Barleyjuice

Barleyjuice, One Shilling (Ryf, 2001)
Barleyjuice, Another Round (Ryf, 2003)
Barleyjuice, Six Yanks (Ryf, 2006)

The American band Barleyjuice has produced three albums, from 2001 to 2006, on which they noticeably evolve in style, number of band members, and the proportion of traditional to original songs. The band is currently composed of Kyf Brewer, Keith Swanson, Billy Dominick, Jimmy Carbomb, Eric Worthington and Greg Schroeder. Both Brewer and Swanson are alumni of the Loch Rannoch Pipes & Drums (a band with two good pipers, mirabile dictu!). Among them, the members of Barleyjuice play close to three dozen instruments, and they play them gloriously. According to their Web site, these include eclectic items like jam butties, mutton kabobs and a woman's photograph. That tells you a lot about the band. They are madly experienced and competent musicians...and they are mad.

Their first album, One Shilling is the most traditional, the tracks ranging from standards to outright chestnuts. However, Barleyjuice brings a -- not a freshness, exactly, as their voices are wonderfully shop-worn -- but certainly a wild and vigorous originality to every old tune like "Wild Rover" and "Fiddler's Green." Their rendition of "Rosin the Bow" is heartbreakingly beautiful, especially if you've ever lost a fiddler. Even "Mary Mack," which as far as I know is quite modern, is assailed with a joyous vigor that makes the listener sing along despite having heard the damned song at bad Renaissance Faires for 25 years. What makes this album outstanding, though, is the exemplary quality of the musicianship. These guys sing like they learned the songs and ruined their voices in cheap pubs (like the rest of us) but they play like gods. Drunken, exultant gods. Very Celtic.

Another Round, the second album, is a mix of traditional and original songs. Brewer and Swanson have written most of the original stuff, which is hilarious: songs like "Potatoes" and "Nancy Drinks Tequila" are frenetically energetic, gleefully funny, and grand music as well. The latter contains a bagpipe version of "Tequila" punctuated by a weary voice croaking, "Porter..." "Scottish Samba" is a wonderful instrumental mélange of Caribbean drums and bagpipes, and is marvelously danceable. This album also contains a rousing hymn to the eternal mystery of the kilt, "What's Up Yours?" (Member Jimmy Carbomb is a kilt maker, as well as playing banjo and whistle.) My personal favourite is probably "Whiskey To The Sea." This is a truly lovely song, especially in Brewer's velvet-and-broken-glass growl, and after about the fourth hearing I finally figured out it was about the inarguable pleasure of emptying one's bladder so as to make room for more drink.

Six Yanks is their third album, just out this year. This one is almost entirely original, though all the new stuff is still cast in Barleyjuice's particular Celtic folk-rock style. Their musical roots are particularly evident here, as the instrumentation verges frequently into an Appalachian style: and since Appalachian has a strong Scots/Irish component in its own roots, there is a sort of musical Ouroboros careening gloriously though the album, tail in mouth and tongue in cheek. "Tartan Is the Colour of My True Love's Hair" seems to be a fond memory of first love and fellatio, terminated by the lass's accidental fall into an old mine shaft. "Modern Pirates" and "Beauty and Rum," though, have a beautiful melancholy to them, a poetic vision only accessible from the plateau of maturity, and maybe only to someone with a lot of Scotch, um, Scots, in him. And "A Band's A Band for A' That," a pastiche of Bobby Burns, is also an heroic invocation of the British Invasion of the 1960s.

In the picky complaint column... Barleyjuice seems blithely unconcerned with any differences between Scots and Irish. It bothered me a little, but if you want to consider it from an anthropological viewpoint, it's perfectly defensible: originally, Scotti meant Irish. And from the distance of a bunch of unabashedly American lads, it may not matter much.

Their Web site has lyrics and a tour schedule, for those lucky enough to live in their East Coast environs. It also covers earlier incarnations of some of the band members (notably the '80s Ravyns, who must have been a riot) as well as solo albums by Brewer, and a lot of keen Barleyjuice gear. It's not quite possible to determine a great deal about these gentlemen -- for instance, it is reported that Keith Swanson was abandoned at birth and raised by squirrels -- but it's funny and well done.
Barleyjuice, whoever raised them, are wonderful: great musicians, splendid poets, vigorous and joyous and wild. They are in love with their music, and they pass that love on like a drink of good whiskey. Sláinte!
- Green Man Review

http://www.whisperinandhollerin.com/reviews/review.asp?id=4076

Genre: 'Folk' - Release Date: '2006'

You don't have to be drunk to truly appreciate Barleyjuice (http://barleyjuice.com) but it helps. There's something about Celtic bar-band rock that requires a strong heaping of alcohol to properly digest.

