Saratoga First Night:
A new take on Celtic music performed by veteran
musicians, blending original songs and new arrangements of crowd
favorites! This group has been tearing up the festival and pub
scene! And for those who think they don’t like Irish music---this
group will change your mindset forever!
________________________________________________________________________________________
Celtic rock re-born: The Fighting 86's
Thursday, August 29, 2010
The Saratogian / Saratoga Springs, NY
Maggie Doherty
Local Celtic treasure The
Fighting 86's mean business, with a side of
Guinness, of course. With the release of
their debut album "Blood Brothers" this past
spring, the Irish/Celtic rock trio is
gaining recognition not only locally, but on
the national scene, as well. Catch The
Fighting 86's this summer at Irish Times in
Saratoga Springs on Aug. 5 from 9 to 1 p.m.
and at the Bayshore Tropic Hut in Saratoga
Lake on Aug. 6 from 7 to 11 p.m.
Formed on a whim and as a side gig for
frontman guitar player and vocalist Brian
Gibney, The Fighting 86’s was his first dive
into the Irish/Celtic genre. He had been
playing with local folk sensation The
McKrells where he met bodhran player (that’s
big, Irish-sounding drum player to the
novices) Steve Butler. Originally, Gibney
has a classic rock/metal background and
played long-term with local rock band,
Springfed. “The Celtic music became
something I really identified with, and I
was awed by the following,” Gibney said.
“Within a month or two we became booked
solid. Now we’re booking almost a year in
advance.”
Fiddle player Mark Frederick, who won’t
hesitate to whip out the banjo or the
mandolin, is a classically trained orchestra
teacher, yet the reason for his delving into
in Celtic music was to protest English rule
in the American colonies. “I know it has
been several years, but I’m very patriotic
and wanted to do my part.” Inevitably, the
result is a high-energy, eclectic mix of
Celtic rock, Irish tunes and even some
American classic rock with an acoustic Irish
twist. It may sound overwhelming, which for
the Irish/Celtic listener (myself included)
is part of the thrill, but the men are truly
polished masters of their craft.
“The rhythms and speed of Celtic music take
some getting used to,” Gibney explained.
“Once I got that down, though, it was an
open canvas to meld…we’ve gone from
traditional Celtic jigs and reels to
acoustic re-makes of Iron Maiden without
major conflict.” The blending of the
different styles and backgrounds of each
musician is what makes the band so
marketable. Of course, they are classified
as Irish/Celtic, but as Gibney broke it
down: “Steve provides the authentic tone of
the bodhran and Mark teaches orchestra so he
is used to providing arrangement. I, being
an old metal head, provide the intensity and
derangement.”
As the only member of the group with a
predominantly Irish/Celtic background,
Butler helps maintain the sound, but he also
appreciates versatility. “I was adamant that
while there is certainly a market for Irish
songs, we would be much more successful by
doing all kinds of music and making it
Celtic.” He said they do get many requests
for traditional Irish tunes and are slowly
working them in, mostly to please the
requestees.
“We are a Celtic rock band first,” Butler
said.
According to Frederick, the venture into
Celtic was a challenge given his classical
training. “My background has allowed me some
techniques that are definitely not typical
in Irish music…it was a huge challenge to
overcome this when it came to improvisation
and creating music in real time, not off the
page,” Frederick said.
He believes the process has made him a
stronger musician. “I’ve learned to loosen
up and have become a much better player.
Musically, it has been a fun time and really
keeps me on my toes. Also, when I make a
mistake, it’s easier to tell people that it
was ‘artistic interpretation’ and if they
call me on it, I just let them know they
wouldn’t understand with their
underdeveloped musical palette, but it’s
cute to see them try.”
So, if you think the crowds the Fighting
86’s attract are beer-guzzling crazies,
you’re absolutely right (kind of.) When
asked what the crowds are like at a typical
Fighting 86’s show, Frederick responded,
“angry crowds, mobs really, I didn’t even
know that many people had pitchforks. Also,
alcoholics and rabble-rousers.”
I asked Gibney how the crowds differed from
the ones he used to get with his old rock
band, Springfed. “Humorously, they both
drink an absurd amount,” he said, adding
that a show typically goes over well with
kids and grandparents alike.
The most “sober” answer came from Butler:
“We play in so many venues that the crowds
are all over the place,” he said. “The great
thing is that it seems wherever we go we are
invited back. It’s a great feeling and it
means the crowds and owners love what they
hear.”
As Gibney said, the band books nearly a year
in advance. Their new CD “Blood Brothers,”
is “still going strong in sales,” according
to Gibney. You can find on it riveting
covers of U2, Flogging Molly, the Waterboys,
the Saw Doctors and more, as well as
traditional songs and originals. It is
available for purchase at The Counties of
Ireland in Troy and Celtic Treasures on
Broadway in Saratoga Springs. It is also
available for purchase online through CDBABY
on their website and by mail order for $13.
