Young Dubliners

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

The Young Dubliners began in 1988 as a duo, Keith Roberts and Paul O'Toole. Both played acoustic guitars and sang. The format was mostly Irish folksongs and Irish pop. Keith and Paul made an interesting contrast. Paul, an electrician by trade, was a multi-instrumentalist and true Dubliner, from the north side of the city. Keith was a college-educated product of the pairing of two well-known Irish entertainers. Not truly from Dublin, Keith was raised in the posh suburb of Dun Laoghaire (sounds like Dun Leary to an American ear). One of Keith's musical motivations may have been having known members of the band Hothouse Flowers during his days in college.

Their homebase in the earliest of the early days was the Irish Rover on Santa Monica Boulevard in Santa Monica. They were an underground phenomenon back in those days, and they often played to a packed, although very small house. They shared the Rover back then with another Irish band called "The Lads"; one would play Friday nights and the other would take Saturday nights. Paddy's Day 1988 had The Lads go on first, followed by the Young Dubliners.

Back in those days they had a soundman, Rob McCulley, who would record all the shows. There are dozens and dozens of these tapes in existence. They self-produced their first cassette, "Young Dubliners Live", based on those early recordings. The tape included their very first original song, "Keaton's Bar", written by Paul O'Toole. The act developed. They added instruments, and gave the yoke to ones they didn't care for (e.g. bongo player). "John" Brendan Holmes, another Dubliner, joined them on bass, a role that he has held ever since (while myriad other musicians came and went). "Dirty Old Town' developed into their closing song, and it was during this period that "Fisherman's Blues" and "Rocky Road to Dublin" became essential numbers. In answer to the mosh pit, the front of the stage would feature what would (much later) be called the 'jig pit', and the traditional instrumental "Coolies" was the song that would get it in full gear.

During this period the Young Dubliners opened for the Celtic musician Christy Moore (who insisted on meeting 'the boys' before going on), and for The Furey Brothers (who counseled them to play more originals--fine advice from a band that had maybe one or two original songs to their name). They released another self-produced cassette, this time a studio release called "Home", featuring the eponymous (and their second) original song.

The Young Dubliners have released seven albums over the years. They are:

     •Rocky Road, released February 15, 1994
     •Breathe, released June 13, 1995
     •Alive Alive O' (a live album recorded August 29, 1997 at The Belly Up in Solana Beach CA, and the last album to feature original band member Paul O'Toole), released February 10, 1998.
     •Red, released June 20, 2000.
     •Absolutely, released June 4, 2002.
     •Real World, released February 15, 2005.
     •With All Due Respect - The Irish Sessions, released February 13, 2007.

In December of 2003, the band released its first DVD, Home Movies.

The band's current line-up is Keith Roberts on lead vocals and acoustic guitar, Brendan Holmes on bass and vocals, Bob Boulding on guitar and vocals, Dave Ingraham on drums and percussion, and Chas Waltz on violin, keyboard, harp, mandolin and vocals .