Celtic-punk supergroup, The Walker Roaders, have a new single out ,Singing School.
The Walker Roaders are James Fearnley (The Pogues), Ted Hutt (ex-Flogging Molly), and Marc Orrell (ex-Dropkick Murphys). The line-up is completed by producer Brad Wood (Liz Phair, Smashing Pumpkins) and Bryan Head.
According to the band, a new album is being recorded between Pogues gigs and various production gigs.
Okemah Rising is the companion album to the Dropkick Murphys 2022 release, This Machine Still Kills Fascists, i.e. it’s the unpublished lyrics of legendary American folk singer Woody Guthrie as interpreted by the Dropkick Murphys. Al Barr is still absent from the band, so vocal duties fall to Ken Casey. Like This Machine…., Okemah Rising is more rooted in Americana than punk, though it still has that raw sing-along, punk energy. The Violent Femmes guest on Gotta Get To Peekskill, Boston folk-hooligan Jesse Ahern, guests on Ripping Up The Boundary Line, and the DKMs rerecord an acoustic, I’m Shipping Up To Boston. If you liked This Machine…, you’ll lap up Okemah Rising; if you didn’t, well, the Murphys will be back to being the Murphys soon.
The Walker Roaders, a musical collaboration between former members of The Pogues (James Fearnley), Dropkick Murphys (Marc Orrell) and Flogging Molly (Ted Hutt) release a new song, There Must Be More To Life Than This, today. The single is available from all the usual places.
Legendary Boston punk guitarist, Rick Barton (The Outlets / Dropkick Murphys / Continental) has a new solo album, Nowhere Man, out on October 20th. The album is not your usual punk’n’roll but old school rock and roll infused country. Check out the advance tracks on BandCamp.
https://rickbarton.bandcamp.com/album/nowhere-man
Hello, is the fourth (or fifth?) full-length album by New England based Continental. Fronted by Boston punk legend, Rick Barton, along with his brother, David Alex Barton, formerly of The Outlets. Rick was a founding member of the Dropkick Murphy, playing guitar on their legendary albums, Do or Die, and, The Gangs All Here. Like The Outlets, Continental is a family affair as Rick is joined by son Stephen Barton on Bass as well as drummer Andrew Dickson and Paul Yu on lead guitar. Continental play punk-influenced rock’n’roll. The Clash is an obvious influence but I hear the melodies of the Beatles, the sleaze of the Rolling Stones, and the pop sensibility of Cheap Trick along side some dirty blues guitar. Continental is a very fine band and Hello is a fine album that deserves your attention.
Screw the Oscars, screw the MTV awards, screw Rolling Stone and the CMA, here is Shite’n’Onions best of 2022 list. The only list that matters.
#1 THE MAHONES: JAMESON STREET
A full force Céilí romp and possibly the most authentic trad sound I’ve ever heard coming out of any Celtic punk band.
#2 FINNEGAN’S HELL: ONE FINGER SALUTE
As good as anything the big boys are doing
#3 THE WINTER CODES: SET THE DARKNESS REELING
Barney still has a voice that could strip paint at 50 feet
Their most Celtic-sounding album with an almost Seán Ó Riada style Celtic orchestration
#5 SIR REG: KINGS OF SWEET FECK ALL
Something you can’t fake.
#6 JESSE AHERN: HEARTACHE AND LOVE
This is real blue-collar rock’n’roll with the authenticity you can only get from someone who actually works hard for a living.
#7 DAN BOOTH & NICK BURBRIDGE: ICONS
Beautiful – musically, lyrically, and sounding
Best album to piss off your neighbors with:
THE TEMPLARS OF DOOM: RISING OF THE DOOM!
And on this one, the bagpipes go up to 11.
Best vanity project (just kidding) album:
DROPKICK MURPHY: THIS MACHINE STILL KILLS FASCISTS
Dropkick Murphys ode to Woody Guthrie
Best punk supergroup album:
Fast, powerful punk rock with great melodies, kind of like, well,…………Hüsker Dü
If there was an justice these guys would be huge album:
Back to Zero, is really great rock’n’roll and an album I suspect I’ll be listening to for a long time into the future.
