The Dreadnoughts

More YouTube serendipity: while listening to the Dropkick Murphys (see, previously, Celtpunk!) I just ran into another band so far unknown to me, The Dreadnoughts.

They're a Canadian folk-punk band who have been described as "One part roaring sea shanty, one part haunting Irish melody, and a solid chaser of gut-crunching street punk". Their influences are highly eclectic: English folk, Eastern European and klezmer, polka, and even a spot of Finnish 'humppa' (an ultra-fast foxtrot). Check out Gintlemen's Club, a song of London low-life; The Cruel Wars, a raw a capella fusion of Johnny I hardly Knew Ye and High Germany; the wistful Avalon; the shanty Old Maui, a straight a capella cover of the traditional Rolling Down to Old Maui (the tune is very close to The Miller of Dee); Amsterdam (a kind of grim modern shanty / cautionary tale with Russian-influenced music); the Eastern European influenced Sleep is for the Weak; (one commenter says, "This song makes me wanna binge on vodka while dancing"); the laidback instrumental Clavdia's Waltz; the French-Canadian Poutine (a reference to the heart attack inducing Quebec dish); the frenetic Goblin Humppa; and the humppa-meets-Wurzels West Country Man.

I'll travel far and wide
Yes, I will, yes, I will
With comrades at my side
Yes, I will, yes, I will
West Country is a place that you can find
But furthermore, a state of mind
So drink thee cider down
An' pass the jug around,
listen the Wurzels when you can
Live loud and free, soon enough you'll be
A real West Country Man.
- West Country Man, The Dreadnoughts



- RG