Black 47
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Biography
The Celtic influenced American rock band Black 47 (the name derives from the worst year of the potato famine) began when Irish expatriate Larry Kirwan began playing guitar with Chris Byrne, a police office with a facility for different traditional Irish musical instruments such as the tin whistle and pipes, in 1989. They eventually added bass player David Conrad, drummer Thomas Hamlin, saxophonist Jeff Blythe, and multi-instrumentationalist Fred Parcells, and started playing regularly in pubs throughout New York City. The band developed a unique blend of Celtic folk, rock, and reggae, and Kirwan wrote songs with strong political content. They self-released their debut self-titled album in 1991, and then went into the studio with producer Ric Ocasek for 1993âs Fire of Freedom, which included the single âFunky Ceiliâ. A different celebrity producer, Jerry Harrison, collaborated with them for 1994âs Home of the Brave, which contained âThe Big Fellahâ, a tribute to Irish political figure Michael Collins. They kept up a live schedule that included well over 100 gigs a year until 2000 when Byrne left the group. The group remained resolutely political, addressing the 9/11 attacks with 2004âs New York Town and opposing the war in Iraq on the 2008 album Iraq. They announced their break-up in 2013, but released a new song, âStronger and Betterâ, in 2020 to praise heroes and victims of the COVID-19 pandemic.
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Albums
Top Tracks
- Track Popularity
- Into the West
- Our Lady of the Bronx
- Five Points
- Touched by Fire
- Blood Is Thicker Than Water
- Susan Falls Apart
- Fallin' Off the Edge of America
- Bodhrans on the Brain
- I Got Laid on James Joyce's Grave
- Bobby Kennedy
- Tramps Heartbreak
- Those Saints
- Delirious
- Trouble in the Land
- Mychal by Finbar Furey
- Brooklyn Girls
- Celtic Rocker by Barleyjuice
- Czechoslovakia
- Change
- Bobby Sands MP
- The Day They Set Jim Larkin Free
- Elvis Murphy
- Girl Next Door
- The Bells of Hell
