EP REVIEW: WHISKEY’S WAKE – Distant Lands (2023)

Distant Lands, the brilliant third release from Whiskey’s Wake, Celtic-Punk rockers from Salt Lake City, Utah.

Distant Lands is the third album from Whiskey’s Wake following their self titled debut album back in 2005 and, an amazing seventeen years later, that that was followed by last year’s six (or was it eight with the two remixes!) track album Wake Up Whiskey which made our Celtic-Punk Top Twenty for last year. The core of the group is the same as it was all those years ago with Adam, Patrick, Danny, and Andreas all still playing since they first got together. The original drummer, Ronan, moved away a long time ago and while he doesn’t drum on Distant Lands he still occasionally returns to the WW drum stool.

Whiskey’s Wake left to right: Adam Blair – Vocals / Guitar * Pat Reimherr – Guitar * Danny Houpt – Mandolin / Banjo / Bagpipes * Andreas Petersen – Accordion * Derek Julio – Drums *  Joel Pack – Bass (Studio only) * Sophie Blair – Vocals / Viola (Studio only) *

The philosophy of the band is simple

 

“We write all our songs to be played in packed pubs and bars and do our best to bring some of that live feeling to our recordings. We had our first shows at Kilby Court and, in a way, continue to write, practice, and record for that Kilby atmosphere.”

Enthusiasm for, and within, the band has continue to grow with the band citing the success of Wake Up Whiskey and the great response it got from the wider Celtic-Punk community. So can the guys keep it up? Well the answer is a resounding yes! Their may be only four songs here but all are just different enough from each other yet still still have the unmistakable Whiskey’s Wake sound. The EP kicks off with the fantastic ‘Whiskey Grove’ and a familiar drone soon gives way to super catchy Punk-Rock with the accordion and mandolin giving it a great Celtic edge. It has a kind of Mickey Rickshaw influence I feel with a great story being told alongside a tune to die for. Catchy as hell but still Punk enough for the Punks. ‘Keep The Fight Alive’ keeps the energy up with bagpipes now added from the multi talented Danny while the catchiness continues. In fact just save me time and assume I’m going to say all the songs here are catchy! All four songs are just over two minutes long giving them a sense of a short sharp shock with ‘We’ll Leave This Place’ nearest here to a slow song with a almost delicate air given to it by vocalist and guitarist Adam. The chugging guitar makes this awesome Celtic rocker of a song perfect for a spot of head nodding / foot tapping / thigh slapping. A special mention for Sophie who supply’s some very nice backing vocals as well as the beautiful sound of the viola, not something we hear a lot of in LCP towers. The EP ends with ‘Shepherd Of The Night Flock’ with the mandolin and as I expected the curtain comes down with the EP’s standout track. Pure Celtic-Punk at it’s best with the story being told almost as important as the tune. Superb!

Distant Lands is one hell of an EP and as you can tell I am a very big fan. Every song here is top drawer and can only help the band with their plans to rise to the top of American Celtic-Punk. The EP is available as a ‘name your price’ download so their is absolutely nothing stopping you from downloading this wonderful EP straight away. Even if you are not too sure how to do it or never done it before here’s a handy guide on how to do it. Now it may be free but always remember that Celtic-Punk bands are thirsty so if you are able leave them a drink or two. They like Guinness and in the States that stuff is expensive!

(Stream or download Distant Lands from the Bandcamp player below)

Download Distant Lands  Bandcamp

Contact Whiskey’s Wake  https://bio.link/whiskeyswake  Facebook  Instagram  

ODDS’N’SODS. A CELTIC-PUNK ROUND UP MARCH 2022

March – that most Celtic of months and time for another Odds’n’Sods. A place for all the Celtic-Punk scene’s bands big and small, established or just starting out.

A reminder too that we need your news so anything you would like to share with the rest of the Celtic-Punk scene send it onto us.

