New York Town

Black 47 | Format: Audio CD

Product Details

• Audio CD (February 10, 2004)
• Number of Discs: 1
• Label: Gadfly Records
• ASIN: B0001CNR20
• Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (16 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #109,695 in Music (See Top 100 in Music)

Track Listings

1. San Patricio Brigade (with Eileen Ivers)

2. New York Town (with Suzzy Roche)

3. Orphan of the Storm

4. Fiona's Song (with Eileen Ivers)

5. Staten Island Baby (with David Johansen)

6. Mychal

7. Livin' in America-11 Years On

8. Brooklyn, Goodbye (with Suzzy Roche)

9. Black Rose

10. Blood Wedding (with Christine Ohlman)

11. I Won't Take You Home Again, Kathleen

12. Fatima (with Ashley Davis)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Hit and Miss, June 14, 2004

By 

Daniel (Massachusetts) - See all my reviews

This review is from: New York Town (Audio CD)

I read several reviews before posting mine and have to agree with bits and pieces from several. I love Black 47, especially live, but always found them to be hit and miss. Not one CD, except maybe Fire of Freedom, has been consistently excellent, but when they're good they're great, so I've gladly taken the misses with the hits. NY Town is similar in my opinion. Mychal, Fiona's Song (I bought the CD at a show during the set after hearing it), and Fatima are among their best songs ever. However, it seems the up tempo tunes have lost their edge. I haven't heard anything like Funky Ceili, The Big Fellah, or Losin' It in a long time. Perhaps as Larry has mellowed with age, the ballads get stronger while the angry and fun up tempo tunes aren't his forte anymore. Regardless, if you're a fan, you'll want NY Town. Mychal is amazing and can bring a tear to your eye. All of the sadness of 9/11 comes rushing back when you here it. Very powerful.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Welcome back, guys!, December 4, 2006

By 

David A. Bede (Singapore) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: New York Town (Audio CD)

I lost interest in Black 47 a few albums ago. They were just getting too hit or miss for my tastes, especially when their first few albums held up so well. Just when I'd nearly stopped caring about them, along comes their best effort since "Fire of Freedom." It's about time!

Since nearly everything they've ever recorded was unavoidably connected to New York in one way or another, of course 9/11 was bound to hang heavy in the air. And it does, even on some of the songs that are about other matters entirely. So it's just as well that Larry and the boys didn't shy away from addressing it head on in "New York Town," "Orphan of the Storm" and "Mychal" (a tribute to Father Mychal Judge, set rather loosely to the tune of "Lord Franklin"). All three are unique and well-expressed, something hardly any other song about 9/11 can claim. "Orphan" is as definitive of the Black 47 sound as anything else I've heard, and one of their best ever.

Elsewhere, well, there's lots more on the same subjects you've heard them rant and rave about before, but the formula still works. "San Patricio Brigade," about Irish-American soldiers who turned their coats in the Mexican War, is the requisite chip-on-the-shoulder political song, and it's catchier than many of their others in that category. "Fiona's Song," featuring delightful guest vocals from Rosanne Cash, is basically "Sleep Tight in New York City" with the next chapter filled in at last. If you liked it then, you'll like it now. "Blood Wedding" is yet another tale of the seedy New York underworld, but it's as darkly beautiful as any of the others.

The most obvious sequel of all is "Livin' In America - 11 Years On" - same tune, same characters, but the innocence is gone to put it mildly! I didn't like this one too much at first - such a bitter ending to what was a sweet story - but it's grown on me since then. Both songs, by the way, are apparently based on a real couple who met at an early Black 47 show. Which explains a lot!