Like the Pogues, Barleyjuice are irreverent, simultaneously faithful and blasphemous to their musical roots. With a title like "Love With a Priest," you know that Barleyjuice are going to poke conservative geezers in the arse with their twisted sense of humor. Because of Kyf Brewer's storytelling abilities, "Love With a Priest" could've come across as mere novelty but instead it's a hilarious tale of confession. When you're loaded, and just about everything is funny anyway, "Love With a Priest" will bring more tears down than watching "Terms of Endearment" at a funeral. Your jaw will hurt from all the demented laughter. And don't leave after the last track, either, if you want added giggles. The lads snuck on a hidden bonus track of nonstop hilarity, an untitled break-up song where a man realizes that his only true love is the bar he frequents.

Barleyjuice attack the material with infectious enthusiasm and intoxicated joy; traditional compositions such as "Modern Pirates" and "Real Old Mountain Dew" are played with an abundance of youthful personality.

At a time when rock & roll is still wrapped up in existential gloom and adolescent angst, Barleyjuice uplift us with their tales of booze and broads. This is an extremely entertaining LP that you shouldn't miss, even if you decide to remain sober.
- Whisperin' and Hollerin' UK Webzine

Raised on Songs & Stories
Shay Clarke
June 05

...I must tell you about Barleyjuice. Somebody sent me a copy of their album “Another Round” and I have been playing it ever since. Its lively, its fun, and its original…dare I say it…it’s a Gem.
Now, I had never heard of this band before and I’ve never seen them play live but I’m really looking forward to it. If they can entertain on stage as well as they do on disc, we could be looking at another great festival band.
Barleyjuice are from Philadelphia and Baltimore. The album breaks down as follows - seven traditional arrangements, and seven original songs. They do a great version of Monto, an old Dublin song made famous by The Dubliners, which I haven’t heard recorded since the 60’s. Great versions of I’ll Tell Me Ma’, Whiskey In the Jar, and The Moonshiner. Instrumental tracks, a jig set, Stacks of Barley/Roxborough Castle and Jig of Slurs/Taylor’s Fancy, all beautifully executed. But it’s their original songs that make this album special. In fact, they’re the ones I have been singing to myself ever since. Nancy Drinks Tequila, Potatoes, What’s Up Yours?, and Whisky to the Sea. Whisky to the Sea sounds like it was written for Shane McGowan and The Pogues…it’s a classic.
Check out their website which has an eight minute video clip at www.barleyjuice.com. I hope that I have the opportunity of seeing this band perform before the summer is over. Festival and concert promoters look out for Barleyjuice.
- Irish American News / Chicago

http://www.celticmp3s.com/
by Catherine L. Tully

Artist: Barleyjuice
Album: One Shilling
Year produced: 2001

Pour yourself a beer and get ready to give your best effort at singing along and keeping up with track 4, Marymack. It'll have you tongue-twisting, toe tappin' and enjoying Barley Juice before you can say she sells sea shells! The band has a very mainstream appeal, and if you didn't hear the traditional instruments, you would probably not be able to tell them apart from bands you hear every day on the radio. You might call them polished; they have that type of sound.

Ahh, but the traditional instruments and sound of the vocals are exactly what make this CD, for those who love Celtic music are looking for just that! Where your average popular mainstream music may get a bit dull, the instrumentation here saves it from that fate.

Don't miss the last track, Donnie Scot. It starts with just one instrument and voice, along with some tender and well-written lyrics that are delivered just perfectly. And then, as the voice quiets, the music blossoms into a full sound that would fill a church and touch the hearts of all that were listening. Beautiful. Doing both the fun, and the moving songs are the mark of a band that isn't afraid to embrace a little variety.

Barley Juice isn't lacking in a sharp sense of humor either. Not only is that present in their lyrics, but in the bios on their site. Rarely do I point out something like that, but if you need a good chuckle, look them up at www.barleyjuice.com and go to: meet the band. It's worth a peek.
- Celtic mp3s

http://www.donegalpress.com/

Hailing from the PA Appalachian chain , Barleyjuice returns with their third and most stellar release to date, "Six Yanks". Keeping in the traditional Barleyjuice fashion, "Six Yanks" features a handful of "traditional" numbers re-worked in that clever "tongue in cheek" Barleyjuice way. A prime example of this would be "Tartan is the color of my true loves hair", a take on the old classic "Black is the color of my true loves hair". Aye, before you dismiss Barleyjuice as the typical "Irish Festival Band" with no song writing backbone to stand on their own, note that "Six Yanks" also features some of the best Barleyjuice originals to date. "Whiskey, Baileys, Guinness", the title alone says it all. And my personal favorite, "Love With A Priest". Dont worry, its about Guinness. I swear to ya it is. And if Im lying may God strike me down. And may he strike you down as well if you dont get out and buy "Six Yanks".

review by Paddy McKraut
- Donegal Press

http://www.ink19.com/

As far as the indie scene is concerned, there aren't many Celtic rockers around, at least that are within radar range. So it pleases me to no end to find Barleyjuice in my mailbox. Here we have an American group infatuated with traditional Irish folk music and having an absolute ball with it. While they don't bastardize the genre with punk rock edges (something that the Pogues did quite well in the '80s), Barleyjuice are not paint-by-numbers revivalists, either.

