1 Three Little Birds (Marley) - 3:55
2 Desperate (Kirwan) - 4:55
3 Funky Ceili (Kirwan) - 5:52
4 Green Suede Shoes (Kirwan) - 3:56
5 Walk All The Days (Byrne) - 5:27
6 The Reels (Black 47) - 5:28
7 Fanatic Heart (Kirwan) - 7:07
8 James Connolly (Kirwan) - 6:41 Download MP3
9 Different Drummer (Kirwan) - 3:48
10 40 Shades Of Blue (Kirwan) - 7:21
11 Maria's Wedding (Kirwan) - 6:35
12 Like A Rolling Stone (Dylan) - 6:07

Geoffrey Blythe - Sax (Baritone), Sax (Soprano), Sax (Tenor)
Chris Byrne - Uillean Pipes, Tin Whistle, Vocals, Bodhrán
Mark Dann - Editing, Mastering
Thomas Hamlin - Percussion, Drums
Larry Kirwan - Guitar, Vocals, Producer
David Kumin - Editing, Mastering
Stewart Lerman - Producer, Engineer, Mixing
Fred Parcells - Trombone, Vocals, Tin Whistle
Andrew Goodsight - Bass, Vocals

One of the constant refrains we've gotten over the life of the band is "the CDs are great but there's nothing like the band live." It can get annoying, at times, until you realise that it would be really bad if the situation was reversed. Then again, I know that I have said the same thing for three of my favorite performers, Bob Marley, Bruce Springsteen and The Clash. Their records never seemed to live up to their live shows - for me anyway. And so, I've accepted, with some humility, what people say. For to me, the studio and the stage are two very different mediums. There is a fire that happens on stage when everyone is blazing away. However, that same fire in the studio can cause things to get overblown and out of focus.

One of Black 47's strengths is its facility to play in counterpoint. Often, on stage, there will be four to five soloists going at it like the hammers of hell. This can be particularly uplifting - especially when you are there and looking at the players. In the studio, however, the same ferocity can be disorienting, as the lack of focus can make everything seem like a big hodge-podge. Therein, lies the difference. In the studio, I'm constantly trying to craft the performance so that the song takes center-stage. Of course, there's a thin line at work here. In gaining focus, you can lose fire. But, for me, the song is all important on the cd. (On stage, it's the performance of the song that counts.) In the studio, I'm trying to fulfill the Yeats' dictum - "that poetry be as cold and passionate as the dawn." In other words, I'm doing my level best to highlight the song so that 10, 20 years from now it will still sound fresh, clear and relevant.

And yet, I know what people mean when they say there's nothing like Black 47 live. I exult in that feeling too. One of the first (unspoken) ideals of the band was that you take your mood on stage with you and transmute it into music. Thus, any smiling faces you see us wear are genuine. Sadness, anger, fatigue and frustration can be read openly too. How many times I've come to a gig distracted by some personal or business problem. But, within seconds of those first opening notes, I can feel something take over - the joy of being in a great band, surrounded by very innovative musicians, all pumping out powerful music. This is not a band you'll become rich in, it doesn't pay health insurance or pensions and we may all end up on the Bowery (and even that's become gentrified) but, every night, we do have the opportunity to break on through to a rare kind of transcendence. That's worth putting up with so much for. It's the greatest (perhaps, the only) consideration of being in one of the world's top-shelf live bands.

And so we decided to do a live album and what better day to do it than St. Patrick's Day. It was ideal. We were doing two shows in Wetlands, so we would record the two of them and make our choices later. We were already involved in recording a studio cd with Stewart Lerman, so he came aboard as producer/recorder. He sat out in a van on Hudson Street and got it all down on tape as we blasted through almost four hours of material The atmosphere inside Wetlands was intense and Live in New York City is - as it was - live in New York City.

