The Drovers

[ericcoleman]

Sometimes a band slips your mind. In this case I was reminded of a rude audience story.

The Drovers were playing in Ames. There was a couple standing right in front of the singer ... talking incessantly. The Drovers played LOUD. And they talked, and talked, and talked. 3 feet away from the singers face.

Geeze ...

A couple of their CDs and individual songs are available as a free DL on their website.

Well worth it for fans of ethereal celtic music. They can go trad and they can go almost orchestral. She's As Pretty As Brian Jones Was is stunningly beautiful.

I see that they are playing a show this weekend, but I can't remember where I saw it. Their site (thedrovers.com) is years out of date. It's a shame, they were brilliant. Hopefully they still are.

Comments

[docstrange.livejournal.com]

The Drovers are great! I used to see them and/or band members do pickup bits and all-out set extravaganzas at Augenblick

[ericcoleman]

I saw them a half dozen or so times at the M-Shop here in Ames. Always an amazing show.

[tigertoy.livejournal.com]

The Drovers had a free live show at the U of I mumbly-mumble years ago, and they totally failed to appeal to me, even though I love a lot of rock-influenced Irish music. They seemed loud and enthiastic, but low on talent and also on interestingness. I have to wonder if they were having a bad day, since more than one person whose musical taste is otherwise not that bad has liked them a lot.

[ericcoleman]

Some of it depends on when you saw them. If they were a 4 piece with 12-string electric, bass, a standup drummer and a male fiddle player, they were probably having a bad night. That version of the band was brilliant (even if the vocals were a little weak). Most other versions of the band I can take or leave from song to song.

[bibliofile.livejournal.com]

The version of the band that I saw several times in the late '80s (I think it was, or the very early '90s?) was excellent. They'd played together a long time, and they had a lot of talent between them. (Cf. their appearance as the bar band in Backdraft (1991).)

Then their lead singer left and was replaced by two guys, and their bass player (Ike Reilly) went off for a solo career. I haven't seen them in years, though, so maybe things tightened up again later.