Album Notes

Take some pub sing-alongs, songs of Irish and Scottish history, a few sea shanties, jigs and reels, American folk tunes, mix with a little bit of Celtic rock and what do you have? The Dustmen! Jokingly taking their name from an Irish term for street sweepers, the Dustmen’s up tempo high energy version of traditional music has been described as "more fun than a barrel of Guinness!"

The Dustmen, not surprisingly, have there origins in an Irish pub when guitar player Brian met banjo player Russ and Liz his fiddle playing daughter - and eventually our drummer Harry as well. Through some stops, starts, and stumbles, some of which, but not all were brought about by Guinness, the band finally became a reality when a good friend from Limerick asked them to play at a fundraiser for his daughter to cover the costs for her to immigrate to the US. For the past five years, The Dustmen have been a staple in the Western NY Irish music scene playing all the local pubs and festivals and now want to share their music with a wider audience.

The Dustmen consist of Brian Quigley on vocals, acoustic guitar, mandolin, Irish bouzouki, tin whistle, and anything else he can figure out how to play. The band gets its traditional folk music sound from Russ Scinta on the long neck five string banjo and vocals. Russ also tears it up on guitar when given the chance. Harry McCulloch Linton, son of Scottish immigrants who took up playing drums to accompany his father’s bagpipes, adds percussion and vocals. Finally, we are joined on this CD by the talented and award winning Irish fiddler Lizzie Scinta.

The “Maid Behind the Bar” presents all the fun and spontaneity of a Dustmen show with 11 tracks recorded live in the Pub of the Buffalo Irish Center. Also on the CD are 4 studio tracks, including two original songs. “Children of Ireland” by Brian Quigley celebrates keeping Irish music alive as a way to honor our ancestors who struggled to give us a better life. The closing track of the CD is a song called “Erin Farewell“ and the words come from a poem written by the father of a friend of the band. His father came to America from Ireland in 1921 (possibly due to involvement in the troubles) and the poem was written in 1924 and placed in a letter home to his girlfriend in Ireland. His son came into possession of the letter a few years ago and showed it to us suggesting it might make a good song. We thought so too so Brian and Liz put some music to it. It’s a song of longing for what you’ve lost but knowing that it will always exist in your heart. It doesn’t get more Irish than that. We were honored to be asked to put music to this beautiful poem.

So grab a pint and join us for some fun!