We start off this month with the new single from Scandinavian / Irish rockers SIR REG. Taken from their upcoming new album (due soon!) they are representing the whole continent at the awesome ShamRock Festival in Washington later this month. ‘The Kings Of Sweet Feck All’ tells of British soldiers raiding the home of an Irish family during the war of independence. The soldiers didn’t want to be there, but it was their job and their duty. A reminder that even enemies feel compassion for each other.

London Celtic Punks numbers went down by one when Anna upped sticks to move to Scotland to marry some Scotch fella. Theirs no evidence he’s dragged her to Celtic games yet though but she did form the marvellous GALLOWGATE MURDERS who recently played Edinburgh. We are trying to hunt down the official footage of the entire gig to bring you so watch this space.

We’ve been lucky to have been able to put THE DEAD MAGGIES a few times on their travels over from Tasmania and they are one hell of a great band. Here’s the recently uploaded ‘Billy Hunt’ from their 2015 album Well Hanged live at the HOBOFOPO2021 festival they put on back at home.

THE CLOVERHEARTS are at it again! One of the busiest bands in Celtic-Punk they have followed their recent cover of ‘Country Roads’ with a great version of the Johnny Cash belter ‘Ring Of Fire’.

Was great to hear all the way from Salt Lake City from WHISKEYS WAKE who sent us their new eight track album Wake Up Whiskey. Everyone here really loved it so expect to be reading a very positive review any day soon!!

The new album from FOLK THE SYSTEM, Tales Of Tyrants, Demons & Kings, came out at the arse end of ’21 but we were suffering ‘review fatigue’ so we’re now calling it a 2022 release! Formed in leafy Banbury in 1992 they recorded a handful of tracks, played 100’s of gigs and then split up before reforming in 2013. Their debut album Unrest In The Wolds was released in 2015 we described as ‘raw Punk Folk from the Shires’ in our review. The new album like a lot of releases was delayed by ‘you know what’ and is 11 tracks of catchy leftie British Folk played with humour and spirit.

GREENLAND WHALEFISHERS are playing their home town Bergen on St. Patrick’s day and also releasing a brand new single and video.

A cautionary tale of rats, bargains with the devil and nautical disaster ‘Chip’ was the lead single from THE REAL McKENZIES 2008 album Off The Leach but the guys just released a new re-mastered version on You Tube to announce the release of a career retrospective or as they call it Greatest Hits. The double album is available for pre-sale from Fat Wreck Records.

THE LIGHTHOUSE KEEPERS hail from Spain (I think!) and aye we may have heard it 1000+ times but I love nothing better than a good version of ‘Drunken Sailor’ and this is one. Couldn’t find much about these guys as I think they are pretty new but they sound like fun.

DRUNKEN FIGHTERS – Someday

WHISKEYS WAKE – Wake Up Whiskey

THE KINGS PIPERS – Tradition

SLAINTE – Up Down 95

THE MEN THEY COULDN’T HANG – Red Kite Rising

THE ROUGHNECK RIOT – Burn It To The Ground

remember we can’t review it if we don’t hear it

A bit off our well beaten track with some Metal but he’s a great guy and the new song from MULLHOLLAND is all the work of just on fella. Written, composed, performed, recorded, mixed and produced by proud American-Irishman Colin Mulholland.

Russia has had some absolutely amazing Celtic-Punk bands in recent years the latest of which are RIOT FOLKS who put up a live concert from last year. Really, really good!

We loved the last album from KEV O’D and he’s just released this song and video in tribute to…

Sydney bhoys HANDSOME YOUNG STRANGERS are one of the leading lights in the Aussie Celtic-Punk scene and are always great to hear from. Their new single is a cover of another band from Oz the Melbourne band Sons Of Lee Marvin.

