Mahones "Irish Punk Collection" 2008(comp) ☘☘☘

The Mahones are not strictly speaking an Irish band, as they're based in Canada. Furthermore, they don't play traditional Irish music. They're nevertheless forever connected to St. Patrick's Day for me, as that's when I first saw them play: March 17, 2010 at O’Ceallaigh's pub in Groningen, followed by a performance at the Queen's Day Festival a few days later. They made a great noise and led us into a night of fun and drunken singalongs. I left the pub exhilarated and holding this CD, a compilation that the band was selling at their gigs at the time. Apparently St. Patrick's Day (1990) also marks the band's birthday, an initially one-off collaboration that has been going on for nigh on 30 years. This makes them one of the progenitors of Celtic Punk, obviously following on the footsteps of The Pogues but a few years older than the genre's most famous bands like Dropkick Murphys and Flogging Molly. The label Celtic Punk somehow sums their sound up: Irish folk played very loud, with punk rock speed and attitude. Sloppy punk versions of folk evergreens "The Irish Rover" and "Whiskey In The Jar" are mixed with original band material. The instrumentation comes from both worlds, but it's when the accordion and tin whistle take the upper hand that they channel the spirit of The Pogues ("Paint the Town Red", "Down the Boozer", "Celtic Pride", ballads "Streets of New York" and "London"). These songs are among my favorites, while the noisier punk tunes are either hit ("Drunken Lazy Bastard", "Shake Hands with the Devil", "Is This Bar Open Til' Tomorrow") or miss ("Going Back to Dublin"). As a whole this CD makes for a fine celebration of Irish Punk, but it doesn't even come close to the live experience.

**** for Drunken Lazy Bastard, Paint the Town Red, Across the U.S.A., Shake Hands with the Devil, Down the Boozer 

*** for Queen and Tequila, Whiskey Devil, A Drunken Night in Dublin, Streets of New York, Celtic Pride, London, Is This Bar Open Til' Tomorrow, Drunken Lazy Bastard (Live Version)

** for The Amsterdam Song, The Irish Rover, Going Back to Dublin, Whiskey in the Jar

Van Morrison & The Chieftains "Irish Heartbeat" 1988****

I'm sitting at my house looking at a patch of snow outside and contemplating whether I should join the outdoors St. Patrick Day celebrations in The Hague later in the evening. I've always had a good time at St. Patrick's, listening to Irish music and drinking Guiness, but would the Saint really want me to freeze my balls off just to celebrate his holiness? You'll notice I don't question whether he'd approve of my getting drunk on his nameday - of course he would, after all he was Irish wasn't he? (actually he was a Latinised Briton, but don't tell it to any Irishmen). 

The LP spinning on my record player right now was my first introduction to Irish folk almost 30 years ago, and has remained a favourite of mine ever since. I was pretty young at the time and mostly liked punk rock and 60's garage/psych but I had also discovered Van Morrison via his Astral Weeks LP which I listened to constantly. So I thought I'd try his latest one. Not that I expected it to sound the same, after all bald Van on this LP cover was worlds away from the romantic youth of Astral Weeks. As for the rest of the guys on the photo, they looked like someone's uncles from the village, or like the sort of musicians that play at the local panigyria (Greek village festivals) which is, I guess, not that far from what they really were. But that's the thing with traditional music: we reject our own as the uncool stuff our grandpas like, but someone else's grandpa music? well, it's exotic and interesting. The opening "Star Of The County Down" immediately caught my attention, with its rhythm and instrumentation so different from what I had heard until then: bagpipes, fiddles, flutes and tin whistles. As this wonderful song was my first contact with Irish folk, it's no wonder I immediately became a fan. "Irish Heartbeat" and "Celtic Ray" are two older Van songs, reinterpreted in an Irish old-timey manner yet still close to his familiar Celtic Soul style. The traditional ballads ("Raglan Road", "She Moved Through The Fair", "My Lagan Love" and "Carrickfergus") showcase Van's voice beautifully. Listening to them now is a pleasure, but at the time I was more interested in the jauntier tracks like "Marie's Wedding" and, especially, "I'll Tell Me Ma".

Here's the whole gang. For some reason, Van is posing with a fiidle...

Can't help but sing along and dance to such infectiously groovy tunes! "Tá Mo Chleamhnas Déanta" was another surprise, a ballad about arranged marriages and lost loves, Van trading vocals with The Chieftain's Kevin Conneff singing in Gaelic. What a crazy language, not a single word sounds familiar! Thank God for Van translating the lyrics, though "wee lass" wasn't exactly the kind of English I was taught at school. The Chieftains went on to make more crossover albums with pop and rock artists -I have a few and will present them here sometime- but this one is special for me. Great, great music! Certainly put me in the right mood, I think I'll brave the cold and go to the St. Patrick Day festival after all! 

