I always like to compare B47s Larry Kirwan to an Irish-American, Bruce Springsteen. Like Springsteen, Kirwan has a special ability to bring alive ordinary people in both song and story and turn their ordinary lives into 3 minute anthems. Though, I would claim Larry has the advantage of the bigger canvas of NYC for people and sounds to work with.

Bankers and Gangsters itself is a very fine release with some very fine individual tracks that both long time fans and even the “I don’t like Larry’s voice crew” will love. Highlights included - “Celtic Rocker”, the summer radio hit “That Summer Dress” and “The Long Lost Tapes of Hendrix” with its uilleann pipe solo. “Red Hugh” brings me back to Springsteen and a line of his but in this case its “We learned more Irish history from a 3 minute record then we ever learned in school”.

http://www.black47.com/