Michael Snow
Never Say No to a Jar
Irish Eye 967
Winter 2004
Vol. 47 #4
In the 1960s and '70s, Michael Snow played sideman to such pop icons as Chuck Berry, Badfinger, Dusty Springfield, and John Lennon. In 1973, he moved to Nashville, and has written for and played with everyone from Julie Andrews to Earl Scruggs. In 2000, however, Snow got back to his roots and created a character called Skelly, based loosely on his own Irish-Anglo background Never Say No to a Jar is part three of the autobiographical Skelly trilogy. It opens with the nautical, slightly piratical, "Dandy Vernon," a catchy drinking song with some of the most outrageous rhymes this side of Andy M. Stewart. Like classic Irish balladeers, Snow devotes several songs to the glories of drink, including "A Pub on Every Corner," and he adds not-so-subtle hints that a pint of the dark makes more sense than religion. But this is not a mates-in-the-pub album, rather an exploration of the complexity of ethnic duality. He probes his Liverpool boyhood in "River Remember Me" and "One of Us," singing poignantly of the pull between Irish clannishness and trying to fit into a society that ostracizes sons of Erin. The spoken word "The Dogs in the Street" segues into "Black Sheep: Blarney Start," both exploring themes of a man with no depp roots anywhere. "Brand New Uniform" crosses borders in the guise of a romance, and its Salvation Army-like tune sound like Woody Guthrie's "Tom Joad."
Snow, whose gravel and smoke voice is reminiscent of Eric Bogle's, also explores the American side of culture displacement in "A Skelly's Farewell," and "Old Irish Tunes," the latter an a Cappella song that evokes a barbershop quartet. Snow crosses so many musical boundaries that uneven patches are inevitable, but his is always an interesting twist on the age-old question of Irish identity. --R Weir
Snow, whose gravel and smoke voice is reminiscent of Eric Bogle's, also explores the American side of culture displacement in "A Skelly's Farewell," and "Old Irish Tunes," the latter an a Cappella song that evokes a barbershop quartet. Snow crosses so many musical boundaries that uneven patches are inevitable, but his is always an interesting twist on the age-old question of Irish identity. --R Weir