“Irish” Music

I have remarked on many occasions that I enjoy folk music from many countries, Ireland being one of those. I’ve played several sets over the years to mark St Patrick’s Day, with a range of performers – though not just folk musicians. The country has given us much great music, both in the songs and the bands who play them, and it seems that this influence has become widespread. I have gradually collected a series of YouTube recommendations over the years for new bands playing Irish music, with a bit of a difference: none of them actually are Irish. I thought that for my midweek post this week I’d play you a selection of these, as above all else they are fun to watch and hear.

I’m starting with a band of whom I’ve been a fan for ten years or so, giving us an idea of what being Irish might mean:

That was The O’Reillys and the Paddyhats, in their “Irish Folk Punk” style, giving us an idea of being Irish though no doubt mug tourists of most nationalities have probably fallen victim to con tricks like that. The band have been going since 2011, with only a few changes in membership over that time, and are still going strong: they have recently completed a tour of several European countries, including the one from which they come – Germany. The tourist and the two girls in the video are actors, but the barman is a band member who goes by the stage name of Ian McFlannigan, and you catch glimpses of the others – the group around the table early on is them. I would tell you more but it is more than fifty years since I finished my German A-level course and their Wikipedia page is beyond my capabilities! What I can gather is that all of them have adopted Irish names, but the page does tell you their real ones. They are a fun band, and this is typical of their songs: I like them a lot and so apparently do many others as that video has more than 25m views, and another of theirs has north of 52m.

Another band which plays their version of Irish Folk Punk is The Rumjacks. Not that the stereotype of the Irish is that they like their pubs, but…:

The lyrics might be a little difficult to pick up, but I can assure you with confidence that the chorus does actually begin with “whale oil, beef, hooked” whatever you might think you heard, and the song is about the way “Irish” pubs can be found around the world. In keeping with today’s theme The Rumjacks are… Australian, which presumably makes them experts on that topic 🤣

A change of pace for this next one. I found this very recently from a YouTube recommendation, and had no idea when I started to listen that they weren’t Irish. A few clues then started to come with some of the pronunciation, but who cares? The music is lovely and the singer has a gorgeous voice:

I can find very little about the band playing this – Gemini. This is one of just four videos they published on YouTube around three years ago, but their Facebook page shows them playing concerts towards the end of last year, so maybe they are still around. It’s a little hard to tell as the page is in their native language – Slovakian – so I’m having to go by the photos! They don’t seem to have been all that prolific with their output, but I’m hoping to see more from them – that beautiful voice deserves to be heard (and I’ve no idea what their names are!).

Back to the theme of drinking with this next one, another Irish Folk Punk one:

Selfish Murphy have also been around since 2011, and have released several albums in addition to many live appearances. The accent tells you that English isn’t their first language, but are there any guesses? They were formed in Transylvania, which is in Romania, though they are part of the large subset of the population who are Hungarian by descent, and describe themselves on their website as Hungarian. Kind of an East European Irish tribute band!

I started this piece with a band I had previously played here, and this next lot are the second I’ve previously featured, in my Christmas series. This is their latest release, and it is a lot of fun:

Like the O’Reillys and the Paddyhats, Fiddler’s Green hail from Germany – and those two are far from being the only German “Irish” bands. Other examples include Angelo Kelly and his family, though they are a little twee for my taste, but you might enjoy them if you prefer less rowdy songs! Fiddler’s Green were formed in 1990 and this is a track from their most recent of nineteen studio albums, The Green Machine, which was released last year and reached #5 in the German Albums chart, their highest ever placing. The video is typical of them: a tuneful song and a lot of people enjoying themselves, which is what music is about, isn’t it.

I’m closing this section with the only band for whom English is their first language, though they also don’t come from Ireland:

As the video showed, that was The Killdares with their version of an old Irish folk song, which is in the catalogues of loads of bands – my favourite is probably the one by Thin Lizzy. The Killdares were an American folk/rock band from Dallas, who began in 1996 and played for twenty years until they ‘retired’ in 2016. They released seven albums in that time, including the dvd/double cd collection Up Against The Lights, from which this is taken. I think this is remarkably good: the fiddle playing of Roberta Rast shows why she was a multiple championship winner.

To finish up today I thought it only right that I play you something by real Irish people. This is a performance by the band Dervish at the Shrewsbury Folk Festival in 2010. The band, including vocalist Cathy Jordan (the brunette) are joined by Moya Brennan, known as the voice of Clannad, on a joyful version of a dark traditional song:

Dervish originally formed in 1989 as The Boys Of Sligo, and released an instrumental album under that name before Cathy joined them in 1991. I think she is a great vocalist, and absolutely love the band. You may recognise the theme of Two Sisters, as it is another that has been handed down in a variety of versions: the one I first knew was by Pentangle, when they recorded it as Cruel Sister for the album of the same name, but there are many others. Their lyrics are about a sister who murders her sibling and is then haunted by her ghost – Dervish give it a much happier feel and take their version from one which treats this as a song of love. Whichever, it is a great way for me to leave you today.

Do let me know in the comments if you liked this set, please. I wanted to do something a little different, and theming a piece around the music of a country, albeit played in that style by people from other countries, seemed like a plan. If you’ve enjoyed it, maybe I’ll do this again soon with a full set of Irish musicians?

See you again for Song Lyric Sunday 🎶