Definitely a worthy addition to their collection and yours.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Black 47 rules!, March 6, 2004

By 

A. Raymond Dorsey "Ray D" (Baltimore, Maryland United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: New York Town (Audio CD)

BLACK 47 - "New York Town" CD '04 (Gadfly, US) - When people use the word "diverse" to describe a band's music, I don't think they've even heard a BLACK 47 album. Reason is, the word "diverse" doesn't even begin to do this group the slightest bit of justice. When spinning albums like B47's "Fire Of Freedom," "Home Of The Brave" or "Trouble In The Land," the words screaming out of my brain are more like "sweeping," "panoramic" and...well, yeah, there's the expression "rockin' up a storm," too. Thing is, BLACK 47 is not heavy metal, they're not especially hard rock, but they encompass a level of energy that often eclipses the best of both of those genres in it's pure rock & roll fury and then lifts a healthy pint to things like: Celtic, ska, Latin, urban street stuff like hip-hop, folk and well...get my point? Having heard this band for the first time on their last studio effort, 2000's "Trouble...," I was so impressed that I back-tracked to all their other stuff, drove 55 miles to buy main man Larry Kirwan's solo CD "Kilroy Was Here" the day it came out and have seen 'em live 4 times since. Now, as we begin a new year we see the release of "New York Town," and I am a contented man. From a musical standpoint, I loved "Trouble In The Land." It was interesting for me to go back & hear B47's earlier works, however, as in them I felt even more of a raw, street vibe. I feel that again on "New York Town," and I think it's a nice return. It's not that their wonderful blend of such unique musical cultures has changed. It's just that, even more akin to the "On Fire" live CD, this disc sports a really vibrant kick-in-the-ass sound that I absolutely love. When Jeffrey Blythe's sax's come punching through, I mean they punch...HARD! And, it's wonderful to hear new piper Joseph Mulvanerty given this kind of production to strut his stuff, not only on the ulleanns but on flute & tin/low whistles as well. In truth, the entire band sports a dynamic on this record that, like I said, has only been reached on their live work so far but the trick is...and they've accomplished it here, with the studio prowess of Larry K & Stewart Lerman...they've kept it clean, sharp & listenable at the same time. And, now let's talk about Larry & his songwriting. Larry Kirwan is, to me, the best songwriter in rock music. He can take a lyric and wrap it around a piece of music with such deftness that it literally brings a tear to my eye. Larry is the kind of guy that Bruce Springsteen was in the early days, only it goes beyond that...way beyond. Larry is a story teller but much more so, he never let's down the fact that he's a man...a very real human being who feels very real feelings and breathes them into the tales he tells in such a way that the listener can experience them in 3-D. If I told you about a coin laying on the ground on a street in Greenwich Village, you'd know about...a coin laying on the ground on a street in Greenwich Village. If Larry told you about it, you'd smell the glistening fruit on the stand at the corner, feel the pain in the man's voice who bent to pick the coin as he reminisced about his past in Ireland and the love he'd left behind, become riled at the political sentiments of the kid getting off his beat-up bike at the newsstand next door. And, with his ability to paint the real, the visceral and mix with it the full range of human emotion, Larry has this time wed to BLACK 47's vital music a stirring and volatile look at New York City. It is a sometimes stark, sometimes warmly embracing and yet a bravely unblinking look at this tremendous city, it's 5 boroughs all, and the course of human life that has run through it pre/during/post 9/11. Rather than all the pseudo-political hand-wringing pablum that other artists have used as their take on a city and an event that none of us could ever hope to solve, Larry has watched a city race toward a point in time and then branch out from it on the other side, reflecting on it's metamorphosis, a lot of which, as he says had begun long before those tragic events in September '01. As a capstone to the majesty of this release, the inclusion of some wonderful guest artists only serves to deepen it's effect. Listen to the beauty of Eileen Ivers fiddle work on the irresistable rhythm of "San Patricio Brigade." Marvel at the lovely vocal work by Suzzy Roche on the poignant "Brooklyn, Goodbye" or Rozz Moorehead's in-your-face street smarts in "Black Rose." And how can you not get up and swing your ass off when David Johansen comes barrelling into "Staten Island Baby." Magical stuff, indeed, but even with those, the main thing here is still BLACK 47. It's Larry and his band as a unit, moving seemlessly through New York, kicking up the dust, laying down the vibe and communicating tales that touch us to our souls.