Debra Dylan: Cutthroat Shamrock CD Review & Interview
Cutthroat Shamrock shows are always wild and wonderful occasions. While the music is frantic and joyful, there are so many distractions in the room. The people watching is fascinating. Sometimes I’m mopping up the beer soaked floor. Other times I’m dancing. Then there’s Guido’s hair and shoes and that spidery way he has of climbing onto his upright bass. There’s Derek’s scowl. Something good is always going on.
I am grateful the boys were able to capture so much of the vibrant energy of their live shows onto their newly released self-titled CD. Another advantage to the CD versus the live show is the crisp clear sound. Without the distractions of the bar room and the limitations of tavern sound equipment, all of the instrumentation and vocals are fierce and discernable. While I would not want to give up going to the live shows, this professionally recorded CD provides a much needed fix when one is between shows.
The exuberant Steady Rain kicks off the CD with its charming sing-a-long back up vocals and heartfelt reference to Tennessee whiskey. Next, the pace quickly revs up with the raucous pirate tune, S.S. Sorrows. This is the most musically complex song on the CD, with an operatic-style trio handling of the chorus, which includes a gruff and gravelly old sailor voice chanting, “the old bag of bones.” The musical changes add to the urgency of this tune, with things slowing down to a teasing bass solo from Guido and then revving back up into a fury of drumming with Suavo on drum kit, Johnny on congas and Ryan on djembe.
You can thank your lucky stars and garters that the tempo slows down a bit with Wages. This mournful lament about the difficulties of remaining sober features nice blended vocals and finger-picking guitar work. Tuesday Afternoon in not a Moody Blues cover! This song about drinking and death includes enjoyable galley pirate crew grunting on the chorus, with nice mandolin picking from Benjamin. This mid-tempo trio of songs is completed with a coal miner’s jeremiad in Deep Black Hole.
The frenzied rhythm returns with the rabble-rousing Rich Instead’ a Pretty. By far the most comical ditty of this CD, the boys take us on a whirlwind fantasy of spending their riches on alcohol, bail bonds, green bags to smoke with Jon Worley (one of Knoxville’s colorful blues/folk musicians) and buying gifts of amber for pretty lassies, but not for the “ones that stank and the ones that don’t come home with me.”
The mood takes a serious turn again with The Storm. With ferocious thundering drumming and lightening fast picking, this song is a tale of surviving a rough night “ride’ n out the storm/and crash’n with the waves.” Miles of Drink’n is a lovely and satisfying ballad of longing and reunion set to a backdrop of drinking. This song features nice upright bass bow-work from Guido. This song makes me wish I had someone to miss.
The final three tracks are a tour-de-force. If you dance like a dervish through Black Velvet Band, Drunk’n Pirate, and Last Cigarette, you’ll be able to recreate some of the fun and passion of a Cutthroat Shamrock concert. Black Velvet Band and Drunk’n Pirate are the only tunes not written by the band. Black Velvet Band is a wonderful pub sing-a-long about a thieving little she-devil, which includes a rousing chorus beginning with, “Her eyes they shine like the diamonds….” The band’s anthem, Drunk’n Pirate, based on the folk traditional “What Do You Do With a Drunken Sailor”, speaks for itself. (Fans usual beg for an encore of this song during a live performance.) The CD closes with the simple, crazed and euphoric Last Cigarette.
For die-hard fans and the newly initiated, Cutthroat Shamrock’s debut CD will shiver your timbers with its high spirited and unique Celtic-Pirate-Punk shanties.
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Comments
my brothers
are quite
the ship
of swank
~savy
Posted by: tiffany | October 18, 2006 11:44 AM
beer is good..... thanks for make'n me sound smart... cheers
Posted by: benjamin | October 18, 2006 02:08 PM