UNCLE BARD & THE DIRTY BASTARDS – These Are The Days (Live) (SFMCD565)

These Are The DaysYou heard the new album by Uncle Bard &  The Dirty Bastards?

Who!!!?

Uncle Bard & The Dirty Bastards – it’s a belter.

Punk Music, I take it with a name like that? If that’s their band name, I bet the album’s called, ‘Never Mind the Marriages’?

A little less witty than that. It’s a live album, recorded in August 2022 at the Tribal Rock Festival in Peymeinade, Alpes Maritime, France (about half an hour inland from Cannes). It’s called These Are the Days (Live in France) … and no, not punk – Celtic rock if you must have a rough title for the genre of what they do. Sufficiently Celtic that they released the album on St Patrick’s Day in recognition of their influences.

Ah, Irish band then, playing in France? Interesting combination?

Interesting, yes, but errr…. not exactly an Irish band, though they sound it. They’re Italian.

You’re telling me there’s a new album, released on St Patrick’s Day, a live album, recorded in France, of Irish/Celtic music … by an Italian band.

Yes

And it’s good.

Yes.

If you could have plugged into the two sides of my mind when I got the chance to review These Are The Days, you’d have found an internal conversation a bit like the one above.  Obviously the ‘It’s good’ comment came after I’d played the album – and it’s holding true as I continue to play the album … it’s good.

Uncle Bard And The Dirty Bastards, is made up of six Italians with a love of Irish music, playing: acoustic guitar, tenor banjo, mandolin, whistles, Irish flute, uilleann pipes, electric guitar, bass and drums – and playing them with verve.

As you can see and hear in the video below, it’s folk but it rocks. Uncle Bard & The Dirty Bastards are a band you’d want to see live.

They’re Italian, but they were the first Italian band ever playing at Dublin Irish Festival in Dublin, Ohio (USA). I gather they’ve shared a stage with bands like the Dropkick Murphys and Frank Turner, and also with more traditional bands such as the Dubliners and De Dannan. In the last few years they’ve toured internationally and played over 1,000 gigs worldwide. In other words, this is no quirky band – the music feels loved and dues have been paid. These Are The Days (Live in France) captures some grand performances, there is both energy and sympathy in the songs played. (Once you’ve played the link below, have a listen to their version of ‘Fields Of Athenry’ which is among the fifteen tracks on this album).

Uncle Bard & The Dirty Bastards, then, are new to me, their website shows coming gigs in France, Germany and Switzerland, but if they travel to the UK, they’ll be well worth looking out for.

Mike Wistow

 Artist’s website:  https://www.ubdirtybastards.com

‘The Fields Of Athenry’ – live: