Saw Doctors and SMARCH

Being so close to St Patrick’s day, I wanted to talk about the Saw Doctors. Maybe the best way to describe them is that they are like an irish version of Jimmy Buffet or The Grateful Dead. There songs are simple, catchy, and sometimes funny. Also, they tour around the world almost non-stop with a tremendous following despite no radio play outside of Ireland. The bassist has been replaced a few times and so has the drummer, but the two main members of the group are still with the group. One original member actually quit the group after he won the lottery. And since the group has a crappy myspace, you can check out their songs here. (I don’t usually like posting songs on this website, but I find there’s no other way).

MP3: I Useta Love Her

MP3: That’s What She Said Last Night

MP3: Joyce County Ceili Band

And in the spirit of giving away songs on The Bruce Blog, I am posting a mix of songs. Other blogs do mixes for holidays, so I thought that I would make one. I am not going to post a bunch of traditional Irish songs, just the ones that I, as an second generation Irish-American from the Northwest Side of Chicago, know as Irish. And the "South Side Irish" will definitely not be included.

And like the disclaimer on the other blogs like to say, "if you like the music, please buy it. If you represent an artist or label an would prefer that I remove any mp3, let me know and I will take it down immediately."

1. Dropkick Murphys – Shipping Up To Boston They are getting popular again because of The Departed, but every wanna-be Irish kid had a Dropkick Murphys shirt when I was growing up.

2. House of Pain – Top O’ The Morning to Ya The rap group that young irish wannabes of the generation before me would listen to.

3. Flogging Molly – Devil’s Dance Floor Irish band of my younger brothers irish wannabe generation.

4. Tossers – Tell Me Ma Great song from a great band from Chicago. Best version is with Van Morrison and The Cheiftans, but this is good too.

5. Van Morrison and the Chieftans – Irish Heartbeat Another song from that same album.

6. Clancy Brothers with Tommy Makem – Johnny McEldoo With so many songs about rebellion and drinking, this one is about eating.

7. Clancy Brothers – Seven Drunken Nights This is a great one about drinking.

8. Wolfetones – Big Strong Man All time favorite sing-a-long song.

9. Pogues – Dirty Old Town Great Irish punk band fronted by the ugliest man alive.

10. Waterboys – Fisherman’s Blues Didn’t discover this till I started dj-ing the Thatch, but also a good sing-a-long song.

11. Thin Lizzy – Running Back Not an irish song, but was an irish band. It doesn’t fit the theme, deal with it.

Here is a zip file of the whole mix if you want to download it all together.

Categorised in: Music

This post was written by Brian