Helping them gain acclaim and recognition,
the band has been opening for national acts,
such as Canadian-based nationally touring
highland band the Glengarry Bhoys last fall.
When I freely admitted I was a Glengarry
groupie, thankfully Gibney had good things
to say.
“They were great guys,” he said. “Ziggy,
their drummer, really took time to hang out
with us and talk business back stage. I’ve
opened for many nationals, and needless to
say, most kept to themselves. It was
refreshing.”
On the national circuit, the band has played
in New York City, a festival in Charlotte,
North Carolina that they are invited back to
in August, and recently finished a
three-night stint in Cincinnati. “We took an
RV and nine guys to get there and back,”
Butler said. “It was a blast.” “Let’s just
say I’m lucky to be in one piece, and I’m
all the richer as a human,” Gibney said.
With so much experience under their kilts,
only exciting things are in the foreseeable
future for the Fighting 86’s.
“Long term I would like to see us touring
regionally and moving to a national name. We
would love to get hooked up with an agency
and label at some point. After this summer
and the recording of our new CD in the fall,
which will be mostly originals, I can
certainly see that happening,” Butler said.
“If I get my wish, movie soundtracks down
the road,” Gibney said.
When I asked Frederick what his favorite
part about performing with the band is, he
said “Free beer and the promise of literally
hundreds of dollars a year!”
Long-time local
musicians rising high on Celtic scene
Thursday, April 22, 2010
Schenectady Gazette
Brian McELHINEY
The Fighting 86’s have never practiced before.
And it’s not like they really needed to. Vocalist
and guitarist Brian Gibney has been playing in the area for 20 years
in various rock bands, and spent two years in The McKrells, where he
met bodhran player Steve Butler, himself a 12-year veteran of the
local Irish music scene. Fiddler, mandolinist and banjoist Mark
Frederick is a classically trained violinist.
“Honestly, it’s a kind of thing — we’ve all been
hired guns for so long, and Mark and I are teachers, so we can
pretty much play a song at the drop of a dime,” Gibney said recently
while enjoying a Guinness (naturally) with his bandmates at
Mulligan’s Restaurant & Pub in Round Lake, where the group used to
perform every Sunday when it first started out.
“My career playing was with a guy named Frank
Jaklitsch from Albany,” Butler said. “And you needed to be able to
play anything at the drop of a hat, so it really was basic training.
Because now, it doesn’t matter what song Brian starts singing,
because Mark can certainly play anything at any time.”
Rising to the Top
In the year that Gibney, Butler and Frederick have
been playing together under this name, they’ve watched their mix of
traditional Celtic music and classic rock tunes skyrocket them to
the forefront of the local Irish music scene. Last month, the group
played no fewer than 14 shows for the Saint Patrick’s Day season,
and has toured as far out as Charlotte, N.C. Next up, they’ll be at
The Irish Times, where they regularly perform, on Friday night.
The group’s high-energy performances nearly
derailed it for a month — Butler is recovering from shoulder surgery
due to wear and tear, some of which was due to his powerful drumming
technique onstage. However, he bounced back more quickly than
expected.
“I thought I was going to take a month off, and
we’re ready to go by next week,” he said last week.
With a full-length CD recorded by Dave Tyo, “Blood
Brothers,” just released last month, the band is looking to keep
touring beyond the Northeast. The album is a near-live document,
recorded in just 12 hours with minimal overdubs, with a track
listing featuring everything from traditional Irish tunes such as
“Cooley’s Reel” and “P Stands for Paddy” to songs originally by
Dougie MacLean (“Ready for the Storm”), U2 (“Bad”) and Flogging
Molly (“Devil’s Dance Floor”).
“We all enjoy traditional Celtic music, but it
works well with anything,” Gibney said. “We’ve done Iron Maiden with
a Celtic vibe. We can bust into any Americana song. It’s really more
than that.”
This fusion of styles makes sense considering the
group’s varied makeup. Before Gibney joined up with McKrells leader
Kevin McKrell in 2007, he hadn’t played a note of Irish music
before, and was rapidly thrust into the genre.
“I got hired the week before Saint Patrick’s Day;
never done a Celtic thing in my life, and didn’t have any
rehearsals, so I got thrown right in the fire,” he said. “But I was
amazed, especially in the festival circuit, how big a following
there was; I had no idea previous to that. So, obviously, being a
businessman as well, I realized there’s quite a big market, and it’s
proven right.”
Originally, the group played with the rhythm
section from Gibney’s previous band, Spring Fed, but soon cut back
to the acoustic trio. “It has been a great advantage for us getting
into places, because we can go in small and to be honest,
financially, we can be real competitive with what we do,” Butler
said.
