Same Again Tomorrow is the new full length album from Kilmaine Saints. Featuring thirteen songs of high energy Celtic Rock and Punk, this album is a statement from a band taking their sound to the next level.
It’s been an incredible six years since The Kilmaine Saints released their last studio album Whiskey Blues & Faded Tattoos. I say incredible as it doesn’t seem that long at all especially as they are a band that have never been far from my play list at home ever since I heard their brilliantly titled 2010 debut album The Good The Plaid And The Ugly, complete with tartan cover. Same Again Tomorrow is their fourth full original album and seventh release overall. Easily one of the better known Celtic-Punk bands outside the ‘big guns’ they have played hundreds and hundreds of shows across the States at pubs and festivals from New Jersey to California, several critically acclaimed releases,especially here at London Celtic Punks, national and international airplay and an ever-expanding and extremely loyal fan base, it’s no wonder even those outside the Celtic-Punk world are starting to take notice.
The Kilmaine Saints was the brainchild of two members of Harrisburg Pipe & Drum band and like many a devious Irishmen before them they were formed with the idea of playing a solitary St. Patrick’s day gig and after playing and taking the free beer on offer and a fair amount of beer tokens the guys realised their could be more to it with the help of fellow members from the pipe band and other notable musicians from the area, they realised the locals were crying out for a band full of Irish swagger, Scottish pride, and whiskey. Since 2009 they have entertained with blistering, high-energy live sets that have their fans singing along, stomping their feet, lifting their pints and shouting for more.
The album kicks off with ‘Fanfare’ and unsurprisingly for guys who met playing bagpipes the pipes are to the fore from the very first bars. It’s very much what to expect from The Kilmaine Saints. Powerful Irish based Folk music complete with pipes and mandolin and intelligent clever and often witty lyrics. The opener is pure instrumental magic that the guys now open their live sets with while the next is title track ‘Same Again Tomorrow’ and Brendan Powers distinctive vocals lead the song through a tale of a bar that many of us call home. ‘Siobhan’ is a fast rocker of a song. Fiddle led and with great lyrics about a feisty and fiery Irish-American lass that Erich said about writing it
“When this song comes on the jukebox I want all the women to jump out of their seats and all the men to cross their legs.”
You can always find a few interesting covers on a Saints album and no exception here with The Animals ‘House Of The Rising Sun’. The kind of song you’ll know even if you think you don’t it’s had a few covers over the years but here it’s played fast and reverential and no doubt it’s a fear crowd pleaser. Completely going back on what I said earlier they did in fact release a mini album of acoustic versions of older songs back in 2020 called Off The Wagon – Acoustic Sessions and that featured a couple of new songs which appears here, ‘Off The Wagon’. The tune flits from Disney favourite to Irish jig and back in just over two minutes and is typical Kilmaine Saints. These guys can write a serious song and have done many times but its the love of a good time that dominates and their sense of humour shines through here. ‘McGowan’s Wake’ also appeared on Acoustic Sessions and carries on the humour but in a bitter sweet tribute to the Godfather of Celtic-Punk that imagines Shane asking the Kilmaine Saints to pay their wake when he finally leaves this mortal coil. It’s an incredibly moving and beautiful song and if Shane is reading this then their is no better band to do it.
‘Throwin’ Hands’ is pure Celtic-Punk heaven with bagpipes, fiddle and mandolin leading in a song about honour and respect and never walking away without giving it all your all. The sounds of a bar and bodhrán light up the start of ‘The Plight’ in a catchy humorous number about the plight of the drinking class as Oscar Wilde would have said. While the ‘new’ Irish middle class pour (!) scorn on the drinking culture of the poor I dare say you need a drink a lot more if you been working outside in all conditions or in a factory than if you been leaning over a computer. ‘Nomad’ is another fast upbeat number while the guys give us a history lesson of Irish-America in ‘Rally ‘Round The Flag’. Now as i already may have hinted I love bloody love a good drinking song but bands like this really tell their history well.
“They sent us to the big war
To remind us what we’re fighting for
In the wood the call the Rogue Bouquet our blood it stained the ground
The screams of death were all around
Souls were lost and never found
Entombed in peace for eternity within the trench they held their ground”
The song is about the famed Fighting 69th Regiment formed in New York City initially as a State Militia unit. It served with distinction in every major campaign since the Civil War. Facing them in battle, Gen. Robert E. Lee was responsible for giving them their nickname when he referred to them as “That Fighting Sixty-Ninth.” Brendan says
“I loved the reference to their bravery during the Civil War, and loved the use of their battle cry. I wanted to add more to their story. I referenced a poem called the Rogue Bouquet by Joyce Kilmer. Sadly he was killed during the battle of Rogue Bouquet Wood during WWI. His Poem was read during the funeral of the fallen soldiers in France.”
