Black 47. Elvis Murphy’s Green Suede Shoes

(Gadfly)

©Michael Koster, May 2005

Nearly every song Black 47 frontman Larry Kirwan writes is directly or indirectly concerned with either the plight of the Irish in America or the immigrant’s love of rock and roll. On Elvis Murphy’s Green Suede Shoes—which combines six new tunes with four cuts from Kirwan’s side projects and two newly recorded versions of old Black 47 songs—Kirwan has gotten downright literary on us. He’s always been smart. But by stringing together specially selected story songs about his two favorite subjects, he’s created a joyous, drunken, wild ride of a narrative that holds together surprisingly well given its piecemeal quality. All Black 47 (the band is named after the worst year of the Irish potato famine) records suffer from a certain sameness of sound and lack of variety, in no small part because Kirwan writes most of the material and sings with almost no variance in his voice. Green Suede Shoes is no exception, and it can grate. On the upside, this disc shares the best qualities of the band’s past records: mainly intelligence, historical depth, exuberance, a rebellious spirit, and lots of exotic Celtic instrumentation (uilleann pipes, bodhran, horns, tin whistle, etc.) despite the fact that Black 47 is first and foremost a rock band. If you dig upbeat, rootsy, pub-bred rock and roll, this disc is worth a spin. If you’re at all interested in the Irish-American experience, Green Suede Shoes is a must.