my feet...) But just on the top it: surely there's two genres being confused by hopeful musicians here? There's Irish Rock as championed by this site these many years. And then there's a slightly older genre of 'pub singers' and folkie-style musicians -- a genre with its roots in old traditions, but certainly on the map for most people with the Dubliners and the Clancy Brothers?

The confusion may arise from a few times where the two genres blended. For instance, if you saw Folk Hibernia on the BBC recently, you realize just how much Bob Dylan stole (or perhaps 'paid homage' to by 'borrowing') from the Clancys and their ballad structure style songs.

Then, it almost goes without saying, there are the Pogues. Who emerged from a punk aesthetic and made a conscious choice to bring in the auld pub ballads and traditional tunes into their snarling London club act. (Actually, Mick Farren of the Social Deviants did this too, early on in the 70s as a way to get the workingman pub-going crowd's sympathies, as I learned from reading his autobiography Give the Anarchist a Cigarette). But from the Pogues: a thousand bands bloomed. Not all of them smelling like a rose.

The best of them (Flogging Molly, Dropkick Murphys, The Tossers...possibly the Kissers, time will tell)  have a common career arc of emerging from their urban centers where the fanbase is the strongest with a debut album of cover tunes and classic pub singalongs. (DKM actually did sing "Wild Rover" on Sing Loud Sing Proud and the Tossers did a regrettable "Buckets of Beer" on their Communication and Conviction CD.) But its the original compositions on the second and third albums that can separate the folk-punk best from the wannabe rest. DKM is now Boston's semi-official band for parades and public functions. Flogging Molly had Lucinda Williams dueting on the recent album before their last. The Tossers...still my personal favorite...are drifting a bit into the 'pirate' genre, but Tony Duggan's original songs are still standouts in a sea of beer and bathos.

The pub-song and ballad is also earning a bit of 'looking back' respect these days. There's the controversial tribute to Ronnie Drew from Bono and company, but at least the thought was there. Barry Devlin, it is rumored, is working on a biopic about the Clancys in New York City. (Liam evened the score on thievery by stealing one of Bob's girlfriends, so there...) And there's every chance that some young folkie musician is downloading the tabs to "Wild Rover" right this very minute...

And it's no, nae, never...