Larry Kirwan writes theatrical music both literally and figuratively. Sometimes the epic nature of the music comes close to bombast, sometimes the drama veers toward melodramatic, and sometimes his melodic reach exceeds his vocal grasp.
But what songs.
My criterion for 5 stars is that every track has to be memorable. This disk nails it. One is tempted to go track by track to describe the music. As others have indicated, this is a band with disparate roots and influences; its central tendency sounds something like what might have happened if Springsteen grew up in Wexford listening to traditional Irish music instead of R&R and R&B. Like Springsteen at his best, not everything is pedal-to-the-metal; Black 47's music encompasses a range of subject matter and emotion, but with a perspective rooted in Kirwan's immigrant alienation and political interests. "Banks of the Hudson" is what might happen if a traditional murder ballad crashed into Manhattan complete with Geoff Blythe doing his best Clarence Clemmons imitation; "Funky Ceili" is a joyful celebration of dissoluteness; "James Connolly" an anthemic celebration of the Irish Marxist revolutionary; the quiet "Fanatic Heart" is both plaintive and chilling; and "Living in America" is the band's piece de resistance -- an evocation of the slights and hopes of immigrant men and women in America. Like I said it is tempting to review each track.
It would be easy to fall flat on your face trying to pull this off -- the politics degenerating into sloganeering, the passion into cheap sentimentality, and the music into some kind of ersatz folk hydrid. Kirman's self-deprecating humor (I once saw him perform a song about his girlfriend leaving him "for another woman" while he was with the Major Thinkers, an earlier band) saves him lyrically, and relentless live performance has honed the band musically.
As a final note: "Fire of Freedom" is not Black 47's first CD. The band put out an eponymous CD two years earlier. Many of the songs are the same as "Fire of Freedom" though there are four that are not on subsequent disks. The production is more spare, and I actually prefer some of the performances to the more cluttered productions on "Fire of Freedom." If you like "Fire of Freedom" and you come across "Black 47", it could be worthwhile picking it up.
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