What you'd expect from an band like this - bagpipes,fiddles, banjos, whistles, mandolins - are all here but the sound is indeed more rocking and the mood, for the most part, is on the giddy side. There's some scorching fiddles on "Modern Pirates" and the usual sentiments about getting drunk. The playful innocence of the music and the lyrics are wonderfully charming.

Barleyjuice like to combine classic material ("Real Old Mountain Dew," "Tim Finnegan's Wake") with new tunes of their own ("Pretty Wild Bride," "Love With a Priest"), and honestly you can't tell the difference between what is old and current, which the band should be applauded for. After all, authenticity is crucial is getting these tunes across.

The musicianship is top-notch, and the chemistry between these guys is pretty electric - you can feel their enthusiasm bursting from the speakers.

Kyrby Raine

- Ink 19

Raised on Songs & Stories
Shay Clarke
June 06

Barleyjuice have just released their new album, 6 Yanks and it is BRILLIANT! These guys from Philly never cease to amaze me with their very clever use of words, their driving rhythms, and their sense of fun.
Thirteen tracks, ten of them written by the band themselves and it is the self-penned songs that stand out. Songs of the heather, songs of the shamrock, songs of the sea, but mostly odes to the drink. Seven tracks are devoted to the juice of the barley, the grape, and the hops. Some are mentioned by name, Guinness, Bailey’s and Jameson.
Barleyjuice, The Band - Kyf Brewer- vocals, guitar, accordion, piano, harmonica, bagpipes, and drums., Keith “Swanny”- Swanson, vocals, bouzouki, mandolin, pipes, and whistle, Billy Dominick- fiddle and backing vocals, Jimmy “Carbomb” Parkinson- whistle and banjo, Eric Worthington- Bass and backing vocals, Jeremy Berberian- drums.
That’s a lot of instruments in the hands of very talented musicians and when you add in the voices you get magic. Kyf Brewer’s voice is remarkable. Shades of Ronnie Drew, Shane McGowan, and Van the Man, but it is very much his own, crafted to deliver the songs he writes in the style he has written them, yes, that’s what this band is all about - style.
6 Yanks, The Album
1. Misty Morning Miss’d. This short instrumental featuring Swanny on guitar is so sweet that I could listen to it forever, but it is the calm before the storm.
2. Pretty Wild Bride. The wedding Day, seen from the groom’s point of view. Happiness is ”a bottle of Meade and my Pretty Wild Bride.”
3. Modern Pirates. This rollicking seafaring ditty features peg legs, kegs, tankards and lassies and ends up on the Rocky Road to Dublin - great stuff.
4. Love with a Priest. The priest in question is none other than Father Arthur Guinness, in this clever homage to the Pint - creamy white collar etc.
5. Real Old Mountain Dew. More drink in this traditional song which has been overdone by everybody, but there are a few surprises hidden in this version.
6. Beauty and Rum. Back to the sea for this sad reminiscence, but as usual, the lads put a sting in it’s tail with a great version of Lord of the Dance on bagpipes….and I’m sure I heard goats bleating in there too….it must have been a wild party.
7. More Pipes. Rocking bagpipes in this instrumental that must be a crowd pleaser at live events
8. Tartan is the Colour of My True Loves Hair. This Highland love song is a great example of Kyf Brewer’s way with words…its fun, its irreverent, and its great with lots of frolicking in the heather - featured drink - whiskey.
9. Tim Finnegan’s Wake. Old favorite about the restorative power of whiskey. I prefer the songs they write themselves.
10. Dear Old Ireland. A great patriotic song that I haven’t heard for years. Beautifully introduced and executed. Ireland boys Hurrah!
11. Whiskey, Baileys. Guinness. Back to the drink, with this great song. A prescription to ease the pain. I’m sure I hear Ronnie Drew in the background rocking harmonica and fiddle. if you like The Pogue’s, you’ll love this.
12. A Band’s a Band for A’That. An Anthem to the British Rock Invasion. This song requires attention and it has grown on me. Its probably the best song on the album.
13. The Bar I Loved, Remained. This is another funny little song. The girlfriend has left him and as he drowns his sorrow at his favorite barstool he muses, “Now the whiskey won’t make me forget her -- but it’s making her sister look better.”
This is a terrific album, its full of the trademark Barleyjuice energy, gritty lyrics, tight harmonies, and driving rhythms. It is a fitting follow-up to last years album “Another Round” which has been my favorite since it was released, I am still waiting for Barleyjuice to come play for us in Chicagoland. www.barleyjuice.com.
- Irish American News / Chicago