Named after an old rehab center where they used to take
Skid Row bums, the Boston-based Celtic punk band
Dropkick Murphys has garnered quite a name for itself outside of Beantown as well. The band’s lineup has changed over the years, with founding members Mike McColgan and Rick Barton bowing out to be replaced by current members Marc Orrell, Al Barr and Ken Casey, among others, but through it all, they have been able to retain their musical edge and fan base. The band has made a name for themselves and built a following by their nonstop touring all over the world a
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nd their famous St. Patrick's Day weekend shows, which are held in Boston. Dropkick Murphys have also been known to pen songs that are supportive of the city’s many unions and for their affiliation with the Boston Red Sox baseball team, for whom they have written the anthem, “Tessie,” and the Boston Bruins hockey team. In 2003, the band finally solidified into their present membership and came out with the album Blackout, which contained such hit Dropkick Murphys’ songs as “
Walk Away” and the “
Fields of Athreny.”
In 2007, the band issued their sixth album and major label debut, The Meanest of Times, with the contributions of Orell, Barr and Casey, as well as Josh “Scruffy” Wallace on bagpipes and tin whistle, Tim Brennan on mandolin, banjo, tin whistle, accordion and bouzouki, Matt
Kelly on bodhran, drums and vocals and James Lynch on guitar and vocals. “The bands' main goal,” it says on the Murphys’ Web site, “ is to play music that creates an all for one, one for all environment where everyone is encouraged to participate, sing along, and hopefully have a good time. In the true spirit of punk rock we view the band and the audience as one in the same; in other words our stage and our microphone are yours.” Fans of the band couldn’t be any happier about this arrangement.
