ALBUM REVIEW: THE CLAN- ‘All In The Name Of Folk’ (2016)

The Clan. As influenced by AC/DC , punk rock and traditional Irish folk music!

We have now been at this for so long that we have recently been doing album reviews of bands that we have already featured before and The Clan are one of those bands. Back in December 2014 we reviewed  (here) their superb self-titled debut album and boy did we rave on and on about how good it was! Well this is the follow up to that and we can confirm that it is indeed equally good, if not better!

The Clan hail from the small town of Muggiò in the province of Lombardy in the north of Italy and have only been together since 2013. Maybe its a Catholic thing but their has always been a good relationship between the Irish and the Italians. I can’t speak for America (maybe one of our US readers can fill us in but I did hear their was a lot inter-marriage between us) but here in England we got on fine. A couple of my best mates at Catholic school were Italians and they were big Celtic fans too. Their has always been a lot of traffic between Ireland and Italy and so I suppose it’s only natural that some Italians will find solace in Irish music. It’s also clear that Italy’s top celtic bands like The Clan, Kitchen Implosion, Dirty Artichokes and Uncle Bard And The Dirty Bastards all have that same deep love for Ireland and it’s culture and musical traditions.

All In The Name Of Folk hit the streets the day after this years St Patrick’s Day on the 18 March which as many of you I’m sure will know it’s the a day not particularly well known to many Irish people! It came out on OnAirish Records and lasts nearly fifty minutes and where as their debut album was a straight up 50/50 mix of traditional folk covers and originals I am especially glad to report that apart from one brilliantly amazing cover these are all The Clan’s own songs.

The album begins with the sound of an ocean in ‘Overture’ which features the first of their many guests, the self taught bagpiper and whistle player, Iain Alexander Marr of The Sidh. A highly original and innovative Italian band whose combination of contemporary and electronic celtic music has led to plaudits galore. It’s a slow dirge with military style drumming that soon explodes into The Clan’s signature tune ‘Folk ‘N’ Roll’ where Iain again guests on the pipes and it’s pure 110% celtic-punk-rock!!! Utterly brilliant with a tonne and a half of energy that bursts out the speakers at you. They follow this up with ‘Second Chances’ and we are joined by fiddle and banjo and with no let up at all with Angel Rock’s vocals shining through. ‘Let Me Go’ features good mate of the band and TV and radio personality and rock star Andrea Rock and again it comes off brilliantly. ‘Jenny Porter’ was the first song they released to the world off the album via the superb video below. An absolute blinder and it has to be said that The Clan do make bloody good videos. Get yourself a beer and a pack of biscuits and be sure to check out their YouTube channel below and treat yourselves.

I don’t have a clue who Jenny Porter (bar that she’s the “queen of the pub”) is but she must be well chuffed to have such a kick-ass song written about her. The album continues with the instrumental ‘Whole Lotta Jig’ featuring one of Italy’s foremost flutists and expert Irish flute player Tommaso Tornielli. The song is yer proper authentic Irish folk jig that if I hadn’t just told you you’d have never have guessed it was played by Italians. ‘Irish Sky’ has a Poguesy feel to it led as it is by the tin whistle while ‘Angel of the Sea’ is one of those swirling around on the dance floor moments with yer arms wrapped around friends and foe alike while yer beer spills down someone’s back and grand it is too. It features Francesco Moneti fiddle player of the amazing Modena City Ramblers and has a seriously good Waterboys sound to it. ‘Horns up and Fight’ turns the volume up again kicking off with the pipes and the fastest/punkiest song on the album is heading yer way. ‘Ulysses and the Siren’ keeps the speed up but is much more traditional based while ‘Reel O’Fire’ is another class instrumental featuring both Stefano Iascone and Jacopo Ventura and comes up trumps again with a trad number that is simply outstanding with the great addition of trumpet making it stand out loud and proud. It’s possibly the best song here and shows The Clan at what they do best. ‘Home of My Heart’ slows the pace down a little but still sounds perfect Clan! They save maybe not the best for last but certainly the two songs that will stand out among the majority of celtic-punk fans. ‘True Story’ featuring the #1 geezer in celtic-punk Francis McLaughlin of Aussie band The Rumjacks who need no introduction and Frankie’s dulcet tones dominate the song as per usual everything this Bhoy turns his hand is simply magnificent and finally the album comes to an end with another Aussie connection. You may heard ‘It’s a Long Way to the Top’ before especially as just recently its been all over Facebook as performed by the brilliant AC/DC on the back of a van driving down some street in Australia (check it out here). Their are bagpipes in the original and I guess we could definitely consider it celtic-rock (even celtic-punk) these days but The Clan add to it some fiddles and mandolin among the pipes and crank the rock up too making this the perfect ending to a great album. If you can please excuse my language for a moment IT FUCKING ROCKS!!!

A fantastic album and, as others have written, a definite contender for those end of year Best Of polls. This is perhaps not ‘celtic-punk’ in as much as it is Irish-punk as their love of Irish music seeps through every pore of All In The Name Of Folk. Not a single bad track here in fact the absolute opposite. This is how celtic-punk should be played with love and respect for the past and a eye to to the future and all the time keeping it relevant for everyone from yer old folkie with a finger jammed in his ear to the young skate punker sitting in his bedroom annoying the hell out of his parents with his music. Get this album it’s far too good to miss out on!

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