Thing of the Day
Miraculous Mule
March 31st 2011
MIRACULOUS MULE – Miraculous Mule
(Stag-O-Lee) - Every time Michael J Sheehy puts out a new record I
rather quickly decide it to be his best so far.The man is forever
putting out his best record so far, be it solo or with one of his bands
- Dream City Film Club, Saint Silas Intercession, The Hired Mourners -
or this, his latest band Miraculous
Mule. That’s one hell of a powerful back catalogue of work
there now, quite a substantial one too.
Impossible to actually say if this six track album truly does
constitute his finest collection of recordings yet, we’re going to
have to wait for the hangover to clear and the cold light of day to
ease our eyes open again before we can make a sensible judgement; what
we do know is once again, Michael and his (drinking) friends have not
let us down and this latest album is once again up there with the best
of his work. The fact that these aren’t his songs means this probably
can’t be considered his best, but it is another impressive soul-filled
set of recordings and interpretations and quite why he remains such a
well kept secret is a little bit of a mystery... Well, no, there may
just be some
clues in the constant changing of bands along with all the cuts and
bruises and the fact that the safe option and the easy route are not
for Mr Sheehy - if there’s a gutter to fall in, he’ll find a
way of doing it.
This new album is not the latest step on a
carefully managed career plan or marketing curve, this is not something
that has been plotted out in the offices of some record label or other.
This is music made by necessity, this is music from the soul, if he
couldn’t be doing this then you do seriously wonder if he’d bother with
anything - this is a man born to sing, born to write songs, this is an
ongoing real labour of something or other and Michael J Sheehy really
is the most real of flawed deals. When he tells you the dice
have got him in the hole again or baking that cake with his neighbour’s
wife has got him in a whole heap of trouble once more, you kind of
believe there to be some truth in his latest tale…
Michael
describes Miraculous Mule as “…a group of Anglo-Irish honkys
who dig African American gospel, prison/work songs and hillbilly
music”. There are six songs here on this self-titled album, and an
extremely full-bodied rich sounding gospel flavoured low-slung
spiritual blues band of the finest order; six gloriously voiced songs
and once more another large dose of lapsed catholic guilt.
The band are a four piece with three lead singers: Sheehy, Alex Louise
Petty (who previously sung with Gemma Ray), and Patrick McCarthy
(Michael’s brother and long time collaborator), and Ian Burns, last
seen in Saint Silas Intercession plays drums. Michael
explains “we may be lapsed Catholics, agnostics and non-believers who
have stumbled into hell’s ditch, but we sincerely believe in the
redemptive power of this music and how it makes us and our audiences
feel. Our only mission is to move you”.
This self-titled debut mini-album is a rich mix of reinterpretations,
traditional gospel songs, and a gloriously vicious version of Chuck
Berry’s Downbound Train.
Some of this gets close to Elvis/Johnny Cash gospel song territory
(high praise I know, it isn’t said lightly). This is old school
redemption, this is drunk every night and church on Sunday, this is
angelic voiced songs gone off the rails, songs running on instinct,
something that just feels right; they’re not straight covers or
faithful copies, they’ve just run their own way. The bands have imposed
their own authentic style and they’ve done it rather well, this all
sounds very very real, very right, very righteous..
And the ban say that the journey through these songs has already lead
them to a second album of original compositions that will be out later
this year. Now that one might just be the best album Michael J Sheehy
has been involved in so far…
Miraculous Mule’s self titled six track album is out on April 1st
www.stag-o-lee.com
www.myspace.com/michaeljsheehy
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vuA1ihKsxBw&feature=related
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wC20j-bUQQA&feature=related
