Category: June Tabor


Subgenre Coverfolk: Celtic Punk from The Pogues, Dropkick Murphys, Black 47 and more!

March 12th, 2008 — 09:15 am

Now with added Pogues goodness!



Here’s a tiny St. Paddy’s Day subgenre for you: Celtic punk, a genre arguably invented by The Pogues, though surely influenced by both the “British” folkrock invasion and the early punk music of The Clash.

To truly explore the broader implications of this musical form requires deep understanding of many factors: the Irish diaspora, the evolution of fusion forms in music, the confluence of post-punk folk and the adolescent mindset, the modern commercialism of St. Patrick’s Day. Such scope is beyond the purview of any blog. But considering the genre as a form of folk sheds new light on what is increasingly a sound recognizable from Galway to Graceland.

Though genre originators The Pogues came at Celtic punk from the streetpunk movement of our parents’ generation, Celtic punk is also legitimately a subset of folk punk, a category which also includes folk rockers The Weakerthans and the early work of Billy Bragg, and is characterized by a sneering, often politicized attitude, high-energy performance, and electrified speed, even in unplugged mode. To this, Celtic punk adds the traditional instruments of Celtic rock music — guitar, pipes, fiddle, bodhran, and the occasional squeezebox — and the song structure and lyrical trope of the traditional Irish folk form.

The result is as diverse as it is distinctive. The definable sonic sector that is Celtic punk includes everything from slightly lilted folk rock ballads to traditional jigs at moshpit speed. Yet despite the differences, the realm is still definable for its lyrical ground in the plight of the working class, and — perhaps more obvious to the layperson — its worldbeat sound, full of high pipes and the unmistakable trope of the Irish pubsong.

As a fusion of multiple small-scale subgenres itself, it is no surprise that it is hard to find pure examples of the form. But the small number of pure Celtic punk bands is balanced by the large number of musicians who combine the basic elements of the subgenre. These essential elements are, after all, indigenous to everywhere from Halifax to Boston to the Emerald Isle herself. Where you find political dissatisfaction, post-rock young folks, venues that serve Guinness, and a critical mass of Irish musicians, inevitably, you’re going to get something a lot like Celtic punk.

Today, a short set of tunes from a few bands who define the genre cluster, capture the Celtic punk style, and display a folkpunk political sensibility. Those expecting thrashpunk may be surprised — though some Celtic punk retains the hard edge of its forefathers, it is sensibility, not hardcore sound, that ultimately lends the punk moniker to the majority of the musical form in a post-Pogues world. Nonetheless, those who come to Cover Lay Down for mellow tradfolk might prefer to skip down to today’s bonus song section, which includes a few sparser, slower covers of songs originally written and performed by The Pogues.

Today’s bonus coversongs, for the more mellow among us:

We’ll be back Sunday with more music appropriate for a folk coverblog on St. Patrick’s Day. In the meanwhile, click on links above to purchase the works of these artists direct from the source.

Folkfans looking for more Irish drinking songs should also head on over to the always-excellent Setting the Woods on Fire for more from The Pogues, The Dubliners, and The Clancy Brothers, plus some great tradfolk from the Emerald Isle!

Previous Subgenre Coverfolk Features:

  • Bluegrass
  • Zydeco

  • 1,309 comments » | Black 47, Dropkick Murphys, Great Big Sea, June Tabor, Subgenre Coverfolk, The Pogues, The Tami Show, Young Dubliners

    (Re)Covered: More folk covers of Britney, Lou Reed, Chris Smither, Amazing Grace

    November 9th, 2007 — 10:15 am

    In order to maintain quality over quantity, this is our last regular Friday post here at Cover Lay Down; from now on, you’ll still get ten or more carefully vetted songs a week, but with a few notable exceptions (holidays, the occasional Folk Family Friday), posts will appear on Sundays and Wednesdays.

    Today, for a “final” Friday post, we recover a few songs that dropped through the cracks just a little too late to make it into the posts where they belonged. Ladies and Gentlemen: our last regular Friday, our first (Re)Covered.

    My Halloween post on Britney Spears folk-covers seems to have started a trend: if you haven’t already, head on over to Cover Freak and new blog Cover Me for a whole mess o’ popcovers from across the musical spectrum. Especially recommended for folkfans: Shawn Colvin‘s cover of Gnarls Barkley summersong Crazy, Matt Weddle’s reinterpretation of Outcast hit Hey Ya, the term “Pop Tart” to describe a certain type of female pop singer. Not recommended: Nickel Creek’s cover of Toxic, which I download and delete every few months — it was probably hilariously wonderful in concert, but the recording suffers from some abysmal recording quality.

    But the popcover flood isn’t over yet: in addition to sparking a coverblog meme, my own post brought several direct submissions out of the ether. You’ll see a few of these in future posts; in the meantime, here’s a few of the best Britney Spears covers I received in the past few days:

    • Irish folkrocker Glen Hansard of the Frames covers Britney’s Everytime (Thanks, Rose!)
    • Another chilling version of Toxic from Dutch folkgoddess Stevie Ann, this one in-studio and sans sax (Thanks, the_red_shoes!)
    • More from Guuzbourg:
      • a light sweet version of Toxic from the Chapin Sisters
      • a Klezmer-esque Toxic from Global Kryner.

    In other news, I also found a great “bonus” for last week’s Lou Reed folk coverpost while flipping through some old entries in retropsychadeliablog Garden of Delights. June Tabor and The Oyster Band’s 1990 version of Velvet Underground classic All Tomorrow’s Parties has strong ties to the traditional Irish/British countrysongs at the core of folk rock as first defined by Pentangle, Donovan, and Steeleye Span in the 1970s.

    • June Tabor and The Oyster Band, All Tomorrow’s Parties

    After weeks of scouring local public libraries, I finally found Bonnie Raitt’s absolutely marvelous cover of Chris Smither‘s I Feel The Same and the produced version of his Love Me Like A Man on her 1990 retrospective The Bonnie Raitt Collection. I’ve loved this pair of covers ever since I was a kid; listening to them again brings me right back to the hardwood floor in front of my father’s stereo, carefully sliding records out of their sleeves. I posted a live version of the latter last week, but the produced versions are better.

    • Bonnie Raitt, I Feel The Same
    • Bonnie Raitt, Love Me Like A Man

    Had I began researching this week’s post on folksong lullabies earlier, I would have discovered classicalfolk guitarist and composer John T. La Barbera‘s version of Who’s Goin’ To Shoe Your Pretty Little Foot in time to include it in my post on Amazing Grace and the folk/gospel tradition. They’re not the same song, but the music is almost identical; for the first half a minute, La Barbera’s soft, gorgeously lush instrumental could be either.

    • John La Barbera, Who’s Goin’ To Shoe Your Pretty Little Foot (trad.)

    Finally, thanks to all who send, tout, and post music — keep those afterpost suggestions coming in, folks! And don’t forget to come back on Sunday for a very special ten-song feature on the folkier side of Beck!


    798 comments » | (Re)Covered, Amazing Grace, Bonnie Raitt, Britney Spears, Chapin Systers, Chris Smither, Glen Hansard, Global Kryner, John La Barbera, June Tabor, Lou Reed, Oysterband, Stevie Ann