Hailing from Cumbria’s Cleator Moor via Dublin, The Black Guards are a six-piece that view themselves as ‘a roguish fusion of alt-folk, roots & country, rhythmically weaving and crafting their songs of hope & sorrow from the white feathered plains’. Their debut EP Drawn In is due for release on 26th May via Folkstock Records. Listen in full below:
The Black Guards are: “Paul O’Halloran (lead singer and guitar) who left his native Dublin after admitting in Confession he was their greatest song writing Centre Forward, Paul McGhee (lead guitar and banjo) who successfully ingratiated himself into the Manchester Musical Intelligentsia in order to promote The West Cumbrian Sound, Anne Marie McStraw (fiddle, pipes and mandolin), who almost successfully campaigned that anyone unable to play the violin be expelled from all political parties, which quickly prompted political activist Ben Sloan to seek out & study the largest of their kind, the double-bass, and sensing the tide was changing, accordionist & pirate Owen Evans swept in to nullify this corrupt & roguish sound, whilst the temperance beats & tribal grooves of Andrew Bates (drums) celebrated this spiritual & soul purging movement in music.”
Drawn In – Track-by-Track
Drawn In: This is a song about a teenage me (Paul) finding my place in a world full of empty promises and disappointment. And the discovery that people will lie, use you and leave you at the drop of a hat to meet their own ends.
The Ballad of Mrs. O : Song about getting up in the morning and going out into that big bad merciless world, breaking your back to give it your all and often times only getting slim pickings, but having the indelible support, love, counsel and strength of a beautiful partner to reinvigorate your soul and spirit.
Karma: This is a song from the perspective of someone who hasn’t even embarked on romantic love but is bitterly disappointed thus far by the way humans treat each other. Hopefully, Karma has its place, and when karma comes, it’s gonna burn.
Boat Cuts A Water: A song about the scales of unfairness and equality that some people are born into ” Complex matters from first light, cause some people to struggle with plight” And the sense of ideal, of wanting to give and do more for a better world.
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