Hey everyone…
Here is a video of a new song the Bhoys wrote in memory of Fitz. The quality isn’t great but we wanted to get it out there for you to see. Adam, Geno and Cody will be recording the song “for real” later this week, and we’ll get audio up on the site as soon as it’s done for you to download for free.
We hope you enjoy, and God bless you, Fitz. Slan go foill.
The Twin Cities has lost a giant. Tim Fitzgerald was one of the most valued and respected members of the Irish community not just here in town but all over America and even in Ireland itself. People knew him everywhere and loved him for his humor, his talent as a singer and piper, his selfless sacrifice for the good of the community, and the can-do spirit that few will be able to replicate.
Fitz was always there to help; his many years at Kieran’s Pub in Minneapolis put him at the center of the goings-on in the Twin Cities Irish scene. If you needed a gig he’d give you one. If you needed help moving furniture he’d bring his truck. If you needed a bagpiper at a wedding or a funeral, your first call was to Fitz.
His are giant shoes to fill, in so many ways. He was so jolly and giving and kind. He was always there to help WCB, and for that we are eternally grateful. It was always amazing to think that a man of his standing in the community, this high profile, popular figure, would always give his time to help us. Who were we? Nobodies, and yet he was always there to help us along.
Thank you Fitz! We will miss you dearly. Heaven is certainly a happy place right now, for you are there singing “the Old Triangle” and “the Parting Glass” and of course your showpiece, “Isn’t it Grand Boys”. It’s grand indeed, Fitz. And so are you.
“Look at the coffin, with golden handles
Isn’t it grand, boys, to be bloody-well dead?
Let’s not have a sniffle, let’s have a bloody-good cry
And always remember: The longer you live
The sooner you’ll bloody-well die
Look at the flowers, all bloody withered
Isn’t it grand, boys, to be bloody-well dead?
Let’s not have a sniffle, let’s have a bloody-good cry
And always remember: The longer you live
The sooner you’ll bloody-well die
Look at the mourners, bloody-great hypocrites
Isn’t it grand, boys, to be bloody-well dead?
Let’s not have a sniffle, let’s have a bloody-good cry
And always remember: The longer you live
The sooner you’ll bloody-well die
Look at the preacher, a bloody-nice fellow
Isn’t it grand, boys, to be bloody-well dead?
Let’s not have a sniffle, let’s have a bloody-good cry
And always remember: The longer you live
The sooner you’ll bloody-well die
Look at the widow, bloody-great female
Isn’t it grand, boys, to be bloody-well dead?
Let’s not have a sniffle, let’s have a bloody-good cry
And always remember: The longer you live
The sooner you’ll bloody-well die”
The big day is nearly upon us! Every year thousands of amateurs descend on Irish pubs and bars (some more Irish than others) all over America to celebrate St. Paddy’s Day (or St. PATTY’S Day, as it’s often misspelled) by drinking green beer, wearing offensive stereotypical clothing and puking in the bathroom.
We here at WCB World HQ of course never have this behavior at our shows, and the pubs we play are of the finest Irish-ness, you can be assured…
More details to follow shortly, but at this point here’s what we know. Adam and Geno will start the day by playing at Jake O’Connor’s during the afternoon, from 1-4pm. Then they will move to O’Donovan’s to play a 5-8 set, and finally O’Gara’s with the big band from 9:30pm-close. Whew! Quite a day as usual!
Oh, and there is also a rumor that the Bhoys will be playing at the BRAND-NEW Kieran’s in the evening of March 16… Things are still being worked out but if it happens they will be the FIRST EVER band to play the new spot…
Again, more details to follow, so keep posted.
Well, the polls have closed, and WCB has won the popular vote for the Kansas City Irish Music Association’s “Best Duo” Award for 2009! The public vote is only one part of the voting process apparently (votes by members of the IMA “count for more” somehow), so we’ll see how things shake out, but we feel that showing how much popular support we have is really the most important thing! Thanks to all of you who voted, moblized people to vote and posted such nice comments on www.irishmusicawards.com! We are truly blessed to have your support, and we are honored by it.
The awards ceremony is Wednesday, January 27th at O’Malley’s in Weston so Geno and Adam will probably be in attendance, and who knows… they might just win.
Here’s a new video of our latest performance on KARE-11 TV’s “Showcase Minnesota” on Dec 8, 2009. Adam, Geno and Cody playing our rendition of the Pogues’ Christmas classic “Fairytale of New York”, and Adam looking like an idiot in an interview. Check it out!
Thanksgiving is now over, which means it’s time to think about Christmas (we here at WCB World HQ refuse to mention or think of Christmas until Black Friday. One holiday at a time, thank you very much)! We are EXTREMELY proud to be involved with “Home for the Holidays, A Minnesota Christmas”, which is a compilation CD of some of Minnesota’s finest musicians, benefiting some wonderful and deserving charities.
The album features 15 “A List” Minnesota artists, like Mick Sterling, GB Leighton, Tim Mahoney, Katie McMahon, and the Blenders. Oh, and Wild Colonial Bhoys too! We recorded an acoustic version of the Pogues’ classic Christmas ditty “Fairytale of New York” (yeah, we changed some of the words) and we’re really excited to have been asked to submit a track for the project!
