REVIEW - T.C.COSTELLO "100 Years Ago"

T.C. Costello "100 Years Ago"
Release date: February 7, 2015
Running time: 38:10, 17 tracks

T.C. Costello is an accordionist from Greenville, South Carolina, USA. “100 Years Ago” is not his debut album, but the fourth one. Based on the traditional shanty “100 Years Ago”, T.C. has written a 17 track album on which he plays the following instruments (apart from the accordion): hulusi, tin whistle, toy piano, balalaika, banjo, xaphoon (an instrument from the 1920’s), guitar, a bouzouki modified to sound like a sitar, piano, khaen (the national folk instrument of Laos), marxophone and ocarina. There are some guests on background vocals only: Quark Lepton and Rebecca Davis.

The opening track is titled “100 Years Ago / When I Get Back to Liverpool”. The approach reminds me of the English rogue folk band Pressgang, because of the accordion and the circus twist. It’s followed by a song with an Eastern European sound, “The Earth Shall Not Be Moved”. Track no. 3 is one of the album highlights, “The Tarantula”. This song features accordion and tin whistle and it’s an Italian tarantella written by Tim.

There are several songs before arriving to the second “100 Years Ago” take. “Field Recording from Bear Island” is an instrumental and “The Drunkard’s Progress” features balalaika, but it makes me think of Peruvian folk.  The “100 Years Ago” second offering gets a hindu treatment, so I guess that Tim played the modified bouzouki on this track.

The next “100 Years Ago” is track no, 10, but there are a couple of Russian girls songs before it. My fave is “The Girl from Arbat Street” an upbeat number. Track no. 11 is called “The Peace We Will Never See” and it’s an interesting klezmer song.

Following the artist’s words, the next two songs are probably the most Celtic punk infused numbers on “100 Years Ago”. “Every Day I Die, I Go to Hell and I Come Back” is a fantastic fast-paced song featuring accordion and tin whistle. Those instruments can be heard on “Grace O’Malley” too, a The Pogues from the “Rum Sodomy & The Lash” era infused song.

Another “100 Years Ago” and two more tracks and the album is over. Not really, since there is a 17th track called “Credits”: Tim sings all the thank yous while he plays his accordion and, when he has finished up, he plays a secret track.

“100 Years Ago” has been mastered by Sean Tompson. The digital album can be purchased from T.C.Costello’s Bandcamp page. The artwork is quite simple, in black and white, and the credits are stated at the back. Every song on the album was a part of 2014’s Deadline Riot project. If you click on the songs titles below, you’ll go to the lyrics and liner notes page for that particular song.

T.C. Costello is not your usual folk punk artist, but he deserves to be heard. Well done Tim.

Check out the review by our friends from London Celtic punks

Tracklist:

01 - 100 Years Ago/When I Get Back to Liverpool 02:05
02 - The Earth Shall Not Be Moved 02:14
03 - The Tarantula 02:26
04 - The Lonely Polar Bear Cub of Bear Island 03:56
05 - Field Recording from Bear Island 01:06
06 - The Drunkard's Progress 02:35
07 - 100 Years Ago 00:21
08 - The Girl from Arbat Street 02:51
09 - The Girl from Kazan 03:14
10 - 100 Years Ago 00:14
11 - The Peace We Will Never See 02:22
12 - Every Day I Die, I Go to Hell and I Come Back 01:51
13 - Grace O'Malley 02:31
14 - 100 Years Ago 00:15
15 - A Gentleman of the Most Unsavory Sort 02:14
16 - Pure at Heart 00:52
17 - Credits 06:32

T.C.Costello blog at Deadline Riot
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Review by Kinksmarkham