As I’ve often said a great Celtic-Punk album needs a couple of things. Drinking songs, emigration songs and a nice bit of trad are some of them and a good ballad is also one of them and ‘State I’m In’ is it. The song is twelve years old and Brendan had written the lyrics without a tune in mind and then for Same Again Tomorrow it just came together as a real team effort. A beautifully sad song about love and loss and again absolute classic Kilmaine Saints that could be my favourite here. Nearly time for the curtain call and ‘Undivided’ is an anthem for all of us that are sick of divisiveness. Too many people are focused on what makes of different and when will we realise we have way more in common than not. A great song that leads us into the 13th track and as we came in we go out with an outstanding instrumental. ‘The Blood Of Cu Chulainn’ is utterly fantastic tune and Gary’s fiddle leads us out magnificently.
(The opening hour long set from The Kilmaine Saints at Mauch Chunk Opera House in Jim Thorpe Pennsylvanian on March 11th 2023)
A brilliant album from the Kilmaine Saints that comes as no surprise to me in that everything they have ever released is brilliant too! Most of the recording process was done in the DIY style, utilising home studios (drums were recorded at The Kaleidoscope in Lancaster, PA) and guitarist Erich led production and mixing while the final mixes were mastered by Mike Monsour at Axis Audio- Nashville, TN. Their sound combines the usual elements of what we like here at London Celtic Punks – traditional Celtic music with Punk and harder edged rock, but not many in the Celtic-Puink do it as well as The Kilmaine Saints do. Many bands songs are based on the same formula of fast-paced energetic instrumentation with powerful vocals but The Kilmaine Saints just do it better than the vast majority.
Buy Same Again Tomorrow (Pre-Release. Out April14th) FromThe Band
At current rates you would have to listen to Same Again Tomorrow 513 times for them to earn $20 from Spotify. It’s cool to bash Spotify, but while their pay structure is questionable, they spread the bands music to a huge audience they wouldn’t reach otherwise. So keep streaming, but if you want to support The Kilmaine Saints and other artists you love, buy their directly from the band when possible.
Contact The Kilmaine Saints WebSite Facebook Bandcamp YouTube Instagram
THE MUCKERS have 
Words can’t describe how happy we are to be able to put on BRYAN McPHERSON. Eight years on from his first and only visit to these shores it’s been a long time coming. Born and raised on the mean streets of Dorchester, a blue collar working-class Irish-American Catholic neighbourhood in Boston, that was also home to half the members of the original Dropkick Murphys. He was inspired at a young age by the raw energy and angst of Punk Rock, as well as the lyrically driven American folk songs of the early 1960’s. His first performances were street corners, house parties, and subway stations in Boston’s inner city. In 2001 he burst onto the acoustic music scene, he has played the length and breadth of North America and was recently spotted opening up for the Dropkick Murphys’ at their famed St. Patrick’s shows in Boston. This is passionate, acoustic-punk from the heart. Street life, politics, addiction and moments of beauty, anguish, clarity and dissent litter the alleys of McPherson’s songs. Recently he was awarded the #1 Folk/ Roots Album Of 2022 on the London Celtic Punks web-zine. The words are as honest as they are urgent…every second counts!
The response to the new London Celtic Punks badge has been amazing. Not surprising really as they are just about the nicest bit of merchandise in Celtic-Punk if you ask me! Comes with butterfly clip and made in Ireland (Guaranteed Irish!) available for just £5 – UK and £7 – EU post-paid and we’ll throw in a few stickers and a button badge too. For further overseas contact us and we’ll work it out. Send to Paypal (friends & family) to 
The Swamp Rabbit Accordion Festival in South Carolina at the end of the month has had to be re-branded as The Swamp Rabbit Celtic-Punk Festival after several cancellations forced the hand of TC COSTELLO. Currently whooping it up in Madrid TC will be back home soon so if you are anywhere nearby be sure to spread the news.