It’s not only Woody from the movie Toy Story who had squeal. The Dropkick Murphys are giving Americas favorite fokie, Woody Guthrie, a squeal with a follow up to, This Machine Still Kills Fascists, titled, Okemah Rising. The album features guest performances by folk punk pioneers Violent Femmes, Jesse Ahern from Quincy, Mass., and Jamie Wyatt. Okemah Rising comes out May 12 on CD, LP and on streaming services worldwide.
This Machine Kills Fascists is the famous 1940s slogan written on the guitar of America’s folk poet, Woody Guthrie (1912 – 1967). This Machine Still Kills Fascists, is the Dropkick Murphys ode to Woody. Of course, most of you will know ,Shipping Up To Boston, the Dropkick Murphys crossover ‘”hit”, popular with punks, skins, Celts and soccer moms was originally a Woody Guthrie song.
The Dropkick Murphys were approached by Woody’s family to do an album based on Woody’s unpublished lyrics and hence we have, This Machine Still Kills Fascists. The Murphys here have stuck to Woody’s acoustic tradition but just a wee bit harder in the style of, Boys On The Docks.
Honestly, this is a solid album with a few fillers. There is some great stuff like, the low down and dirty, Cadillac, Cadillac. Where Trouble Is At, is reminiscent of Peace & Love era Pogues. Dig A Hole, features Woody Guthrie himself. Talking Jukebox, is like slowed down surf punk and Ten Times More, is that chant along/shout along style we love so much from the Murphys. There are a couple of somewhat dull tracks such as, Waters Are A’Rising, but all in all it’s a great concept for an album.
Continental, featuring Boston punk legend and original Dropkick Murphys guitarist, Rick Barton, release a new album, Hello, on March 17th. The album is out on Rum Bar Records and was recorded in Nashville.
The Dropkick Murphys and the Ryman Auditorium are two things I would never have expected to collide. Now, you all know who the Dropkick Murphys are if you are reading Shite’n’Onions. The Ryman, if you don’t know, is a former revival hall in Nashville, Tennessee that for the last 100 years or so has been the spiritual home of country music. The hall itself has two levels of church bench seating in a half circle around the stage with some of the best acoustics of any venue in the US. When I read the Dropkick Murphys were playing here I jumped on getting a ticket and a flight down. Being Nashville I was real curious to see who made up a Dropkick Murphys crowd – like most places its was the seven to 70 set and if Waldo had a bushy beard and scally cap you’d never find him, but being Nashville there were plenty of trucker caps and and more then a few cowboy hats.
So what brings a bunch of Boston Micks and the Mother Church of country music together? Legendary American folk icon Woody Guthrie is the catalyst. Shipping Up To Boston, Dropkick Murphys big breakthrough is of course a Woody Guthrie song. The Murphys were approached by the Guthrie family to put music to some of Woody’s original lyrics that had not previously been released leading to their new album, This Machine Still Kills Fascists, and an acoustic tour to support and this date at the Ryman.
Counting tonight I think this is my 10th time seeing Dropkick Murphys since 1999 and the first time in a few years. The line-up is very different, Ken Casey on vocals, Al Barr is not touring due to family commitments. A new bass player allows Ken to jump around the stage like a man half his age. Scruffy Wallace is gone but the main stays of Matt Kelly and James Lynch are still there.
Tonight’s set was rocking hard despite being an “acoustic” set with nine songs from the new album that went down really well despite being unfamiliar to most of the audience. The rest of the set were old favorites with songs you would of course expect them to play – Fields of Athenry, Boys on the Docks, and Rose Tattoo (which brought the house down) and a few you wouldn’t expect given the acoustic set – Citizen CIA, Barroom Hero and Skinhead on the MBTA. No stage invasion was allowed at the Ryman in case someone broke a hip as Casey quipped though this may have been directed at his mother who was in the first row.
The night had two openers, The Washington state raised but Nashville based Jaime Wyatt, who played to my ears authentic old school country (her guitarist looked like a reincarnation of Blaze Foley), she was really talented but not my thing.
Jesse Ahern from Boston was first on. Jesse was one man with an acoustic guitar that he occasionally swapped out for an electric. I’d best describe Jesse as what Springsteen would sound like if he had to work a real blue collar job for a living or Bob Dylan driving a Mac truck. Authentic blue-collar folk’n’punk with engine grease under his finger tips.
Shite'n'Onions 