The Mickey Finns “Prayers And Idle Chatter” CD (Mankeltray Music) 2012:

Shane MacGowan once said that “….there’s no point in Ireland getting the six counties back, if Irish culture has been totally forgotten and destroyed. That will  have meant that they’ve won in the end.”  ( “A Drink With Shane MacGowan, Victoria Mary Clarke, 2001, Grove Press)

And bands like the Mickey Finns always remind us, of how much of an important part of Irish culture, the music really is.

With their third CD release, “Prayers and Idle Chatter”, The Mickey Finns are proof positive that no matter how much you drink,there’s not the slightest chance of Irish music being forgotten.

Beginning this new Mickey Finns bout with “Return of the Prodigal Son”; you can feel that whiskey-inspired Ceili-Country rhythm that brought so many fans to Paddy Reillys, night after night, to sing and dance to that rowdy Urban Cowboy sound that is the Mickey Finns. If Lucinda Williams and Christy Moore ever got together, The Mickey Finns would be their bastard child.  Bastard, in a positive sense of the word, perhaps like a Culchie troubadour, who, while he may be without a father, due to lack of family ties, he has the freedom to wander, busking on street corners, traveling the way of the Hobo musician, giving Boxcar Willie a few lessons on the way, with only a banjo and a coonskin cap to keep him company. Okay, maybe not. Maybe Boxcar Willie would get him drunk, pick his pockets and get him involved in a late night poker game, where he would lose his coonskin cap and his banjo. And didn’t we all learn about the evils of drinking and gambling in Sunday school ? So maybe this bastard child isn’t a saint, and has many musical parents, but who cares who the father is when the son is rocking the roof right off that roadhouse? Its that something special, that Irish Rogue-gypsy-hobo-culchie sound that will pack dance halls, pubs and roadhouses every night with an infectious Irish Rock n’ Reel mass appeal, that is 100% Mickey Finns. And bandmates Ray Kelly, and Brian Tracey, formerly of NY’s legenadary, The Prodigals, have a proud family tradition that transcends blood and lineage. Believe  it.

Afterwards, “Sweet Clare Girl” keeps us wandering these County Clare moors and beyond, in search of a musical sweetheart.

Just be careful with that “Sweet Clare Girl”, ladies and gentlemen, because she’s bound to break your heart :

“Said that love was only for the fools,

But you were never playing by the rules…..”

Despite the subject matter, this is really an upbeat tune that tells you to take it easy and not take things so seriously. A tune that would make Johnny Cash proud, whether or not the song makes you reminisce about unrequited love, or just a holiday romp with a beautiful Colleen, this tune is bound to become a crowd-pleaser.

Next, “McGuinness’ Mass” allows us to contemplate on the mysteries of life while totally banjaxed, or as they say in the States, “shit-faced”. This mighty pub sing-along is probably one of the best drinkers anthems ever written and is really about the existential nature of Alcohol & Religion. Like a Priest drunk on his own sacramental wine, we delve deep into the heart of intoxicating Ceilidh rhythms, libations, and toasts to friends, fiends, winos, langers, and family :

“Some men fought in wars and some tasted defeat

While others chased girls on their cold blistered feet,

But this was their haven, a safe place from harm

A place filled with song and with chatter and charm……”

A rocking and rolling pub sing along song of cheer and warmth that might even cause some to reschedule their Sunday afternoons. And while I wouldn’t recommend this tune to recovering alcoholics, I couldn’t recommend it enough to everybody else. Unless you’re a Jesus Freak. In that case, just stick to your Christian Rock and Gospel.

If that wasn’t enough of an alcoholic reverie for your tattered soul, than “Absinthe (Makes The Heart Grow Fonder)” shall give Hank III, Waylon Jennings and Luke Kelly (R.I.P.) a run for their money. From the hallowed halls of musical legends (driven to drink), comes the spirit of true “don’t cry in your beer, just guzzle it and smile”, reminding us, yet again, that life and love can be but a joke, even in the darkest of times. Hallellujah buddy ! This got to be one of the best drunkards prayers, this side of the Mississippi.

But probably one of the best tragic Irish love songs tackling the dark subject of sectarianism, is the Mickey Finns, “Tanks and Barbed Wire”, a mighty tune that will tug at your heart strings, and cause you to hope that people on both sides of the religious divide will wake up and reject the British propaganda of the “old divide and rule”, and put the religious hatred----- behind them. This song always moves me, in a way that only a deeply stirring and emotional song can. Beautiful and tragic, like Ulster.

Next, “The Jester”, is a happy tune that reunites us with our old chums in the drinking schools of McLean Avenue or the Quays. And with every rebel who breaks the mold , class clown that disrupts the boredom of school, or huckster who tries to talk us into playing his shell game, there’s always a Jester that stands tall amidst all the chicanery, turmoils and challenges of life, and keeps his head held high, because :

 

“Kingdoms rise and kingdoms fall,

But the Jester still stands tall...

He’ll remain a rogue all his life, whiskey and the road , shall be his wife”

 

Whether or not this song for you, represents the rebel, the outlaw, or just the class clown, “The Jester” is an absolutely happening song, and one that Ken Bruen, The Mc Court Brothers, or Brendan O’Carroll would definitely relate to, and yet another amazing melody on a phenomenal CD that is almost all originals, written by The Mickey Finns. (The three instrumentals are the only covers on the entire CD). Really, you can’t get much better than that.

 

If that wasn’t crack-a-lackin’ enough for you, from the jubilant mirth of “The Jester”, we’re given more brilliant gypsy harmony that calls us to the road and the wanderers path, beyond the suffocating confines of city life and suburbia, “Dark Roll Down The Dawn” is one of a hell raiser and is destined to raise the roof where ever the mighty Mickey Finns take the stage.

But truthfully, the last ballad of this album, “The Ballad of Duffy’s Cut”, really must be the best song the Mickey Finns have written yet. And next to their equally great ballad “Tanks and Barbed Wire”, probably one of their most seriously heavy duty ballads, hands down. Telling the tragic true story of fifty-seven Donegal, Tyrone, and Derry natives, who emigrated in 1832 to work for railroad contractor, Phillip Duffy, near Malvern, Pennsylvania, and in less than two months, all of these hardworking sons of Ireland were all to die in disputed circumstances, most of them to be buried in mass graves, one account that they died of a cholera pandemic, while others say that they were massacred by Protestant nativists. Recent excavations and research has shown forensic evidence that more than a few of these 57 workers, were indeed murdered, by gunshot, and blunt force trauma, to the head. Additionally, many of those buried in unmarked mass graves, died due to the refusal of anti-Irish nativist locals , to allow them proper medical care:

“You’d thought you’d be in heaven, where the streets are paved with gold,

But you found yourself on a railway line, digging ditches in the cold...

There were 57 men, and 57 dreams

And 57 bodies in the ground, from evil schemes..”

A better song, in my opinion, by far, than the Willy Page “Duffys Cut” song that Christy Moore and others have covered, its also the best ballad on the tragedy of immigration and xenophobia, ever written. Fair play to the Mickey Finns, who can party hard and than get dead serious with you, and who’ve created one of the finest Irish Rock n’ Roll albums that I have ever heard. And believe me, I’ve heard many !

 

 -- Rory Dub., Radio Rebel Gael