Traditional music can be a fun genre to explore, each country, county and even to a degree city will have regular trad music nights where musicians jam together and perform to relatively large (if not niche) crowds on a regular basis, each one proving to be a slightly different take on the style.
The Bad Shepherd may perform using traditional instruments, but their music is influenced by much more than old school traditional history, these are guys who have listened to everything from punk to rock and everything in between.
Although there are some mighty fine traditionally arranged tunes, thrown in here for good measures too.
The Bad Shepherds are an interesting collective, lead vocalist Adrian Edmondson is better known as a Rik Mayal’s comedy partner, the star of TV shows Bottom and The Young Ones and is a key member of the Comic Strip troupe, he is also a respected actor and TV star in his own right.
His fellow musicians Troy Donockley and Andy Dinan are both well-travelled and experienced artists and together this trio have regularly sold out venues across the UK.
Here on this album we get a nice broad spectrum of music (all in the Shepherd’s own style), where else would you find a folk take on The Sex Pistols ‘Anarchy in the UK’, a medley of Ramones hits, tracks by The Smiths and rather superb spin on Motorhead’s classic Ace of Spades.
‘By Hook or by Crook’ is on release now and the band are still on tour. www.badshepherds.com
By Phil Allely