The CD is available at all Twin Cities area Target stores, AND is online on iTunes for your downloading pleasure. All proceeds go to benefit four great charities– Second Harvest Heartland, Union Gospel Mission, St. Paul Parks Conservancy, and UnderConstruction.
Please pick up a copy at Target or download it from iTunes and support these worthy causes! This is the true spirit of the season, after all…
Here is a little video blurb of the project’s main man, piano virtuoso Phil Thompson, discussing what it’s all about. Oh, and it also features some familiar faces… Just hit the link and click “Holiday Lights”.
AND IF THAT WASN’T ENOUGH…
There’s even going to be a live concert! Details…
Home for the Holidays: A Minnesota Christmas
Thursday, December 10th at 7:00PM – Pantages Theatre
Tickets $24 – $31
“Home for the Holidays: A Minnesota Christmas” concert will feature acoustic performances from Minnesota’s Musical A-List as they all come together to share the stage for this incredible one night engagement. All artists performing will feature selections from the the benefit album “Home for the Holidays: A Minnesota Christmas Vol. 1″ which includes the talents of: Tim Mahoney, Katie McMahon, Mick Sterling, Patty Peterson, Mary Beth Carlson, Matthew Griswold, Wild Colonial Bhoys, Cate Fierro, Roster McCabe, Ari Herstand, and Phil Thompson. Don’t miss your chance to experience all of these great artists in this unprecedented line-up of Minnesota’s finest. All proceeds benefitting Second Harvest, Union Gospel Mission, St. Paul Parks Conservancy, and UnderConstruction.
Click here for info and tickets!
We encourage ALL of you to buy a ticket and come check it out. Don’t be Scrooge–it’s Christmas!
Thanks so much to everyone who came out last night to see us at The Fine Line for our CD release! It was a FANTASTIC good time, and we want to extend our personal thanks one more time to The Sandcarvers and Reverse Cowboy for making the night such a great time. We had over 300 crazy dancing WCB fhans out enjoying themselves, and we can’t help but call the whole party an unqualified success. THANK YOU ALL!
Obviously the whole point of last night was the release of our new CD, “Live, What’s it to Ya?!”. Hopefully you’re all out there enjoying it! We’ll be working on getting it up on iTunes and all that soon so those of you who weren’t in Minneapolis will be able to secure a copy. AND, if for some reason you need a little push in the right direction because you’re on the fence, here’s a nifty little review of the disc from Paddy Rock!
And just in case that news isn’t cool enough, we are BACK at The Dubliner on Sunday nights! They have put us back on the schedule starting tonight, and we will be rotating with some other bands for the time being, so keep posted and check out the Shows page for updates.
Thanks once again, you guys are the greatest fhans in the world and we love you!
WCB
Hello hello WCB fhans! We are SO excited to announce that there is FINALLY
some new Wild Colonial Bhoys material for you all! Our new full-band live
album is REALLY sounding good, and we’re going to release it on Saturday,
November 14th!
Called “Live, What’s it to Ya?!”, it features a plethora of WCB classics and
new songs that were performed live in St. Paul, MN back in June. We’ve been
working with our producer and our record label ever since to mix it just the
right way so it will capture how cool that show was. We think we’ve done
it!
So, it’s time to have a party! We’ll be doing a show with Milwaukee’s
celtic rock powerhouse The Sandcarvers at The Fine Line in Minneapolis.
This is our first big band show at a venue that has hosted a ton of national
and even international artists, so we’re pretty excited as you can well
imagine.
Please spread the word, faithful fhans! We want the place to be packed
obviously, so put it on your calendars, tell all your friends, Facebook it,
Myspace it, Tweet it, Skype it, send it by pony express. We haven’t
released an album in over two years so it’s well overdue. Come help us make
this night special!
Hail Hail the Celts are Here!
Come join Adam bright and early 6:30am CDT for the Old Firm match at The Local in downtown Minneapolis. Celtic currently enjoy a 4-point lead over rivals Rangers and Hibernian in the Clydesdale Bank Scottish Premier League. These teams HATE each other, and the matches are always hard-fought, scrappy and extremely entertaining to watch.
What does this have to do with Wild Colonial Bhoys? Well, we named our band in homage to Celtic (nicknamed the Bhoys), so it’s kind of a seminal part of who we are.
Last season the Local showed the game, and there were embarrassing numbers for the Celtic faithful, as we were outnumbered by Rangers (the Huns, the Forces of Darkness) supporters 2-1. Let’s not have this happen again people! The match is free and what else are you doing at that hour of the day? No excuse…
See you at the match. Hail hail!
Hi WCB Fhans…
We are sad to announce that our Sunday shows at the Dubliner in St. Paul
have been cancelled, effective immediately. We’ve been there for five years
and have had a great run; this economy has really not been kind to small
independent businesses like the Dubliner, and they’d like to go in a
different direction.
We’d like to thank the Dubliner, its ownership and staff for a great five
years, and we’d like to thank you our fhans for coming out on what is
essentially a weeknight and supporting us!
We will keep you posted on possibilities for another house gig, so keep in
touch.
Thanks,
WCB
