I’ma hit y’all with some history right quick. For teh lulz. The Saint Patrick Brigade was formed during the Mexican-American War. They were made up of some runaway slaves, a few Germans, and some Polish and Italian immigrants. But, by far, they were mostly Irish soldiers who had deserted the American Army cuz, well, the officers were dicks and the Mexicans were Catholics. They formed a unit lead by one John O’Riley of Connemara and fought like dogs for two years, partly cuz soldiering was what they knew but also because they were aware that, if they were caught, torture and execution awaited them as traitors. They did pretty well but then they were surrounded, overrun and captured, because the luck of the Irish is mostly bad. Fifty of the survivors were hanged and the rest got a D (for deserter) carved all nice on the cheeks and told to fuck off. Round a lot of places they are spoken about in quite negative terms. Round my way coming up, their display of courage and dedication to bad-ideaship was spoken of most glowingly. For teh lulz.
This odd little footnote of American history was recently the inspiration for an album put together by Ry Cooder, The Chieftains, and a cubic ton of Mexican musicians I have never heard about. Also Linda Ronstadt . Yah. This sounds like this would be a world-music fan’s wet dream, which I guess it probably is, but despite appealing to douche bags,this album is something to hear. I’ma tell y’all why in a minute.
As a day-to- day album. I am not gonna listen to this. I just wouldn’t. Not on the train, not on a plane. It is just too…foreign to me. Not enough for me to relate to. Don’t get me wrong, there are a lot of good songs, the La Folklorisas tracks are good, the Los Tigres Del Norte song is fuckin’ great. Also all the songs that half Mexican half Welsh Lila Downs does are awesome. Also she is fine. I mean fi I I I ine. For reals. It is a lot of very traditional Mexican music with the Chieftains elbowing in with a whistle or pipe here and there. Starbuck’s must be tripping over themselves trying to hawk this business to their smug, NPR supporting,lazy, punk-ass, horn-rimmed glasses wearing motherfucking patrons. For teh lulz.
But listen to it like this: Imagine you knew you were on borrowed time. You were in a strange land during a time of war. You were with friends who spoke your language and friends who didn’t know a word of it. The sun was hot and people were after your skin, for reals. At night all you could do was have a drink, say your prayers and share songs cuz you knew that one day, sooner rather than later, things were bout to go from very bad to very very much worse. From this mind set, this blend of music takes on a new meaning. Though I still wouldn’t rock it on my daily commute, there is a lot about this album that is not just nice to listen to, but fascinating to think about. What this collection is is a soundtrack to the San Patricio’s death march. Listen to it as such and it will suck you in.
Oh, and their leader I mentioned earlier John O’Riley? He escaped the gallows but not the knife. He died years later near Veracruz, Mexico, drunk, penniless, sunburned and face scarred. How punk rock is that? For teh lulz.
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