It's a Blackthorn Thing
Philly's most popular Irish rock band takes a big step forward
with its first CD of original material, The Other Side
by Frank Lewis
Paul Moore is worried. You can see it in his face. Blackthorn is running through a
sound check in the otherwise empty Theater of the Living Arts on South Street and
playing with characteristic precision and energy. But Moore, the lead vocalist,
sounds off-key on certain lines; on others, he skips words. With every misstep, he
grimaces and shakes his head.
He can't hear himself, he explains to a technician when the song ends. As they
discuss the problem, a voice calls from backstage: "Five minutes to doors."
This does not lighten the expression on Moore's face.
This is not stage fright, exactly. Moore has performed live more times than he can
count, and has sang and played rhythm guitar with Blackthorn since 1990. Tonight,
however, is special. Tonight, the band releases its third CD, its first containing all
original material.
The Other Side, as the CD is titled, is a big step for Blackthorn, perhaps its biggest
yet. Through a combination of talent, persistence and niche marketing, Moore and
bandmates John McGroary, John Boyce, Mike O'Callaghan and Seamus Kelleher
have developed an unusually large, diverse and devout following for an
ethnic-flavored cover band. They could easily coast for many more years playing
"Come Out Ye Black and Tans," The Pogues' "Dirty Old Town" and the occasion
non-sequitur like the audience-participatory "Alice."
But instead, the band has chosen the rather risky path of writing and recording its
own music. Tonight is the release party. Hence the look on poor Paul's face.
The opening of the doors is delayed briefly (a crowd already is forming on the
sidewalk outside the TLA) while the technicians sort out the sound problem. The
band bangs out one from the new CD, "Backyard," and this time Moore can hear
himself. He appears much more relaxed as the band leaves the stage so that the
crowd can be let in.
Blackthorn didn't happen over night. Moore, a native of
Philadelphia's Frankford section, and McGroary, of Upper Darby, Pa., began
playing together in the late 1980s, as the guitarist and accordionist, respectively, for
a three-man traditional/folk act called Blarney Stone.
"It was a great experience for a young musician," Moore says of the band's weekly
performances at Emmett's in Northeast Philadelphia. "People would throw every
request in the book at you and you'd try your best to please them. I was barely legal
and I don't think McGroary was even 18 at the time."
By 1990, Moore and McGroary wanted to broaden their range. They decided to
form a new band, with musicians Rob Calvert and McGroary's brother, Danny.
Calling themselves Blackthorn, they began playing in pubs in and around the city,
adding songs by modern Irish performers like The Pogues and U2 to Moore and
John McGroary's largely traditional set.
But Calvert and Danny McGroary soon found the demands of regular rehearsals
and performances to be too much for their schedules, and quit the band. As luck
would have it, however, keyboard player John Boyce of Upper Darby an old friend
of McGroary's recently had left The Atlantic Connection, another local Irish pop
band, because co-founder Patsy Ward had returned to Ireland.
At first, Boyce turned down McGroary and Moore's offer to join Blackthorn. "I just
wanted a change from the Irish music for a while," he explains. He agreed to play
with the band for a month, until they found someone else. Seven years later, he's
still Blackthorn keyboardist.
Boyce gave Blackthorn the rock and roll spark Moore and McGroary had been
looking for. But they all agreed they needed a drummer. And not just any drummer
someone who could switch seamlessly from rock to traditional and back again.
Frank Reynolds of the band Misty Isle told the guys about Mike O'Callaghan, a
County Kerry native who had once played on the same bill as "an up and coming
band called U2." O'Callaghan had left his first American home, Boston, for
Philadelphia in 1986, then dropped out of the Boston-based band Irish Express in
1989 after a wrist injury left him unable to play for a year. He was drumming for an
oldies band when Blackthorn called. Intrigued by the band's increasingly
wide-ranging repertoire, and by the possibility of recording original music someday,
he accepted the offer.
Blackthorn, left to right:
Paul Moore, John Boyce, Seamus Kelleher, Mike O'Callaghan and John McGroary.
Now possessing all the basic elements of a rock band, Blackthorn began to take off.
Thanks to a steady schedule of appearances in bars, AOH halls and Irish festivals
throughout the Philadelphia region and sometimes beyond the band built a fan base
as diverse as the Irish-American community itself. Then, as now, the audience's
average age was difficult to calculate; even in the pubs, there were always
significant numbers of fans old enough to be the parents or grandparents of the
20-somethings crowding the stage.
In 1993 the band released its first CD, It's an Irish Thing, a sampling of covers.
The crowds at the band's shows grew larger and even more diverse. Two years
later they released Here We Go Again.
