June 8, 2009

“Sons & Daughters of the Soil” has been sitting in the Shite’n’Onions review pile for a while – I had pulled it out at one point and given it a quick spin coming to the conclusion that McAlpine’s Fusiliers are a very good Irish-Australia folk rock act doing standards with an edge – a bit like Texas’s, Murder the Stout. Recently I pull the bugger out again to do a proper review when I noticed upon reading the back sleeve that a lot of these “standard” were actually original – (“Mickey Finn”, “Jack O’Brian”, “Spanish Holiday”) and in Leigh Schroeter McAlpine’s Fusiliers have a very fine original songwriter who’s songs will stock the repertoire of balladeers from Donegal to Dingle to Detroit and Darwin.