Irish Music Has Finally Met It's Match

Allentown native Patrick Halloran returns to the Lehigh Valley this weekend to push his band Ceann's new CD "Almost Irish." A title that appears to be right on target for a band that insists it plays "Yankee-Irish Drinking Music", not simply Irish music. For the new album the band flexed some of their New York muscle by enlisting some of Irish music's biggest names. Musicians like former Black 47 uilleann pipe player and current Seanchai and the Unity Squad front man Chris Byrne as well as accordion player Tommy Walsh along with some other venerable names show up to add some pop to a collection of songs funny enough to make Oliver Cromwell wish he was Irish.

Ceann have found a knack for the celtically absurd. Their new album is a non-stop 12 song barrage about drinking, debauchery, delinquency and drinking (The 4 D's). These themes are not uncommon to traditional Irish music or to newer submissions to the genre, but Ceann is one of the rare "new-Irish" bands that seem to have some legitimate songwriting chops. Their songs are not merely imitations of already popular Irish songs, but are in themselves genre defining. Ceann describe themselves as "Five Americans of ambiguous Irish descent who didn't want to pay for beer anymore." The bands success as an east coast touring machine probably dictates that these lads won't have to pay for any beer any time soon.

On more than one track the band shamelessly plugs one beer product after another. One of the highlights of the album, "Pabst Blue Ribbon" is pop-country catchy with a incredible payoff dropping a Dennis Hopper ala Blue Velvet homage that would bring delight to any beer drinking filmophile. On another track the bands extols the wonderfulness of coal region girls who swig Yuengling Lager. And while the band earnestly warns children of the dangers of whiskey on "Whiskey Hurts My Tummy", I get the impression that the band probably doesn't heed their own advice as often as they give it.

Almost every song merits a second listen. The lyrics are always catchy and clever and hide more subtle and sinister lines then one listen can unearth. The title track "Almost Irish" is sure to become the band's epic sized Irish festival sing-a-long by capturing the spirit and comedy of the American-Irish experience. Another song worth checking out is "Green Beer", an Irish-style polka about the kind of people who partake in the world's most unfortunate beer experiment. The band deliciously pokes fun at the contrast between the struggle and toil most Irish immigrates experienced in mining towns across Pennsylvania and the current practice of St. Patrick's Day style idiocy.

The album hits it's high note on "The Worst Pirate Song", an amazingly funny and incredibly catchy tune about the fairer sex's shortcomings when it comes to piratude. The album is a lot like a kids album targeted at an over 21 crowd and at it's best moments sounds like drunk Wiggles with too much whiskey and no curfew. If you have a chance this weekend, pry yourself away from the Celtic Fest or your late night watering hole and stop by Lacey's for a beer and laugh. You'll thank me.

Christopher Diehl