Customer Reviews

Bankers & Gangsters

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Black '47's latest release Bankers & Gangsters is a great cd. This band continues to do it over and over again. With their traditional sound that sounds like nobody but them, they do it again big time on this cd. The opening song Long Hot Summer is one of those feel good sing along songs that sticks in your head long after you hear it. Known for their political views through their music, the band has a few songs on this cd that continue that mold. There are also a few lighter, funny songs that only Larry Kirwan can tell. For a real good laugh you must listen to Izzy's Irish Rose. This is about a Jewish cantor who cant help but want an Irish lady. The pipes in this song are wicked. Long Lost Tapes Of Hendrix is another one of those crazy stories told in a great musical way. My favorite track is Celtic Rocker. This song has some great guitar riffs the pipes and horns take turns in leading this track along. The title track is a take on the economy and its very true spoken. Another candidate for best track is Rosemary. The arrangement on this song is so good. And, one listen to One Starry Night will have you hooked!! Listen to this traditional irish song reworked and with some added lyrics by Larry Kirwan. This track really stands out. The cd is very good all around. The band sounds so tight and I always said that this band works best live and I still feel that way but this cd is very close to what the band sounds like right now. I highly recommend this cd and seeing the band live.

Pounding drums and driving horns immediately get this Black 47 release started with a high energy that never flags. "Long Hot Summer Comin' On" kicks it off with a look at the end of an era at CBGB's with shoutouts to the late rock critic Lester Bangs and Television. The energy stays up with "Celtic Rocker," a song about that girl everyone sees at live shows of bands like The Dropkick Murphy's, Flogging Molly, and Black 47. History is never far from Black 47's heart and subjects like Hugh O'Donnell (in a song that Kirwan sings as if he's in the grips of O'Donnell's final hours) and crusading lawyer Rosemary Nelson get examined, explained, and burned in your brain by Kirwan's insight and 47's musical talent. Even more poignantly, "Bas in Erin" tells the tale of an Australian transportee who thinks he would like to go home so he can "Die in Ireland," but finds there is something worse than Australia.
Humor is another ever-present part of a Black 47 recording and here it is found throughout. "Izzy's Irish Rose," finds and a Jewish tailor and cantor wanting more from a girl than "two big awkward feet" and "pastrami that left him cold." With the help of his rabbi he weds Rosemary Eileen Statia Ann Mcknowles. A vaudevillian approach (Shades of "Abie's Irish Rose!") makes this song a lot of fun. "The Wedding Reel" brims with bittersweet lyrics but funny (Listen to Kirwan say "Ah now, what'd I get meself into this time" towards the end) performances save it from being too bitter. The funniest piece is easily "The Lost Tapes of Hendryx" based on a true story, but instead becomes a tale of lust and adventure, for the tapes and for the favors of Maggie Mcguire.
All the cuts here are worthy of your time, but my personal favorite is the title cut with Kirwan's insightful look at the real victims of the banking industry's latest disaster. Leave it to Black 47 to comment on this with wit and venom; now try to find anyone else in the music who'll do it with their sense of style and intelligence.

Like a good bottle of Irish whisky,this band gets better with time. "Banksters" is another in a long line of great albums.
I got a copy of this CD in February and it still the first CD I select when I get in the car.
It is everything fans of Blk 47 fans have come to expect, "politically charged" songs,love songs,songs about Irish history and the whimsical,all written in the way that only Larry Kirwan can and performed the way only Black 47 can.

To those who have never heard Black 47 before,I would recommend that this CD as a good starting point.You'll become a fan.