IN SEARCH OF A ROSE "Reels and Roses Live" Reedo Records (2012)
Release date: February 2012
Running time: 72:43, 21 tracks
In the 21st century Celtic punk/rock has gone global. But, in the early 90s it was not so easy to find Celtic punk/rock bands outside English speaking countries. The exception was Germany. Plenty of bands were influenced by the likes of The Pogues, The Dubliners, The Waterboys and The Whisky Priests: The Chaste, Nelsons Wedding, Paddy Whack, Famous in 9 Years, Nuthouse Flowers, The Waxies, The Mahones, Tears for Beers, Lady Godiva … and the Big Four: Across the Border, In Search of a Rose, Fiddler’s Green and Paddy Goes to Holyhead.
As far as I remember, I read that In Search of a Rose’s debut album, “Conquering” (1995), was considered to be the best German poguesish album. The album was obviously influenced by our Celtic punk heroes and featured some songs that have become classics: “Rebel Town I”, “Pirates of Folk”, “Red Rose”... Two years later (1997) ISOAR released their second album, "Fresh Lotus Surprise" . The boys were moving little by little to their own identity and the songs were quite enjoyable.
Release date: February 2012
Running time: 72:43, 21 tracks
In the 21st century Celtic punk/rock has gone global. But, in the early 90s it was not so easy to find Celtic punk/rock bands outside English speaking countries. The exception was Germany. Plenty of bands were influenced by the likes of The Pogues, The Dubliners, The Waterboys and The Whisky Priests: The Chaste, Nelsons Wedding, Paddy Whack, Famous in 9 Years, Nuthouse Flowers, The Waxies, The Mahones, Tears for Beers, Lady Godiva … and the Big Four: Across the Border, In Search of a Rose, Fiddler’s Green and Paddy Goes to Holyhead.
As far as I remember, I read that In Search of a Rose’s debut album, “Conquering” (1995), was considered to be the best German poguesish album. The album was obviously influenced by our Celtic punk heroes and featured some songs that have become classics: “Rebel Town I”, “Pirates of Folk”, “Red Rose”... Two years later (1997) ISOAR released their second album, "Fresh Lotus Surprise" . The boys were moving little by little to their own identity and the songs were quite enjoyable.
I had bought those albums together with the “Freaks” EP directly from the band and I remember to have played them regularly. However, when their third album was out (“Extravaganza”, 2000), I didn’t buy it. After having listened to some samples, I thought that they had failed.
In 2002 the band released a “Best of” to celebrate their 10th anniversary. After that, it seems that ISOAR kept a low profile. I guess that they kept on touring Germany, but no official album was released till 2008: “Kind of Green”. It was a great success and both critics and fans liked it. I loved it too.
In 2002 the band released a “Best of” to celebrate their 10th anniversary. After that, it seems that ISOAR kept a low profile. I guess that they kept on touring Germany, but no official album was released till 2008: “Kind of Green”. It was a great success and both critics and fans liked it. I loved it too.
ISOAR decided to record a live album to celebrate their 20th anniversary. The tracks were recorded at 5 different festivals during their German tour 2011: Rathausfestival Lippstadt, European Celtic Folk Festival F60 Lichterfeld, Castellans Folkfestival Bevergern, Knust Hamburg and Folklorefest Krefeld. As a result, the sound is a little bit polished on some tracks (e.g. “Rebel Town I”). The tracklist includes songs from all their albums and some new numbers. Most of the tracks come from their debut album (5) and their last studio album (7). I miss some old number like “The Whistle Still Blows” and “The Law is on My Back”, but I must admit that the tracklist is amazing.
Regarding the sound, I have enjoyed Joanne’s fiddling. Sometimes she sounds like Jon Sevink or MadFiddler, and sometimes like Paddy Goes to Holyhead.
The best moments of the album, IMHO, are track number 7 “Weak”, (awesome song, if it had been recorded by The Levellers it would have topped the UK charts), tracks 9 to 11 (“Red Rose”, “I Danced with John Travolta”, “Shamrocknroll”) and the last part of the album, tracks no. 14 to 20, with great performances of “Melodeon Reels”, “Free Polka Jamboree” and “Star of Munster”. By the way, the lads from Lemgo lifted their band name from a Waterboys’ song. Therefore it’s normal to find on this album another song recorded by Mike Scott’s band, the trad. number “When Will We Be Married”
In Search of a Rose are not so prolific as other German acts like Fiddler’s Green. Nevertheless, they are the kind of band whose albums are always welcome by music lovers.
Tracklist:
01 - Follow Me Up To Carlow
02 - The Emerald Gossip
03 - Rebel Town I
04 - Farewell (Rebel Fritzpatrick) / Mug Of Brown Ale
05 - Misty Mountains
06 - The Foggy Dew (feat. The Wakes)
07 - Weak
08 - London Days
09 - Red Rose
10 - I Danced With John Travolta
11 - Shamrocknroll
12 - Conquering
13 - Red & Blue
14 - Melodeon Reels
15 - Brendans Blessing
16 - Free Polka Jamboree
17 - Sugarpath
18 - When We Will Be Married
19 - Shenanigans
20 - Hundred Starving Rats / Star Of Munster
21 - Bonus track: P is for Pauli
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Review by Kinksmarkham
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