***** for Star Of The County Down, Tá Mo Chleamhnas Déanta, I'll Tell Me Ma

**** for Irish Heartbeat, Raglan Road, She Moved Through The Fair, Carrickfergus, Marie's Wedding

*** for Celtic Ray, Lagan Love

Rapalje "♠" a.k.a. "Spades" 2004***

I had seen St. Patrick's Day festivals and parades in films and TV many years before I actually had the chance to attend one. I've always thought they seemed like good fun: lots of alcohol, music, booze, Guiness, dancing, whiskey and beer is always a good idea, isn't it? I suspect the Saint wouldn't mind either, because after all what is a feast without alcohol? You can't celebrate the arrival of Christianity to Ireland with tea, the Irish wouldn't be too thankful to the Saint for bringing it to them. Anyway, the feast quickly transcended its religious character to become a celebration of Irish culture, one that the Irish diaspora carried with them and gained many fans around the world. Which is how I came to be at the Grote Markt in The Hague last Friday on March 17, wearing a leprechaun hat, pint of Guiness in hand, dancing to the sounds of Celtic music played mostly by Dutch groups - albeit ones that have a really good grasp of the music involved. Some would say that the music (and the feast) should remain Irish, but these questions have been settled in my mind: White people can play the blues, and Dutch (or Greek or Mexican or whatever) bands can play Celtic music as long as they feel it in their bones and don't try to fake it. And, just for one day, we can all join in and be Irish together - except for the sober ones, that is. They're just hopeless.

I guess I'd be at Grote Markt celebrating St Patrick's anyway, but what really made it an irresistible proposition for me was that Rapalje would be playing there. I saw these guys a couple of times back in their home town of Groningen when I was living there, and they're just one of the wilder live bands ever. Playing medieval instruments and attired in traditional kilts, they really know how to put on a fiery show - and by "fiery" I'm being literal as one of the guys has a helmet and set of bagpipes that shoot flames when he's blowing in them. The crowd went wild, but it was the band's playing and demeanor that won them over, far and above their stage tricks. So when I returned I took out my Rapalje CD's to listen to again and to present here. "♠" is one of a four mini-CD's series - the other 3 being (surprise!) "♣", "♦", and "♥". Like all Rapalje albums, it is self-released and only sold at gigs or on the band website. They use the following instruments (copy/paste here):  Dieb (vocals, fiddle, tin whistle, accordion), William (vocals, gitouki, mandolin, bodhrán, tea-chest bass), Maceál (vocals, harmonica, accordion, gitouki, bodhrán, tea-chest bass), David (bagpipes, tin whistle). As you may have guessed from this list, their sound is straight traditional Celtic folk. The album opens with an instrumental - as usual in Celtic music, a collection of jigs- ("Glen Coe/The Pumpkin's Fancy/Crossing The Minch") before the first vocal track "Are Ye Sleeping Maggie". This is followed by a surprise, a traditional folk cover of Manowar's "The Crown And The Ring" (last Friday they treated us to another Manowar cover "Heart of Steel"). It starts off as a somber ballad, later segueing in to the lively "Morrison's Jig" a lively fiddle tune. Another instrumental later ("Sally Garens/The Congress Reel") is followed by the ballad "The Leaving Of Mullingar" and the traditional Flemish tune "Jan De Mulder". The Dutch text blends perfectly naturally with the Celtic melody. 

The short album ends with a stark version of the traditional Scottish ballad "Loch Lomond", mostly chorus vocals and a bagpipe outro. Given that it's made by a Central European (rather than Irish) band, this album is a surprisingly faithful slice of well-played traditional Celtic music. The production is very good and the quality of the packaging (embossed cover, collectable playing cards) much higher than your standard CD. One more reason, then, to buy the CD straight from the band's website: you get a beautiful collector's item and eliminate the record company middlemen. The only possible complaint would be that (at almost 30 minutes) the album's duration is rather short but it makes up for it with the consistent quality of the material and reduced price (€8). Get it - but above all, go and see the band play live - that's their natural element!   

**** for Are Ye Sleeping Maggie, The Crown And The Ring/ Morrison's Jig, Jan De Mulder/   Zeemanshorlepiep/Blauw Garen En Koperdraad/The Congress Reel, Loch Lomond

*** for Glen Coe/ The Pumpkin's Fancy/ Crossing The Minch, Sally Garens/ The Congress Reel, The Leaving Of Mullingar