The Irish Balladeers
I hate it when music goes the way of the Dodo Bird.
I was watching The Legend of Zorro when the Pinkertons were mentioned. I couldn't remember much about them, so I went over to Wikipedia and read up on them. I followed several links, including one that went to The Molly Maguires.
One of the first tape someone lent me when we started playing Irish music was about The Molly Maguires... well, mining songs in general. But I just made a copy of a copy and thought the group was called The Molly Maguires until I met a band in TN who owns the copyright for a band named The Molly Maguires.
*breath*
So that page listed a group called The Irish Balladeers who wrote a song called "The Sons of Molly". So I searched there and found that Chuck Rogers from PA was the author of the song and a member of the group The Irish Balladeers.
So finally, I found that The Irish Balladeers were the authors and performers of this much loved album of mine. But the sucky thing is... the album is no longer in production! That bites hard. Cuz it was an awesome album. I haven't, yet, learned their songs, but there's a few I would love to learn if I could understand the lyrics.
I wonder if I can get ahold of someone from the band?
Hmm. Ah well, Kathleen Rogers is apparently the daughter of Chuck Rogers. She is now the owner of The Banshee, a pub in Scanton, PA.
Some Liam Clancy's website, I found that the album was released in 1968 on the Avoca label.
The band members were mostly brothers: Chuck Rogers, Bob Rogers, John Rogers, and their brother-in-law, Ted Andrews.
The recording also featured their father, Charles, Sr. on accordion and Eddie Lennihan. Avoca Records is no more. I wonder if the band is able to re-release the album independently?
There's more information about the band at Mudcat.
Fantastic! The email address for Bob Rogers worked.
THE MYSTERY REVEALED
Well, after lots of searching, the disappeared band is not so gone. In fact, The Irish Balladeers have seven albums and are still playing weekly at The Banshee. It looks like they are still selling their albums at the pub. I even found an MP3 of theirs that I downloaded a long time ago from MP3.com. So now I just need to see about purchasing their CDs.
Labels: scribbles
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posted by Marc Gunn @ Tuesday, August 22, 2006
3 Comments:
Hey, I just wanted to let you know that The Irish Balladeers, Bob & Chuck Rogers, are my uncles. Obviously you have been in contact with them about purchasing their CD's. Just wanted to let you know that two of Chuck's sons, Charles and Patrick, and two of my brothers, Kevin and Charles Bandru, are following in their footsteps under the name of Donnybrook. They have released a CD titled "Get Reel" with 14 tracks, including "Sons of Molly." They recorded their CD with Pyramid Recording Studio, www.pyramidrecording.com if you want to find out more info.
Hey! I have been searching for this album for years! I gave up some time ago but recently decided to give it another go. My grandmother had this album and I made a crummy cassette copy when I was a child and listened to it nearly every day. My granma has long since passed away and this wonderful album vanished...
If there is a cd available PLEASE let me know how I can purchase it.
I'm livin in japan now but have family in NJ and DE so I could have it shipped there if overseas is not possible.
Please! I'm dying to hear "The Bold Black and Tan" ;-) Great song, that one.
Thanks alot!
Jamey
jamey_fukunaga@yahoo.com
I had the pleasure of seeing this band live many years ago when they used to come down to Wilmington. The Sons of Molly is one of those songs that stays in your head and just pops to the fore at unexpected moments. Of course since I could only remember about half the words, it was a little frustrating. I got interested again when I read some of the Molly Maguire history. They say that Alex Campbell's handprint is still on the wall of the cell in the old jail at Jim Thorpe (Maunch Chunk to the oldtimers).
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