I was sitting shotgun on DJ duty during a long volleyball road trip back in high school when I put on a new tape (yes, cassette days) that I was loving of a band I had recently seen playing live at SUNY Albany (yes, pre Internet days). The group was Black 47, the album Fire of Freedom . After about 30 seconds of "Livin' In America" my witty coach who was driving commented "Irish Music is a step below Irish Food", my response was "This isn't Irish Music, it's New York City music."
With St. Patrick's Day on the horizon I wanted to take a second to showcase one of the better albums that my coach would lump in as "Irish Music". Sure you can find loads of traditional songs in audio form or in books, you can find Irish bands who update the traditions in punk-ish or even prog-rock ways but Black 47 plays Irish music in a New York way.
The group during the recording of the album was Dave Conrad (bass), Thomas Hamlin (drums), Fred Parcells (Trombone), Geoffrey Blythe (Sax), Chris Byrne (Uilleann Pipes/Vocals) and Larry Kirwan (Guitars/Lead Vocals). The core played various whistles and programmed drum machines to go along with a host of backing vocalists but at it's center was the 6 players and their style.
The album receivedglowingreviews and air time for their video of "Funky Ceili" on MTv. They also played late night shows and were in national magazines. Unfortunately the band never truly capitalized on its success but instead have gone on to become a New York City institution
Back in the present Black 47 are currently wrapping things up with a final album and tour, so catch them while you can. You can also go here to find out the back story on all of the bands recordings and if you are lucky enough to be in town for St. Patrick's Day you can see them live at BB Kings. Also for more on the holiday you can read this post from a few years ago that contains a bunch of great links.
IN THE NYPL CATALOG:
Fire of Freedom by Black 47
To Preview some great tracks from Fire of Freedom, click the links below:
"Livin’ In America”"Funky Ceili”Please Note: online audio tracks are an excellent source for previewing, but are compressed and do not match CD quality audio.
