Jameson Street is a place you go to find warmth on a cold night or cool on a hot summer’s day. To see old friends and meet new ones, but most importantly, Jameson Street is somewhere you can go to while you leave your baggage and worries elsewhere.
Jameson Street, kicks off with the title track, a full force Céilí romp and possibly the most authentic trad sound I’ve ever heard coming out of any Celtic punk band. Once inside Jameson Street there is truly a meeting of old and new friends, all living Mahones past and present contribution to the album.
Rise Up (Be Strong), brings us back on a trip to the classic days of 1990s Mahones when the Mahones were the only game in town with their Pogues meets Waterboys meets The Replacements sound. Devil In Every Bottle, has you drinking arm in arm with your mates and you all in this together. Freeway Toll, also harkens back to the classic 90s days though this has just a touch of 90s alt-pop. While Watch Me Fall, has a raggle-taggle campfire feel. Lonesome Boatman, an instrumental, gives a loud nod to Celtic-rock granddaddies, Horslips, while winking at the Pogues at the same time. Holloway Jack, the first single off Jameson Street, started life on the Mahones debut, the cassette only, Clear the Way!! This is the definite version. While, Fiddle On Fire, is a manic Celtic jig – authentic as feck and if this doesn’t raise the dead and get them dancing I don’t know what would. She Comes For Love, is the second reworking of an older Mahones track (originally from Here Comes Lucky) this has a nice Replacements vibe.
The album closes appropriately with, Last Call At The Bar, which send us packing into the night as the barman yell’s “go home to fuck”.
Tacked on to the end of the album is a special bonus live cover of The Pogues, If I Should Fall From Grace With God, recorded when the Mahones toured Canada with Terry Woods and the late great Philip Chevron.
Jameson Street is in a toss up with, Angels and Devils, as the best Mahones album since the masterpiece, Here Comes Lucky.
Shite'n'Onions 