In the darkest depths of Charminster in Bournemouth, at the Roadkill studios The Jack Ratts have been busy recording themselves an album.After countless numbers of high energy gigs the band wanted to get a permanent documentary of their work recorded for all to hear.
For those of you who don’t know The Jack Ratts just think of The Pogues Celtic folk rock style with a large amounts of pirate attitude and nautical nonsense. Amongst their army of instruments are banjo, accordion, mandola, Mandolin washboard, fiddle, whistle,bass, acoustic guitar and drums. The album is a full value for money 16 track affair which includes a mixture of the bands own compositions mixed with some traditional folk songs. I challenge anyone to listen to it and not tap their feet or start singing along to the infectious music. For me there is really two parts to the album a collection of songs that are solely dedicated to the pirate genre with tracks 1, 2, 10, 14 and 15 giving a great atmospheric nautical feel to them and would be quite a home on a pirate movie soundtrack.
The 2nd is a set of songs are mostly what I would describe as fun time drinking songs such as “Murshin Durkin” and “The Leaving Of Liverpool” made famous by The Pogues on their album “Rose Red For Me”. While The Pogues are a major influence on the band there are plenty of other diverse country and folk influences going on giving the band’s music broad appeal. In testament to this my 5 year old son got an mp3 player for Christmas and the 1st album he wanted to put on it was this one after only hearing it a few times in the car, now he knows virtually every word to every song. The Jack Ratts are a very talented bunch of guys who write and produce some fantastic music bucking the usual trends of modern music, this their debut album is a highly listenable piece of work which will hopefully bring the band to a much larger audience. I am sure there are plenty of Summer Festivals that will really benefit for a set by this set of musicians who’s aim is to play their music and have a much fun as possible while doing it.
Buy Your own Copy of the album here
The Jack Ratts are
Vinnie Jack Ratt (Guitar/Vocals)
Andy Jack Ratt(Mandolin/Banjo/Mandola/Whistle/Vocals)
Fabian Maddison(Accordion/Banjo/Vocals)
Rich(Bass)
Jo(Fiddle)
Pete(Drums/Washboard)
Guest Players
Hawkeye (Banjo, Vocals)
Crow Man (Washboard)
Track-Listing
1-Sail The Deadly Seas
2-Cut Throat Jig
3-Cripple Creek
4-Murshin Durkin
5-Big Rock Candy Mountain
6-Down The Hatch
7-Revolution In Central Square
8-Working On The Ranch
9-Leaving Of Liverpool
10-The Curse Of Jack The Ratt
11-Moving On Song
12-Drunken Sailor
13-New York Girls/Clumsy Lover Reel
14-The Dark Fable Of Davey Jones
15-The Voyage Beyond The Locker
16-The Tale Of No Hope
Video
Band Links
http://www.facebook.com/TheJackRatts
http://thejackratts.bigcartel.com
Words & Videos by Dave “What’s this middle 8 you all talk of?” Chinners.
