Celtic Music Deathmatch # 1 - Brobdingnagian Bards vs. The Barley Boys
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Welcome to Celtic Music Deathmatch, or Bonnie and Mike Argue About Songs.
When you listen to a lot of Celtic music, (and who doesn’t do that) you’re bound to hear different versions of the same song. Since Mike and I love few things more than Celtic music and arguing, we’ve decided to combine the two. For this feature we choose a song from the CDs that we have reviewed, that has been performed by at least two different bands. Then we get together via IM and rate the performances according to musicality, vocals, and interpretation. (Oh yeah, and tell each other why we are wrong, wrong, WRONG.) We’ll also give a rating from one to five for each category we look at specifically, and determine a winner at the end.
Our first Celtic Music Deathmatch pits The Barley Boys against The Brobdingnagian Bards in a brawl to see whose version of Come Out Ye Black And Tans will emerge victorious! Give a listen to the samples below, check out what we had to say about them, and give us YOUR opinion.
Category 1: Musicality
Bonnie:
Brobdingnagian Bards - 
Barley Boys -
Mike:
Brobdingnagian Bards - 
Barley Boys -
Bonnie: Barley Boys = silly guitar riff vs. Marc Gunn of the Bards singing la la la de da. Too close to call! The Barley Boys have a rocking drum intro that is probably my favorite part of the track.
Mike: I think the Barley Boys get a slight edge here for the real driving, hard rhythm they bring to the tune, and the greater number of instruments brought to bear.
Bonnie: I prefer the simpler, more traditional sound of the Bard’s arrangement. And I love Andrew playing the recorder.
Meh, I said I prefer it, but really I rated it the same.
Can I go back and give the Barley’s a 4 1/2 ?
Mike: That’s okay, you can prefer one element and still think they’re equal in total, methinks.
Bonnie: Okay
Category 2: Vocals
Bonnie:
Brobdingnagian Bards
Barley Boys
Mike:
Brobdingnagian Bards 
Barley Boys
Bonnie: I think the Bard’s version has better production and sound quality on their vocals. There’s something going on with the Barley Boy’s vocal sound that I just don’t care for.
Mike: No doubt, but Marc Gunn’s la di da di da kind of throws off the aggressive nature of the song in the Bards version, and for some reason, this is one of the few Bards tunes where I don’t really enjoy both voices.
Bonnie: Counterpoint - the Irish sing a lot of happy songs about violence.
Mike: Sure, but this isn’t really one of them. Black and Tans is a fighting song.
Bonnie: You can fight and be happy
Mike: I’m only happy when I’m fighting, but that’s beside the point.
Category 3: Interpretation
Bonnie:
Brobdingnagian Bards
Barley Boys
Mike -
Brobdingnagian Bards
Barley Boys
Mike: Obviously, Bonnie is just trying to be funny The Barley Boys clearly have captured the aggressive nature of this rebel song, and rocked it.
Bonnie: Mike is clearly carried away by the drums and the electric things in the Barley Boy’s performance, and is missing the subtle yet pure emotion that flows through the Bard’s rendition.
So there 
Mike: It’s not that I don’t think the Bards have produced a fine song. They always do, but in this particular instance, especially looking at the overall interpretation and how I see a song that is calling people into the streets for the sole purpose of brawling, I have to give the edge to the more aggressive sound.
Bonnie: In all seriousness, Marc sings in a way that reminds me of musical theater. He’s singing like he means it, and I DO like the harmony with Andrew.
Mike: Sure, Marc has an amazing voice, but the harmony is still off on this one. But leaving that aside a moment, we’re talking about the overall “interpretation” of the song.
Bonnie: I get more emotion from the Bard’s song. The Barley Boys, while fun to listen to, leaves me cold in comparison
Mike: An autoharp and a recorder don’t really sound like brawling music to me…. maybe I spent too much time in a mosh pit as a teenager.
Bonnie: I assure you the IRA managed to brawl without electric guitars.
Mike: Hahaha, okay, fine. Next time we’re going to start a riot, you play the autoharp and I’ll play recorder.
Bonnie: Okay. Maybe Marc will give me some lessons
Wait, I can already play the recorder, that’s not fair.
Mike: Everybody can play the recorder…. you’re not special.
Bonnie: I’m gonna go cry
Mike: Wait! Let’s finish this before you go….
Totals:
Bonnie
Brobdingnagian Bards: 14 Shamrocks
Barley Boys: 12 Shamrocks
Mike:
Brobdingnagian Bards: 10 Shamrocks
Barley Boys: 14 Shamrocks
Grand Totals:
Brobdingnagian Bards: 24 Shamrocks
Barley Boys: 26 Shamrocks
And there you have it, folks. The first ever Celtic Music Deathmatch ends with the Barley Boys taking down the Brobdingnagian Bards by a slim margin. Now, it’s time for you to tell us what YOU think of the Barley Boys vs. the Brobdingnagian Bards singing “Black and Tans.” Vote in the poll, and share your opinions in the comments below!
Poll:
Loading ...Remember, if you enjoyed the songs, do take the time to purchase them and check out other offerings by these two great bands. Support the artists who make goofy people like Bonnie and Mike happy!
November 25th, 2008 at 12:29 am
LOL. Awesome! I love it. Tres cool!
That said, Andrew always pointed out something that you both missed,
his recorder. He always played a happy recorder part which kinda
conflicted with my lyrical part and turned it from a fierce rebel song
to a bouncy cheerful song. Merits of that? I like the happy song of
death aspect but I like the fighting aspect of it meself and the la di
la’s add a nice degree of reflection to the fierceness which is why I
swiped that from The Wolfe Tones (I think it was…)
Marc Gunns last blog post..Marc Gunn.com Makes Changes
November 25th, 2008 at 2:50 am
Nice one, guys
That’s the brilliant thing about Celtic music - it’s open to so many interpretations, you could argue for hours about who does what better, and in the end, you’d all be right! Here’s a good example of it - two bands who love what they play putting their own slant on a great tune. More, please 
November 25th, 2008 at 7:02 am
@ Marc - Thanks for stopping by and setting us straight on that point. Who could hope for more after a Deathmatch than to have one of the combatants drop by to argue along? Nobody, I’m sure. Awesome.
@ Jeremy - Glad you like the new post! We have a lot more of these in the works, so hopefully it will become a regular feature around here.
Mikes last blog post..Celtic Music Deathmatch # 1 - Brobdingnagian Bards vs. The Barley Boys
November 25th, 2008 at 2:23 pm
I think the Borbdingnags sound a little more authentic - whatever that means!! The other crowd sound a bit like a showband - Big Tom and the Mainliners anyone?
November 26th, 2008 at 9:10 am
I love this deathmatch idea. Both great tunes but The Barley Boys surely have the driven emotion that makes this song ROCK! (You should catch it live–the drum solo is nuts)!
November 26th, 2008 at 9:41 am
@ Ken - Gotta admit I’ve never heard of Big Tom and the Mainliners. I did check out the wikipedia entry. Looks interesting. I guess if you’re really into traditional music, I can see your point about the Bards being a little closer to that “sound”, but they DO play an autoharp and a recorder.
@ Carrie - Thanks for the support, and obviously I think you’re spot on about the emotion of the song. Maybe one of these days we’ll make it up to the Northeast and give ‘em a listen.