seamus dubhghaill

Promoting Irish Culture and History from Little Rock, Arkansas, USA

Tag Archives: Heavy Metal Music


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Birth of Patrick Devlin, Irish Rock Guitarist & Singer

Patrick Devlin, guitarist and singer, is born in Dublin on August 8, 1967. He currently fronts Blaggards, an American Celtic rock band based in Houston, Texas. The Houston Press describes Blaggards as “H-town’s heir to the emerald throne of Phil Lynott and Shane MacGowan.”

Growing up in Dublin, Devlin listens to and is influenced by Irish rebel music and heavy metal bands like Black Sabbath and Iron Maiden.

After moving to Houston in 1994, Devlin tends bar in Irish pubs and music venues for a number of years before starting his first band. From his perspective behind the bar, he realizes there is a local demand for Irish rock music that nobody is fulfilling. In 1996, to this end he forms a band called On the Dole. Although the band does well for several years, opening for legendary Irish touring acts like The Wolfe Tones and The Saw Doctors, eventually he decides it is time to clear the decks and start again.

In 2003, while hosting a weekly open mic at an Irish pub, Devlin meets bassist and singer Chad Smalley, son of Nobel laureate Richard Smalley and a veteran of the Houston music scene who had recently returned from New York and is looking for a new project. The two of them soon begin singing and performing together every week, developing a tight vocal harmony style.

In July 2004, Devlin and Smalley form Blaggards, along with violinist Turi Hoiseth and drummer Brian Vogel. Hoiseth and Vogel have since left the band, leaving Devlin and Smalley as the only original members.

Blaggards tours nationally and internationally. They perform at South by Southwest in 2008, where they are the only Celtic-based act on the official schedule. Their music has been played on the Sirius Satellite Radio program Celtic Crush, hosted by Larry Kirwan of Black 47. In 2013 he includes their recording of “The Irish Rover” on his compilation album Larry Kirwan’s Celtic Invasion.

The song “Big Strong Man” from Blaggards’ first album Standards (2005) appears in the 2010 British film The Kid, directed by Nick Moran.

“Big Strong Man” and “Drunken Sailor” (also from Standards) are both featured in episode 86 of the CBS series The Good Wife, aired on March 24, 2013.

Blaggards’ second album, Live in Texas, is released in 2010. It is a recording of a live performance at Houston’s Continental Club on June 13, 2009. The band’s latest album, Blagmatic, is released on July 14, 2021.

Blaggards, with Arizona-based fiddle player Heide Riggs and drummer Kevin “Turbo” Newton in the current lineup, continue to maintain a rigorous schedule, playing constantly throughout Texas and touring nationally several times a year. Beginning in 2010 (excluding the COVID years), the band does a 10-day Ireland tour every year in the early fall.


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Thin Lizzy’s “Whiskey in the Jar” Charts in UK

whiskey-in-the-jar

“Whiskey in the Jar” by Thin Lizzy enters the UK charts on January 20, 1973.

“Whiskey in the Jar” is the tale of a highwayman or footpad who, after robbing a military or government official, is betrayed by a woman. Whether she is his wife or sweetheart is not made clear. Various versions of the song take place in County Kerry, Kilmoganny, Cork, Sligo, and other locales throughout Ireland. It is also sometimes placed in the American South, in various places among the Ozarks or Appalachians, possibly due to Irish settlement in these places. Names in the song change, and the official can be a Captain or a Colonel, called Farrell or Pepper among other names. The protagonist’s wife or lover is sometimes called Molly, Jenny, Emzy, or Ginny among various other names. The details of the betrayal are also different, being either betraying him to the person he robbed and replacing his ammunition with sand or water, or not, resulting in his killing the person.

The song’s exact origins are unknown. The song first gains wide exposure when the Irish folk band The Dubliners perform it internationally as a signature song and record it on three albums in the 1960s. In the United States, the song is popularized by The Highwaymen, who record it on their 1962 album Encore. Building on their success, the Irish rock band Thin Lizzy hits the Irish and British pop charts with the song in 1973. In 1990 The Dubliners re-record the song with The Pogues with a faster rocky version charting at No.4 in Ireland and No.63 in the UK. The American metal band Metallica brings it to a wider rock audience in 1998 by playing a version very similar to that of Thin Lizzy’s, though with a heavier sound, winning a Grammy Award for the song in 2000 for Best Hard Rock Performance.

Thin Lizzy’s 1972 single stays at the top of the Irish charts for 17 weeks, and the British release stays in the top 30 for 12 weeks, peaking at No. 6, in 1973. This version has since been covered by U2, Pulp (first released on a 1996 various artist compilation album Childline and later on deluxe edition of Different Class in 2006), Smokie, Metallica (Garage Inc. 1998, which wins a Grammy), Belle and Sebastian (The Blues Are Still Blue EP 2006), Gary Moore (2006), Nicky Moore (Top Musicians Play Thin Lizzy 2008), Simple Minds (Searching for the Lost Boys 2009), and Israeli musician Izhar Ashdot. The song is also on the Grateful Dead live compilation So Many Roads (1965-1995) disc five.