Well here we go again. It only seems like five minutes since I was compiling all the votes into last years Best Of that saw The Rumjacks romping home with Album Of The Year. This year has been a bit quieter on the Celtic-Punk front but as last year was so busy that is perhaps not surprising. That’s not to say their weren’t some fantastic releases as their were plenty and it was still really difficult to come up with the various lists below. Not so many big bands this year so it was left to the lesser known bands to shine but remember this is only our opinion and these releases are only the tip of the iceberg of what came out last year. Feel free to comment, slag off or dissect our lists. As a bonus we are adding the Readers Poll again this year so you can even vote on your favourite release of 2019 yourself. If it’s not listed then simply add your choice.
We don’t pretend to be the final word as that my friends is for you…
(click on the green link to go where you will find more information on the release)
1. THE WALKER ROADERS – Self Titled
2. MICKEY RICKSHAW – Home In Song
3. FEROCIOUS DOG – Fake News And Propaganda
4. GREENLAND WHALEFISHERS – Based On A True Story
5. BARLEYJUICE – The Old Speakeasy
6. THE NARROWBACKS – By Hook Or By Crook
7. McDERMOTTS TWO HOURS – Besieged
8. PIPES AND PINTS – The Second Chapter
9. THE RUMJACKS – Live In Athens
10. SELFISH MURPHY – After Crying
11. TORTILLA FLAT – Live At The Old Capitol
12. FIDDLERS GREEN – Heyday
13. THE RUMJACKS – Live In London Acoustic Sessions
14. THE WHIPJACKS – This Wicked World
15. 13 KRAUSS – Redención
16. ALTERNATIVE ULSTER – Craic Agus Ceol
17. AIRES BASTARDOS – Self Titled
18. THE TEMPLARS OF DOOM – Hovels Of The Holy
19. THE FIGHTING JAMESONS – A Moment In California
20. ANGRY McFINN AND THE OLD YANK – Songs of Whiskey, Women & War
21. THE SHILLELAGHS – Ripples In The Rye
22. HELLRAISERS AND BEERDRINKERS – Pub Crawl
23. BODH’AKTAN – De Temps Et De Vents
24. HEATHEN APOSTLES – Dust To Dust
25. SONS OF CLOGGER – Return To The Stones’
26. THE CHERRY COKE$ – Old Fox
27. THE FILTHY SPECTACULA – The Howl Of The Underclasses
28. THE POTATO PIRATES – Hymns For The Wayward
29. TC COSTELLO– Horizon Songs
30. THE TENBAGS – ‘Bags o’ Craic’
How to compete with last year? Every single top band in the genre released an album so things were always going to be a bit quieter for 2019. Top spot this year unsurprisingly goes to The Walker Roaders Celtic-Punk super group! With Pogues, Mollys and Dropkicks making up the team how could they possibly go wrong! Everyone’s ‘next big thing’ Mickey Rickshaw came in a well deserved second and Ferocious Dog took third after releasing their best album, for me, since From Without. Greenland Whalefishers celebrated 25 years on the road with their best album for quite a while and what Best Of would be right without some bloody brilliant Irish-American bands challenging at the top too. Pipes And Pints new album with a new singer received acclaim from across the Punk media and The Rumjacks couldn’t follow up last years unanimous victory despite having two album releases (both sort of live) in the top thirteen. Fiddlers Green continue to make consistently great albums and go into 2020 celebrating thirty years together! Good to see homegrown bands The Whipjacks, The Tenbags, The Filthy Spectacula and Sons Of Clogger making it too. The top thirty was made up of thirteen countries from USA, England, Norway, Czech Republic, Australia, Switzerland, Germany, Argentina, Japan, Quebec, Hungary, Spain and Japan.
1. THE LUCKY TROLLS – Self Titled
2. DRUNKEN DOLLY – The Party
3. LORETTA PROBLEM – The Waltz Of My Drunken Dream
4. THE CLOVERHEARTS – Sick
5. KRAKIN’ KELLYS – Irish Tribute
6. THE PLACKS – Rebellious Sons
7. GYPSY VANNER – Five Distilled Celtic Punks
8. THE RUMPLED – Grace O’ Malley
9. FOX’N’FIRKIN – Hey Ho! We’re Fox n Firkin
10. SHANGHAI TREASON – Devil’s Basement
The Lucky Trolls took #1 spot with their brilliant self-titled EP following on from fellow countrymen the Krakin’ Kellys multi award winning 2018. Trust me it would have taken an exceptionally good release to keep The Party by Drunken Dolly off the top spot but that is what happened. Dolly’s excursions over to these shores this year j=has seen them grown in stature and you can’t go to a Ferocious Dog gig without spotting at least a dozen of their shirts. Loretta Problem wowed us with their single ‘Waltz Of My Drunken Dream’ which took us right back back to The Pogues glory days and what about that accompanying video too!! If we had a award for best video then that would have walked it. The Kellys had a quiet year with comparison to ’18 but still managed a respectable #5 and great debut releases from The Placks our sole representative from a Celtic nation (big things are going to happen to this band in 2020 mark my words), Italian/Aussies The Cloverhearts and, from just down the road from my Mammy, Shanghai Treason from Sheffield who only put out one song… but what a song! Eight countries represented from Belgium, Netherlands, Finland, Italy, Scotland, Argentina, Australia and Yorkshire!