BATALLON DE SAN PATRICIO- 
Formed in Central Pennsylvania when two members of the Harrisburg Pipe & Drum with a mutual love of the flourishing Irish-American Celtic-Punk scene decided to kick something off with the aim of getting them free beers at local St. Patrick’s Day shows. Well from small acorns they have blossomed into a band that has always stood just a small step away from Celtic-Punk stardom. One of only a few American bands whose fame has translated into overseas success and it’s no surprise to occasionally spot a Saints shirt at gigs over the years. Others in this league would be The Tossers, Mickey Rickshaw or Flatfoot 56. One of the scenes most consistently good bands they have released four albums, a live album and a couple of EP’s with the most outstanding of all being their debut in 2010 The Good, The Plaid, And The Ugly which Paddyrock called “the BEST Celtic Rock release of 2010 hands down!” and introduced me, and many others, to the Kilmaine Saints thanks to the now long gone Paddy Punx web site.
Black Irish Sons is their debut album and features ten tracks, eight original tunes and two covers, one rather overexposed and one that is much less well known. The album begins with ‘Gangway’ and the sound of bagpipes fills the air and then the sound of a pub before the band join in and when the banjo comes out the song instantly reminds you of a rather famous Dropkick Murphys song. They follow this up with ‘Drunken Irish Bastard’ and lead singer Cole has that unmistakable Irish-American twang to his vocals and a clear voice that sounds like he smokes 60 a day! The band cite trad Irish ballad bands like The Dubliners and The Wolfe Tones as influences and they do sound quite a lot like a punked up version of these bands rather than The Pogues folkier version of them.
At only twenty-eight minutes long it’s over far too quickly but that’s what makes Black Irish Sons such an interesting album. Moments of fast punk rock and slow and gentle ballads mixed together to make an album that is laid out perfectly and at a ideal pace. The bands Irish roots are stamped all over things and they may look to the past of the Tones, Clancy’s and Dub’s but are not stuck there and have added their own stamp to everything they do. The more I hear of bands like Hold Fast I begin to realise the importance of Celtic-Punk to the Irish-American community.
1. FLATFOOT 56 (Chicago)- ‘Odd Boat’ 
1. BLACK ANEMONE (Sweden)- ‘In It For Life’ 
Several hundred gigs in The Kilmaine Saints have made perhaps their breakthrough album with Whiskey Blues & Faded Tattoos. Plenty bands have seen critical success that perhaps don’t merit it but I’ve been delighted over the last few years to see that the Saints have also achieved that success around the celtic-punk media and what must surely follow now is to get more noticed among those DKM/FM fans who think the scene only revolves around them. The Saints come from a place that has an actual living Irish community. They may not be living ten to a room or ghettoised like their ancestors were but they are a community nevertheless. Beyond the leprachaun hats, shamrocks and green Guinness and other symbols of that hated phrase, ‘Plastic Paddy’, the Irish community is still very much alive. Brendan Behan couldn’t have put it better when he said
CHARLESTOWN, Mass.-A handgun, gun shots and a bleeding victim; sounds like the scene of a crime, but when police responded to the incident, they discovered that it was all part of an act. State Police rushed to the scene for a report of shots fired at Paul Revere Park. When they got there, officers found a man, a fake gun and another with fake blood on his arm. “As I was coming up to him, he did pull his right hand out and saw a bit of his weapon,” Trooper Robert Malloy, State Police Marine Unit, said. “My adrenaline was pumping pretty good man,” Wade Gallagher, actor, said. “It was quite a rush.” Wade Gallagher is not a killer. He’s an actor who was filming a mob movie called ‘Townies’. Paul Revere Park was not an actual crime scene, but witnesses saw the gun and the blood they ran screaming for help. “It’s an actual gun and it fires blanks,” Mike O’Dea, Film Director, said. “Nothing actually comes out of the chamber.” Here’s the problem, O’Dea never told the city or police they were filming a violent mob scene in broad daylight. They did however post a sign on a car near the scene. “Well, we don’t have any money for permits, so you gotta do what you gotta do to get the movie done,” O’Dea said. “So, we took a risk and paid the price for it.” The actors were not arrested; however they are expected to face a judge later this month to face charges of disorderly conduct. They say that it was all worth it. “It’s supposed to be the most realistic mob movie ever made, so I guess we proved that today didn’t we,” O’Dea said. – – 2007 Sunbeam Television Corp.
Andy the Celtic Punk Author
celticpunkcast
classicalbumreviewer
essexmarv
gtmellon
kevingrooney
The Don
shaneoneill1888
Stephen Francis Bourke
theold69th
londoncelticpunks.wordpress.com 
Recent Comments