Artist Information Instrumentation Geoffrey Blythe - Tenor and soprano saxophone Andrew Goodsight - Bass and vocals Thomas Hamlin - Drums and percussion Larry Kirwan - Lead vocals, Stratocaster Fred Parcells - Trombone and pennywhistle Joseph Mulvanerty - Uilleann pipes, flute, bodhrán Biography Black 47 espouses an unblinkingly political and thoroughly Irish form of rock 'n' roll, with songs covering topics from the Northern Ireland conflict to civil rights and urban unrest in contemporary New York. Black 47 earned their chops playing the pub scene in Manhattan and self-producing their first indie record, Black 47, before converting The Cars' Ric Ocasek to the cause and gaining mainstream attention with their second album, Fire Of Freedom. The band has produced nine albums to date. Website http://www.black47.com Discography HOME OF THE BRAVE/ LIVE IN LONDON (Independent 1989) BLACK 47 (BLK Records 1991) BLACK 47 EP (EMI/SBK Records 1992) FIRE OF FREEDOM (EMI/SBK Records 1993) HOME OF THE BRAVE (EMI/SBK Records 1994) GREEN SUEDE SHOES (Mercury Records 1996) LIVE IN NEW YORK CITY (Gadfly Records 1999) TEN BLOODY YEARS (Shanachie Records 1999) TROUBLE IN THE LAND (Shanachie Records 2000) ON FIRE (Gadfly Records 2001) NEW YORK TOWN (Gadfly Records 2004) ELVIS MURPHY'S GREEN SUEDE SHOES (Gadfly Records 2005)

Promotional preview for Paddy Palooza. (The music mix is a rough one, not the final mix).

2/2008 - Post card to a gig we did in Sellersville PA.

Stereo Subversion - Meaningful Music Exists

Posing for a band photo session in all our glory on the stage of Connolly's aka Klub 45. Who photoshopped my white sweater black and put sunglasses on me and Geoff?

Black 47’s Iraq looks at war through soldiers’ eyes | Music | Rhode Island news | projo.com | The Providence Journal

Rolling Stone : Fricke’s Picks: Black 47 because with every extra day of Fox News patriotism and Beltway paralysis, the only guaranteed surge is in body count

Irish influx -- Page 1 -- Times Union - Albany NY

Black 47 at Connolly's: New Year's Eve in Times Square Victor Zimet and Stephanie Silber made the DVD of us playing New Years 2007. On Sunday March 2, 2008 they came to our gig at the Yonker's Police Athletic League party. They were handing out this business card promoting that film for the Westchester Film Festival while the opening band, Green Eggs and Mayhem, a young power trio blasted thru their set which was the backdrop for the main event - 32 men getting their heads shaved.

YouTube - The Ballad of Cindy Sheehan by Black 47 Knobs' worst nightmare!!!! This was put together by Howie Klein, expresident of Reprise Records. You never know...

The old Badu only fresh and new - Music - NJ.com
NEWARK STAR LEDGER
February 29, 2007
PROTEST ROCK: "Iraq" Black 47 (UFO)

Black 47, the New York-based Irish-rock band with a routinely raucous sound, turns it attention to the war in Iraq on its new album, "Iraq." Songs were inspired by the evening news, and by stories from fans of the band who have served in the military.
"Hey, President Bush, what are ya doin' to us?/We've been through hell, man, it's time we went home," sings frontman Larry Kirwan in "Stars and Stripes," which borrows its melody from the folk song (popularized by the Beach Boys), "Sloop John B."
"Ballad of Fallujah" is truly harrowing, and "Ballad of Cindy Sheehan" is a somber, poignant portrait of the activist, whose son was killed in Iraq: "The sweetest light shines from a child's eyes/Take it away, there's a void/That's why I gave up my heart and my home/To testify against this cruel war."
Kirwan's vocals are often closer to yelping than singing, and the band as a whole often shows more heart than imagination. But if these songs were more polished, perhaps they would be less powerful.
Download this: "Ballad of Fallujah"
-- Jay Lustig

Country, funky jazz - and Celtic rock among new CD releases | Philadelphia Daily News | 03/04/2008
PHILADELPHIA DAILY NEWS
March 4, 2008
WHEN IRISH EYES ARE FROWNING: A fire-breathing, clench-fisted, rabble-rousing spirit fuels both Celtic traditional music and punk rock. So combining the two styles makes for quite the incendiary device, in the explosive work of the Los Angeles-based band Flogging Molly on "Float" (SideOne Dummy, B) and New York's Black 47 on "Iraq" (United For Opportunity, B+). Both feature Irish front men, and both touch on contemporary concerns, with the latter offering an unrelenting assault on the Iraq war as seen through the eyes of Western troops on the battlefront. I wish the Black 47 gang had managed to work in some Middle Eastern sonic flavor, too. But "Downtown Baghdad Blues" (integrating the traditional Irish tune "The Moreen") and "Stars and Stripes" (oddly jumping off "Sloop John B") are rich examples of cultural co-mingling.

Amie Street Music for March 4th, 2008

IRAQ Songs from the Front Lines Released today, Iraq is the devastatingly outspoken new album from Irish-American rock band Black 47. Written from the perspective of their fans who have served in Iraq, the album portrays both the tragedies of war and the hope for a better future. Black 47 have always taken pride in keeping in touch with their audience, and early versions of these songs sent abroad have already become troop favorites. Iraq was selected as a critic's pick by senior editor David Fricke for the upcoming issue of Rolling Stone, and will hopefully bring some substance back to the pop charts.

Celtic / Rock

Music Review: Black 47 - Iraq

 My Old Kentucky Blog: Black 47 : Iraq : The MP3 blog that puts some stank in it.

CD Review: Black 47 – Iraq « Lucid Culture

 FOX & Friends - FOXNews.com  After playing The World Cafe in Philly the night before, we stayed up all night to be at the Fox studio in NYC at 5 am to play live on Fox & [Friends].

Studio 360: Stop-Loss, Black 47, Stew National Guard Captain Padraic Lilly related to Black 47's music instantly. When bandleader Larry Kirwan started hearing from soldiers like Lilly, their experiences fed a new batch of songs about the Iraq war. But Black 47's anti-war message doesn't sit well with all of its fans. Produced by Trent Wolbe.

 3/29/2008 Great theater, great crowd, great gig.

PLAYBACK:stl - SEE THE LIGHT - Black 47 | Iraq (United For Opportunity)

 Donegal Saloon Kearny NJ 4/12/2008

RAYSREALM: A Current Day Classic  BLACK 47 – “Iraq” CD ’08

FearlessMusic.com - Black 47 - Downtown Baghdad Blues. FMTV Live Ep 31 Jamie Lamm runs this very cool show. He's a bass player who played on a Copernicus tour that Hammy and I were on.

YouTube - Black 47 -Sunrise On Brooklyn video by Rik Sansone

MySpace.com - Black 47 Iraq - NEW YORK, New York - Celtic / Folk Rock / Rock - www.myspace.com/black47iraq 

 Black 47 | Facebook

Home Team Productions - Video Previews  Black 47 Ireland Tour 2003 with Fans from Stef & Vic in RealPlayer format

Program from the Black 47 gig at the Whitaker Underground at STAGE TWO in Harrisberg PA - The Election tour (PDF)

Tour of Ireland 2009 Join Black 47 Live as they play on their 2oth anniversity (PDF)

Duggan vs Paulson Article from The Irish Echo