Kier Byrnes & The Kettle Burners are a Boston institution and comprise of co-vocalist and acoustic guitarist Kier Byrnes, lead guitarist and co-vocalist Dan DiBacco, accordion player Jason McGorty, washboard player Monica Sager, bassist Joe Miller and drummer Brian Lilienthal. Boston music scene veteran Kier Byrnes is the recipient of Americana Act of the Year at the 2024 New England Music Awards and his music is self-described as “Good Country Gone Terribly, Terribly Bad”. The band release a new six track EP `Before The Fall` this month.
This extended play opens with `White Russian` which I read is a kind of a breakup song and the vodka based cocktail is maybe a metaphor for the icy nature of this relationship. A number with some rolling rhythmic gypsy-punk tones and vocalised hey heys!! throughout. A passage in the latter section is made for those squat like prisyadka Slavic dance like movements. There`s a reflective melodic Americana vibe to the sprawling `Quarter-Life Crisis` which appears to be about coming to terms with aging, failures, and lost dreams while also identifying past mistakes and stirring the pot to undergo drastic changes, perhaps just to feel something. A number that would sit proud in a Counting Crows set.
`When The Money`s All Gone` is a further contemplation on love and loss with the musical accompaniment mirroring the meditative nature of this number. Another musing on a relationship gone bad comes with the swaying `Train`s Off The Rail` where the title is a representation as to the destructive aftermath of this faltered romance.
`Hurting or Helping` for me had a delightful zydeco vibe at times and is another manifestation of reaching a certain age and reconsidering all you`ve achieved when you gauge yourself against your friends and whether you continue as you are or make changes, if at all possible. The final cut is `Dark Eyes` which is a meld of klezmer, Balkan like beats, gypsy punk and Eastern European folk that is almost like a shot of musical adrenalin and will have you up and dancing along and forgetting if you have two left feet or not. A delightful musical headrush to close out on
How could you describe Kier Byrnes & The Kettle Burners?? Well they`re a feisty high-octane Boston-based accordion-driven country-rock sextet and if I was living in The Bay State they`d be top of my list to catch in a live scenario. This offering was recorded in the Summer of 2024, “before the fall” that Kier left unable to walk for months, leaving him with an injury he is still recovering from, and we all wish him a speedy recovery.
We still, thankfully have a publicly funded healthcare system (The National Health Service) here in the UK and I`d make it almost obligatory to offer a copy of `Before the Fall` as i`m sure it`d cure a lot of the minor ailments they deal with on a day to day basis.
I loved this release and it should come with a sticker that says F**k Life`s problems Let’s Dance !!
Rating 9/10