And was there was a spirit hovering over the place? I think so. Our old buddy, Johnny Byrne, had been tragically killed the previous summer, after falling from the fire escape of his apartment (my old home) on 197 E. 3rd St. What made the whole thing ironic was that live recording was Johnny's forte. It was a bittersweet occasion for me. Johnny was one of nature's gentlemen. Always lending a helping hand to musicians and, indeed, anyone he came in contact with. He loved creativity and would do anything in his power to further it. Didn't matter if he was a part of the creating (although he lived for that) - just as long as occurred, he was a happy man. We had had a wonderful and reflective time recording Keltic Kids in my home the previous year and things were beginning to look up for him. He had a lot of projects lined up and was ready for the world.

But the lives of musicians and musical technicians spin in a vortex of wildness, exhilaration, depression, alcohol and much substance abuse. It's the rare person who doesn't, at some point, get caught up in the wild side of things. Johnny, in one way, was particularly ill-suited for this life, although he loved and contributed much to the good parts of it. He was very disciplined when working, taking his responsibilities very seriously and keeping many of us grounded. Nor, did he drink as much as the rest of us and was careful to keep away from hard drugs. Unfortunately, he had a limit to the amount of booze he could drink. After three or four pints, the alcohol would take over his brain, and while he would stay sweet, he would become excitable and gradually lose control.

Many times I thought of speaking to him about it but, to my shame, I never did. You think that there'll always be time. But there wasn't. Johnny took his mattress out on the fire escape on a furnace of a night and fell over the railing on to the street below. It was a waste of an exceptional life and I still blame myself for not having the time or the guts to tell him the obvious truth - that he should have given up drinking. You might wonder why I am bringing this up here? Well, moderate and social drinking can be great for the spirit but there are some of us who should stay miles away from it. For musicians, it's a great trap. We, more often than not, get our drinks for free and often abuse this powerful substance. We live our lives surrounded by it and it's a comfort we can turn to when things go wrong - which they often do. But not enough of us look out for each other. We always think there's time. But there often isn't and Johnny is proof of that. I hope this doesn't hurt his family or many friends. But, there are other Johnnys out there and I, for one, was greatly remiss in doing my duty to one of the best friends I'm every likely to have. Look out for those around you, especially the younger ones, and don't live in the regret that some of us are now forced to.

When Live in New York City, was released, it caused a great stir. It was Black 47 on stage in all its ragged glory. Six musicians blazing away in front of their hometown audience, egging them on, pulling them back, exhorting them to jump up and down, but look out for the people around you. It's still a particular favorite in the colleges and is a great document of a night on the town; anytime you want to know what it was like in the New York of the late 90's, put on this cd, close your eyes and you're there, baby!

It was released by my friend, Mitch Cantor of Gadfly Records. Oh no! Another record company? Storm clouds on the horizon at Mercury? By this point, I was well over any trauma in changing record companies. My one concern with a prospective new home is - what's the distribution like? For a national act like Black 47, that's the one necessity! It's important for us that people can buy, or at least order, the cds in stores all over the country - notwithstanding the many beneficial changes that the internet has afforded us all. For to me, if your cds are not available in stores nationwide, you're operating on a purely local basis. That's not to suggest that that's such an awful thing for bands seeking to establish themselves, but I would see it as a disaster for Black 47.

For the un-initiated, record companies can provide you with three main services, if you're lucky and they're doing their job. Distribution, publicity and radio play. Now Black 47, by its very nature, has never had any problem getting publicity; and it appears that not even the Almighty can guarantee you radio play anymore. (A case in point, while at Mercury one day, I was complaining about having to make phone calls to radio stations - the radio promoter merely opened the door and said "listen!" I could hear a strident voice booming down the corridor. "That's that little fuck, Mellencamp, doing exactly what you're doing and batting roughly the same average.")

That leaves just one area of concern - can people buy the bloody CD as effortlessly as they can a Britney Spears or Ricky Martin or whomever the gods are these days? All of our cds are available throughout the country, if spottily in some areas. They sell constantly in every state and none have been deleted. In this day and age of disposable music, that is a particular achievement and thank you, the reader, for helping us achieve that goal.