{"id":9150,"date":"2023-05-11T19:24:50","date_gmt":"2023-05-11T18:24:50","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/ipamusic.co.uk\/?p=9150"},"modified":"2023-05-11T19:25:40","modified_gmt":"2023-05-11T18:25:40","slug":"dropkick-murphys-keep-woody-guthries-spirit-alive-with-more-activist-inspired-songs","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ipamusic.co.uk\/?p=9150","title":{"rendered":"Dropkick Murphys keep Woody Guthrie’s spirit alive with more songs of hope and inspiration"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

ALBUM REVIEW: Dropkick Murphys – Okemah Rising <\/h2>\n\n\n\n

(Dummy Luck Music\/[PIAS])<\/h2>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n

Dropkick Murphys made a very different album indeed for last year’s 11th studio effort This Machine Still Kills Fascists<\/em>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

With singer Al Barr on leave of absence caring for his ailing mother, the band took the opportunity to scratch an itch by making an all-acoustic album.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Rather than their usual rowdy Celtic folk-punk, it was country-tinged folk, based on previously unpublished lyrics by ’40s and ’50s US singer-songwriter Woody Guthrie.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It was one of my favourite albums of 2022 (reviewed here<\/a><\/strong>), and the band’s latest offering, just seven months later, is basically part two, recorded at the same Tulsa sessions with producer Ted Hutt (Flogging Molly, The Gaslight Anthem, The Bouncing Souls).<\/p>\n\n\n

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Dropkick Murphys. Pic by Dave Stauble.<\/strong><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

Again it’s a very enjoyable and thought-provoking album, even if its 10 tracks don’t have quite the same impact as This Machine\u2026<\/em> because they’ve done it before.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Dropkick Murphys have made a fine job of bringing to life Guthrie’s timeless lyrics standing up for the working man, railing against injustice, calling out fascists and championing the rights of black people – a very bold move at the time.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Special guests<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

My Eyes Are Gonna Shine<\/em> is a suitably uplifting opener, and the band are joined on second track Gotta Get To Peekskill<\/em> by the first in a series of special guests, folk-punk band Violent Femmes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The feisty song, released as a single, references the rioting sparked by the Ku Klux Klan’s opposition to a concert by black singer and activist Paul Robeson in New York in 1949.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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