Happy St. Patrick’s Day. Scenes from a pub in Dublin, circa 2011.
Category - Irish
A Conversation with Larry Kirwan: . Larry Kirwan has been around the literary and music worlds – both in the United States and Ireland — for quite some...
There seems to be a very tangible continuum between the generations of Irish music. The mantle is systematically handed down from bands such as The Irish...
One of the great things about Irish music is its ability to incorporate other types of music without losing its essential character. Other genres do this, of...
Since The Daily Music Break doesn’t update on Sundays and since any reason to post Irish music is a good reason, the site is celebrating St...
The Pogues were formed in London but really are an Irish band. I don’t know much about Irish music other than there is a whole lot of very great stuff...
For Columbus Day, here is a look at some folks who came to America and thrived. Black 47 has been playing around New York City for years. Here is a bit of its...
Flogging Molly is best described at its YouTube Channel: The Los Angeles-based post-grunge seven-piece Flogging Molly are an interesting mix of traditional...
The Clancy Brothers, who played with Tommy Makem until 1969, were great talkers as well as great singers. About half of the above version of Finnegan’s...
Reading Music
The stories of the great bands and musicians are fascinating. Musicians as a group are brilliant, but often troubled. The combination of creativity and drama makes for great reading.
🎼🎺🎻🎹🎷🎶🎵
🎼🎺🎻🎹🎷🎶🎵
Here are some books to check out.
Duke Ellington brought class, sophistication and style to jazz which, until that point, was proudly unpolished and raucous. His story is profound. The author, Terry Teachout, also wrote "Pops," the acclaimed bio of Louis Armstrong. Click here or on the image.
What else is there to say? Here is the story behind every song written by The Beatles. Click here or on the image.
The Grateful Dead don't get enough credit for the profound nature of its lyrics. Many of the band's songs are driven by a deep and literate Americana ("I'm Uncle Sam/That's who I am/Been hidin' out/In a rock and roll band" and "Majordomo Billy Bojangles/Sit down and have a drink with me/What's this about Alabama/Keeps comin' back to me?").
David Dodd's exhaustive study tells the story, song by song. Click here or on the image.