But while fans might not have noticed, the second CD only served to make more
obvious the band's need for a lead guitarist. "We had trouble covering U2 and the
like because I was an acoustic rhythm guitarist," says Moore. So he approached
Seamus Kelleher, who had stopped touring with Sean Flemming the same year
because he needed a break from the music grind. Blackthorn and Kelleher had
crossed paths many times before, as they frequently played the same venues.
"I never intended to join the band when I first sat in," recalls Kelleher, a Galway
native who commutes from his home in New York for gigs. "But the more I played
the more I considered joining permanently. I really started enjoying the music scene
again."
The Other Side wasn't conceived as an all-original CD, but as a
combination of original tunes and covers. But when producer John Whelan heard
the band's material, he urged them to write more. Moore resisted the idea, at first.
"It pushed things back six months," he says "and challenged me to come up with
more material, but I feel it was worth it. It's ironic that I was the last hold out
[opposed to doing] all originals because I wound up writing a lot of the lyrics for
them. I think I was comfortable with the cover songs we did at the time, but as
Seamus said, `They've all be done before.' In the end, I'm very glad the boys
convinced me."
Not that it was easy. Despite this being the band's third CD, the members found the
process quite different, and rather challenging.
"We never gave each other input on what or how to play a song or tune before this
album," says McGroary. "Everybody kind of did their own thing, and that was good
enough. With the original material, we all got involved more in deciding what we
wanted."
"Some songs, such as `The Drummer's Gotta Go,' really beat us up," adds Boyce.
"That song was written over two years ago and we must have went through 10
different versions, musically, of that song, ranging from traditional-sounding to New
Age-rave-sounding. After pulling most of our hair out, we finally ended up with an
up-tempo dance beat mix.
"Other songs, such as `Road to Anglesea,' went from thought to [recording] in less
than a week."
"Road to Anglesea," incidentally, is one of several songs peppered with local
references. "Anglesea" in fact is an appropriately upbeat stream-of-consciousness
account chock full of what appear to be inside jokes of the wildly popular Irish
weekend festival that Blackthorn plays every September at the Jersey Shore. "No
Way To Go But Up" mentions Kensington and Morey's Pier; "Only Place Open In
Town" refers to Fishtown and the "El," SEPTA's Market-Frankford elevated train.
Then there are several songs that came from more purely Irish inspirations. "Kerry
Rain," which leads off the album, is about a wayward soul's longing for his rainy
homeland. "Granuaile" is the tale of "the pirate queen of Ireland. And the three
instrumentals "Put the Kettle On / Between the Ditches," "Hugh O'Donnell's
Escape" and "Fresh Squeeze" all written by McGroary could easily have been the
work of contemporary Irish artists. (McGroary has been playing the button
accordion since childhood, and it shows. He's a gifted musician.)
Overall, this is a fun and well-produced album worthy of a place in your collection
alongside the band's heroes, like The Saw Doctors and The Pogues. (In the liner
notes, Larry Kirwan of Ireland's Black 47 writes: "Blackthorn have delivered the
record I always knew they were capable of. They have finally come into their own
and merit serious consideration.") Only two songs "No Way to Go But Up" and
"Granuaile" don't hold up. They're more pop than rock, and just come off as less
inspired than the rest of the songs.
But that still leaves 10 reasons to check out this CD. There's an impressive
assortment of styles and stories here, from the somber ode to the bravery of Irish
immigrants "Lady Liberty," to the techno-poppish and slightly condescending "The
Drummer's Gotta Go," to the satirical but rocking "Backyard." The final track,
"Ballad of the 15B," is an absolute gem, a simple yet surprisingly touching song
about a bittersweet chance encounter that clearly came from Moore's heart.
"I am overwhelmed with the quality and professionalism of the album," says Boyce.
"As hard as it is to judge one's own creation, I really like it. But we'll have to wait
for feedback from the public to be sure."
That feedback also will help determine Blackthorn's next
step. In early 1997, Moore told an interviewer the band was content playing the
local circuit, with occasional trips to other cities and to Ireland. Now, however, the
answers to "What's next?" are beginning to sound different.
"We'd like to bring our musical creations across the nation and even across the
ocean," says Boyce. "We don't want to be kept a secret. As much as I enjoy
listening to music from other bands, I'd like people to enjoy listening to us."
"`Irish' is cool in America at this time," says Moore, "and we've been around from
the beginning of this revival and helped contribute to its evolution, especially in
Philly. So if someone presented us with a plan to go national or international, I think
we'd be able to handle it.
"But right now I'm just waiting for reaction to our originals and getting ready for the
next gig so I can have some fun."
For information about Blackthorn shows, see the band's web site.
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