Blast from The Past is dedicated to bands, many of whom are no more, who put out great music but were never featured on these pages at the time. Usually they come with a free download link. This months band is MOTOR PERKINS who hailed from Donramiro in the Celtic nation of Galicia, currently occupied by Spain. They have split up and there’s not a lot on the internet to be found about them but they were one hell of a band. The album is sixteen tracks, mostly originals with a few local and Irish Folk covers. It was recorded live at Praia América on August 16, 2009 and then mastered and released a couple of years later. Ao Vivo can be downloaded for free simply click the link below on the Bandcamp player.

New craic-ing video from SWAINN (formerly known as Cockswain). The song comes from their fantastic recent album, Under A Willow Tree which we reviewed recently and reached #15 in the  London Celtic Punks Best Of 2021.

Highlights of this month are that the DROPKICK MURPHYS tour of the States has begun with THE RUMJACKS in tow. Early reports are that the Bhoys are still on top of their game and we must send our thoughts over to Al Barr and his family, who has had to drop out of the tour due to extremely sad personal circumstances. There’s been loads and loads of videos coming out (the quality of some is absolutely incredible!) but the BIG news is the Bhoys are live streaming their St. Patrick’s Day concert from Boston for free over on their Facebook and You Tube channels. It’s 1am here so check their page for local times. The perfect way for us to wind down! FLOGGING MOLLY just announced a gig in Dublin in August later in the year which may see an exodus of London Celtic Punks to the capital of West Britain! They are also in the midst of touring and will also be live streaming from The Hollywood Palladium for the princely sum of almost £15. Lots of things will be happening around St. Patrick’s weekend, too many to mention but we’ll do our best to feature them on the LCP events page. We will begin the day at The Cock Tavern in Euston at 2pm with MISSING THE FERRY before going on the lash around South London leading all the way to the Half Moon in Putney to watch THE POGUE TRADERS, the world’s #1 Pogues tribute. Don’t take our word for it “The Best Pogues tribute band I’ve ever seen” – Andrew Ranken. Tickets are on sale from the venue.

I didn’t watch it all and there’s a few points I would disagree with like how can you live in a country with 40,000,000 Irish-Americans and not get it that their might be a similar thing in London! Any how it’s a good watch and the music is fantastic and they are a likeable pair!

Facebook is shit. Proper shit. It’s telling that it only has 2/5 in the play app store! It’s stranglehold on all forms of expression is not good and people are leaving in droves. Don’t despair though you can still keep up with London Celtic Punks posts via our group on the new phone app Telegram. Very similar in style (but better and easier to use) than What’s App but the best thing of all is that it is completely free from outside interference. Join us on Telegram, don’t miss a single post and even receive the odd exclusive and special offer! https://t.me/londoncelticpunks/  

If you like what we do then you can support us by checking out our online store. The Harp’n’Bones design is back in all sizes and on black or white shirts. Also we have new polo shirts, in all sizes, and some nifty wooly hats as well as the Green’n’White ‘Skully Cap’ ringer shirts. Click the link below for the full range of all our other tatt. Shirts, badges, stickers, flags, CD’s and fridge magnets all the discerning Celtic-Punk fan could ever need! Help keep Punk Celtic!  https://the30492shop.fwscart.com/

Even though we hate it Facebook does supply the occasional ray of sunshine so a shout out to some good friends of ours over on Facebook. The Dropkick Murphys- Fan Page and the Celtic Punk, Folk And Rock Fans are two of the best music forums on FB let alone Celtic-Punk. Ran By Fans For Fans just like you and me. Like and join in the fun!

Coming up this month we will have reviews from several of the bands mentioned in the new releases but we are particularly looking forward to @theold69th and his live review of the Dropkick Murphys and Rumjacks gig. It’s also worth mentioning that March is the month when three of our Celtic nations have their Saints feast dates. St. David of Cymru on March 1st, St. Piran of kernow on March 5th and St. Patrick of Eire on March 17th. We look forward to this month being designated as Celtic History Month in tribute to the millions of working people from the Celtic nations who did so much for and gave so much to the world.

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