Frederick faced his own set of challenges
performing with the band. Coming from a classical and orchestral
background, his biggest challenge was improvisation.
“We had to fill all this time, especially in the
beginning when we didn’t have as much material,” Frederick said.
“And they’d just turn and say, ‘Here you go; here’s 10 minutes —
go.’ ”
Trial by fire
The band never had aspirations of being a strictly
traditional Irish band, and has occasionally met with some
resistance.
“Remember that little old couple that was sitting
right there?” Butler said, pointing to a table in Mulligan’s. “We
had just played a U2 song, a Saw Doctors song and maybe like
Flogging Molly or something, and Brian said, ‘Is there any
requests?’ And the little old lady says, ‘Can you play something
Irish?’ ”
But for the most part, audiences get what the
group is doing.
“One of the greatest times we ever had was in
Charlotte,” Butler said. “We played ‘Born to Run’ and had two
members of a pipe band join us. And we’re playing ‘Born to Run’ at
an Irish festival.”
“With bagpipes,” Gibney added. “It was cool as
hell.”
________________________________________________________________________________________
First published in print: Thursday, April 8, 2010
By: Tom Keyser
Albany, NY Times Union
http://www.timesunion.com/AspStories/story.asp?storyID=919277&category=ARTS&BCCode=&newsdate=4/8/2010
fighting 86'S -- "Blood Brothers." You've heard them
live around the Capital Region for the past year. Now you can hear
them at home. The three members of the Celtic-rock band Fighting
86's have produced a debut album you'll want to hear over and over
again. The 12 songs include originals, traditional tunes and
exquisite covers of the Waterboys, Saw Doctors, Dougie McLean, Jay
Unger, Flogging Molly and U2. Brian Gibney's voice is strong and
exudes emotion, and the musicianship (Gibney guitar, Steve Butler
bodhran and Mark Frederick fiddle) is superb, and the arrangements
fresh. Catch the Fighting 86's at Beff's in Albany on April 17,
Irish Times in Saratoga Springs on April 23 and McIntyre's Pub in
Watervliet on April 24.
_______________________________________________________________________________________
CD Review: The Fighting 86’s’
“Blood Brothers”
By: Greg Haymes
Nippertown
is an online magazine based in the greater Capital
Region and Hudson Valley regions of New York and western
Massachusetts. We write about art, music and anything else that
interests us.
http://www.nippertown.com/2010/03/24/cd-the-fighting-86s-blood-brothers
The Celtic trio of Nippertown music
scene veterans actually made their recording debut
back in January – backing up tireless troubadour
Frank Jaklitsch for a handful of
tunes on his latest album,
“Some Hearts.”But
“Blood Brothers” is the official full-length debut
from the Fighting 86’s, and it’s a
fitting representation of the band, a perfect blend
of old and new, urgent vocals and instrumental
prowess.
The album takes off like a shot
with the traditional fiddle ‘n’ drum-driven
instrumental “Bodhran.” It kicks the album into high
gear and then steamrolls to its rousing conclusion,
all in under two minutes.
Over the course of the album,
guitarist-vocalist Brian Gibney,
fiddler Mark Frederick and booming
bodhranist Steve Butler make the
most of their acoustic three-piece sound. This is
definitely a band where the whole is greater than
just the sum of its parts.
They rock ‘n’ reel through four
traditional tunes and bring things up-to-date by
putting their own stamp on a bushel of tunes plucked
from the songbags of the Waterboys (“Fisherman’s
Blues”), Flogging Molly (“Devil’s Dance Floor”),
Dougie McLean (“Ready for the Storm”), the Saw
Doctors (“Green and Red of Mayo”) and, yes, U2
(“Bad”).
They leaven their rousing sound
with a yearning, stately take on Jay Ungar’s classic
fiddle ballad, “Ashokan Farewell.” And while the
band includes only two original tunes, both of them
– Gibney’s churning “Cow Dung” and Frederick’s
instrumental reel “One Take Johnny” (featuring some
sparkling, Spanish-filigreed guitar work from
Gibney) – quite capably stand up alongside the songs
of their contemporaries.
Bringing it all back home, they
wrap up the album with a special guest appearance by
Jaklitsch, who steps up to the microphone for the
traditional gospel-blues, “John the Revelator,” as
Gibney plugs in to deliver some tasty electric blues
licks.
The Fighting 86’s
launch “Blood Brothers” with a CD release party at
the Round Lake Pub in Malta at 6pm on Sunday.
____________________________________________________________________
Fit for Flight: The Fighting 86's spread their music
to new markets
August 14,
2009
http://www.saratoga.com/today/2009/08/fit-for-flight-the-fighting-86s-spread-their-music-to-new-markets.html
