If you want Celtic music with a kick, you'll want to buy Rough Around the Edges by The Syncopaths.  They are an incredibly talented band and their arrangements of the traditional Irish melodies are  almost as much fun as the band itself!  Be expecting to catch yourself toe-tapping as you listen...
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we love Jerry Holland and also Brenda Stubbert
you guys have created ELEVATOR music out of them
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This cd will quickly become the #1 in your car, home or office.  I listen when I want to be happy, cheerful and energized.  It never fails to pick me up and get my toes tapping.  PURCHASE THIS CD - you won't be sorry!
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The title is an apology that need not be given, for though this is a 
“warts and all” live recording of one of Southern California’s premier 
contra dance bands, such is the spirit of the band that even the 
mistakes are engaging.
If a live audio recording of a band playing for dancers doesn’t sound 
like a must-hear, then it should be said that the Syncopaths are hardly 
your usual dance band.
Pianist (and producer) Jeff Spero takes the chord patterns into some 
hitherto fore unchartered territory, and melody players Ryan McKasson 
(fiddle) and Bill Flores (mandolin, banjo and guitar) hold down the 
fort admirably but are elastic enough to take off alongside.
The bodhrán playing of Christa Burch anchors it all too, so it never 
stops being danceable, even when the solos get into some strange, at 
times almost psychedelic explorations, such as the delicate 
piano/banjo/fiddle interplay that colors the second tune set, or the 
jazzy piano riffs that infuse the jig set that follows it.
On the whole they do a remarkable job of simultaneously keeping the 
pulse for the dancers while still being an excellent, and never boring, 
“jam band.”
My only complaint is that Burch, one of the very finest singers on the 
LA scene, sings only one song, and it’s a fairly standard version of 
the fairly standard “Wild Mountain Thyme.” It’s a minor quibble, since 
songs are not a dance band’s main domain, but I’d love to hear a 
concert or a studio album by these guys. Once non-dance music is thrown 
in the mix as well, the possibilities are endless—such is the skill of 
the players.

—Dave Soyars
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