AIRES BASTARDOS– ‘Self-Titled’
Argentina is becoming a bit of a hot-spot for Celtic-Punk with not only some well established bands but also some new ones starting up too and with this release Aires Bastardos announced their arrival on the international scene too. Not afraid to dive straight into a folk number after a Cock Sparrer cover they veer from standard Celtic-Punk to Folk and back to fast as hell Punk but in that really accessible way that only Celtic-Punk (and maybe Ska-Punk) bands can do.
1. THE DREADNOUGHTS – Into The North
2. CROCK OF BONES – Celtic Crossbones
3. 6’10 – Where We Are
4. BRYAN McPHERSON – Kings Corner
5. CALLUM HOUSTON – Gravities
6. PYROLYSIS – Daylight Is Fading
7. SEAMUS EGAN – Early Bright
8. LE VENT DU NORD – Territoires
9. DONNY ZUZULA – Chemicals
10. DERVISH – Great Irish Songbook
The Dreadnoughts don’t really think of themselves as Celtic-Punk so I reckon they’d be happier to win this than Celtic-Punk Album Of The Year. A superb collection of sea shanties that is a pleasure to listen to that was always going to be #1. Crock Of Bones representing the London Irish in 2nd with an album of trad folk with punk rock attitude and it’s especially good to hear some originals done in the style of the ‘auld ways’. 6’10 challenged for the top spot as they always do with everything they release and Bryan MacPherson and Callum Houston both produced great releases of singer-songwriter acoustic folk with Irish roots.
Sadly the Celtic-Punk world has shrunk a little regarding Web-Sites. Winners of the last two years the Mersey Celt Punks have been slacking (sort it out lads!) and enjoying their gigs too much to tell us while Shite’n’Onions have been too busy transferring everything onto a different platform and preparing for a bit of a re-launch I expect. Sadly celtic-rock.de have shut up shop after twelve 
years so it just makes it all the more clear how much we all miss Waldo and his fantastic Celtic-Folk-Punk And More site. As regular as clockwork and all the news that was ever fit (or not!) to print. Closing down the site in its 10th year in March must have been a tough decision to make and so this year we award best Website to Waldo and let it be known that no Celtic-Punk site will ever come close to replacing you. We would certainly not exist without his kind help and inspiration. All the best comrade enjoy your retirement! One welcome addition is Michu and his Celtic-Punk Encyclopedia site from Poland. Worth checking out especially if you are in a band.
We are not alone in doing these Best Of 2019 lists in fact all the major players in celtic-punk do them so click below to check out what they thought.
THE CELTIC PUNKCAST
FOLK’N’ROCK
MERSEY CELT PUNKS
So there you go. Remember we don’t pretend to be the final word on things in fact if you check the other Celtic-Punk media I’m sure we’ve all come up with relatively different lists. Our Best Of’s are cajoled and bullied out of the admins from the London Celtic Punks Facebook page. The assorted scraps of paper and beer mats were then tallied up please remember not all of us heard the same albums so like all the various Best Of’s ours is also subjective.
This is our 8th year of making these Best Of lists so if you would like to check out out who was where in our previous ones then just click on the link below the relevant year.
Last year we introduced a new feature THE READERS PICK. We had no idea if it would work or not but it was a raging success so we going to do it all again this year. With well over 500 votes cast you lot chose the debut album from the Krakin’ Kellys as a worthy winner. Only the Top Ten albums are listed but there is an option to write in your favourite release or just to send us love… or abuse!
You are allowed to vote twice but not for the same artist.
The Poll will close at midnight on Friday 31st January with the result announced soon after.
remember any views, comments or abuse or slander we would love to hear it…
Sláinte, The London Celtic Punks Crew- January, 2020
LONDON CELTIC PUNKS WEB-ZINE 
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