That was written about so many of my friends. “ ‘Barroom Hero’ was the first song we ever wrote,” Casey says, “our most popular song in the early days. While Casey can celebrate the drinking culture, he can also upend it. Casey himself has been sober over a quarter-century and he says other band members have toned it down or stopped drinking, some having struggled with it over the years. “We have to offset our cultural, literate side with our violent, comic side,” Casey says, with a laugh. They’re also noted for three other things: drinking songs, fighting songs and songs that become local baseball and hockey anthems like “I’m Shipping Up to Boston” and “Time to Go.” Still, there are things some might see as contradictions or paradoxes within Dropkick Murphys, which includes guitarist Matt Lynch, drummer Matt Kelly and multi-instrumentalists Tim Brennan and Jeff DeRosa. The band certainly has a social consciousness and a political thrust, and they’ve turned their ideas into practice with their charitable Claddagh Fund, a foundation formed in 2009 that focuses on programs that support children, veterans organizations and alcohol and drug rehabilitation. “You might have a sad song and people sing it like it’s a party anthem, twist it the way the Irish do, and a lot of songs of ours do.” “That’s a little bit the nature of Irish music,” says Casey. Yet, the band is one of the most rousing, aggressive good-time bands to ever come out of Boston. It’s serious stuff and Dropkick Murphys have dealt with tough topics like this for years.
Maybe you can think that way, maybe you can’t, but what if it’s your child that has that problem?” With addiction - even with the crazy amount of death that’s happening - people feel it’s not something they could catch walking down the street, that it’s something these people did to themselves. I’ve seen people who went to rehab 30, 40 times and on the 41st time they get it. “Rebels with a Cause,” sung by Barr, Casey says “is about a specific couple - when one gets clean and the other doesn’t, and they take each other down and people eventually give up on ‘em.
'How do I get out of this rabbit hole where my life has gone because of this addiction?' " First, says Casey, came "Paying My Way," sung in unison by Barr and Casey, which is "just about picking yourself up and doing the next right thing: You’re down and out and you’re looking at life. The best way to make something sound big is to make it sound sparse before it gets big, so that was a new approach for us as well.”Īfter what Casey calls “the spontaneous spark” of “You’ll Never Walk Alone,” the songwriting fire was lit. “Sometimes we’re guilty of wanting to have something going on at every spot. “We tried to take a less-is-more approach on this,” says Casey. “11 Short Stories” is a strong, hook-packed album, perhaps a little less Celtic-flavored than before, with more space in the sound. Co-lead singer Al Barr replaced singer Mike McColgan, who now sings in Street Dogs, in 1998. The band formed 21 years ago and Casey is the sole remaining founder.
Their last tour dates are in Boston and, as Casey says, they’ve been rehearsing buried old tunes and can pick from anywhere in their catalog. Of the approximate 26 songs they’ll do in 90 minutes, nine will come from “11 Short Stories.” But as the band does multiple hometown shows, they like to rejigger their set lists. Patrick’s Day shows in Boston - March 15-17 at the House of Blues, March 18 at Agganis Arena and March 19, a final small club (read: very hard to get tickets) show at Brighton Music Hall - they’ll have new material. So, when the band plays its annual skein of St. Out of that came their ninth studio album, “11 Short Stories of Pain & Glory.” For one thing, the Dropkicks decided to cover it - rock it up Celtic-punk style - but more than that, it inspired Casey to write.
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The Boston-based sextet - plus touring bagpiper Lee Forshner - was busy with touring and family obligations, and had no plans to make an album at that point, their last, “Signed and Sealed in Blood,” having come out four years ago.īut that song was a catalyst.
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