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BLACK 47
New York Town

Black 47’s breathtakingly brilliant new album features stellar guest artists including: Rosanne Cash, Suzzy Roche & Eileen Ivers, who contribute to its musically diverse sound. By bringing the saxophone and trombone out of the background to join the uilleann pipes, Black 47 adds a jazz flavor to their unique sound. The music underscores the edgy and politically conscious lyrics of singer/songwriter Larry Kirwan, who populates New York Town with the people who have lived in his memory and imagination since he arrived in America.

The opening track, San Patricio Brigade, tells of the Irish Immigrants who deserted the nativist American Army to join their fellow Catholic Mexicans during the Mexican War of the 1840’s. The story is told with a Mariachi flavored instrumentation led by fiddler Eileen Ivers. The catastrophe of September 11 is examined in the angry Something Going Down in New York Town and the poetic Mychal - Larry’s eulogy for fire department chaplin Fr. Mychal Judge, who perished on that day. David Johansen joins him to immortalize the Staten Island Baby whose NYPD father is an obstacle to her freewheeling romance. Outstanding female vocalists join Larry in duets to portray the heroines of his songs. Rosanne Cash, on Fiona’s Song, tells the story of the girl who lives on in the bars of Queens after being deserted by her lover who marries a college girl. Suzzy Roche gives voice to Josie, the latino temptress of earlier songs, who is revisited on Brooklyn Goodbye. Livin in America-11 Years On tells the story of a couple who first met in the Bronx bar scene of the late eighties who now struggle to keep it together. Mary Courtney, in a brilliantly expressive vocal, makes sure we hear the woman’s side of this story. Broadway veteran, Rozz Moorehead, on the blues influenced Black Rose tells of the consequences of their giving into the temptation to cheat on an imprisoned friend and lover. Christine Ohlman, Blood Wedding, and Ashley Davis, Fatima round out the guest vocalist roster.

EM 5004 CD $16

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BLACK 47
Trouble In the Land

Black 47 has always been a band to push at the edges of Irish music to see where they can take it and where it takes them. This album is no exception. Larry Kirwan, who writes all the songs, draws his lyrics from the experiences of the band, their fans, immigrant life, historical personalities and his poetic imagination.The music is a mix of Rock, Rap and Irish led by the creative and exciting playing of Chris Byrne on uilleann pipes.

Those Saints updates the story of the band from the shooting incident on March 17, 1996 to their Shea Stadium appearance at Irish Night at The Mets. The background music is to the tune of the jazz classic When The Saints Go Marching In, performed on saxophone and trombone. Delirious reflects life as seen through the eyes of disaffected youth who refuses to buy into the system, whereas Susan Falls Apart tells of the disillusioned urban professional who has been failed by it. Bodhrans on the Brain is the rollicking tale of a woman obsessed by the goat skin drum. She leaves her boyfriend in America and returns to Ireland to move in with an alcoholic bodhran maker. Additional vocals and bodhran by Nora Shanahan. The song Bobby Kennedy reviews the life of the late Senator who is obviously one of Larry's heroes. He portrays him as a political operator who grew to become the conscience of his generation and hopefully ours. Touched by Fire is a tribute to Countess Constance de Markovicz the great heroine of the Easter Uprising, a champion of socialist ideals of James Connolly and an early advocate of women's rights. A great song of this often forgotten historical figure. In Tramps Heartbreak, he imagines the musings of a homeless person in a style and voice reminiscent of Bob Dylan.

SH 5721 CD $16