10/20 The Mary Wallopers with Sam Shackleton at Amsterdam Bar & Hall

Tour Dates

10/21 – Chicago, IL @ Martyrs
10/24 – Vancouver, BC @ Biltmore
10/25 – Portland, OR @ Holocene
10/27 – San Francisco, CA @ Bottom of the Hill
10/30 – Los Angeles, CA @ Troubadour
10/31 – San Diego, CA @ Voodoo Room at HOB
11/09 – Bristol , UK @ Trinity
11/10 – London, UK @ Forum Kentish Town
11/11 – Manchester, UK @ Academy 2
11/12 – Cardiff, WL @ Tramshed
11/15 – Folkestone, UK @ Quarterhouse
11/16 – Oxford, UK @ The Bullingdon
11/17 – Brighton, UK @ CHALK
11/18 – Liverpool, UK @ Academy Liverpool
11/19 – Norwich, UK @ Epic Studios
11/22 – Exeter, UK @ Phoenix
11/23 – Wolverhampton, UK @ Wulfrun
11/24 – Northampton, UK @ Roadmender
11/25 – Sheffield, UK @ The Leadmill
12/13 – Edinburgh, UK @ The Liquid Room
12/14 – Dundee, SC @ Fat Sams
12/15 – Aberdeen, SC @ Lemon Tree
12/16 – Glasgow, SC @ Barrowland Ballroom

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Mary Wallopers

Ireland’s The Mary Wallopers is headlining the Amsterdam Bar & Hall, in St Paul, in support of their new album Irish Rock ’n’ Roll. The band is described as traditional as the Pogues, but still maintaining their punk roots
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St. Paul was treated to the sounds of traditional Gaelic music from Ireland and Scotland, but everything about the show was not stereotypical. First of all, the venue, Amsterdam Bar & Hall, not a pub or even the right city. Then there were the musicians, not old and craggy, smelling like the sea with sprawling beards. No these lads were young, spry and mostly clean shaven.

Sam Shackelton opened the evening with a pint in hand before picking up the guitar. He is from Scotland, born in Stirling, just north of Glasgow if you go north on M80. He earned a master’s degree at the School of Scottish Studies at the University of Edinburgh with an emphasis on folk music.

Being a one-man act, Shackleton recorded his debut album, Causeway Recordings, in his Edinburgh flat in 2022 and is touring the United States for the first time. He opened up his set with “Rattlin’ Roarin’ Willie” a traditional Scottish folk tune about a man who sold his fiddle for alcohol.

After a few songs on guitar, Shackleton switched to banjo. He then asked for permission to play it for he has found that some do not like the instrument. He said audiences in the Netherlands don’t like it at all, which was pretty funny considering the venue he was in.

Shackleton had an engaged and lively audience that kept shouting requests, but he was limited in time and said he wanted to play his songs, to which someone in the audience replied, “That’s fair.”

“I’m glad we could come to an agreement,” Shackleton laughed before finishing his set with two originals: “Scottish Cowboy” and “Rattlin’ Train”.

If you are looking for an authentic Irish folk music experience but have no plans to visit the Emerald Isle, go see The Mary Wallopers. They are a trio of brother’s Charles and Andrew Hendy and Sean Mckenna. For their first United States tour they filled out their group with Roisin Barret on bass, Brendan McInerny on drums and Fin O’Connor on tin whistle and bagpipes.

Like any good Irish folk band these lads know how to have fun. There was the rollicking “Cod Liver Oil and the Orange Juice.” and “The Blarney Stone.” They updated the traditional “Rothsea-O” with sidebars that mostly involved Charles slamming Sean for being a border-line criminal: “Sean McKenna is a dirty lout” and the joys of staying in a flea-infested motels.

The Mary Wallopers are based out of Dundalk, Ireland, just north of Dublin on the Irish Sea. They started mostly playing in pubs for the social aspect, to learn their craft and to score a few pints. When the pandemic hit they turned a room in an old farmhouse into a makeshift pub and continued to play and drink and interact with an audience that grew to forty thousand. It was that exposure that allowed them to take their act on the road to support their latest album, Irish Rock n’ Roll. Still, their set still had the feel of being in a pub as the trio took turns to sing solo much like Shackleton while the other members grabbed a pint.

Sean sang an original called “The Idler.” Charles sang about endless work-related accidents befalling the Irish in “Building Up and Tearing England Down.” And Andrew sang about the Catholic Church’s role in taking babies from unwed mothers and selling them.

Forgive me, but I didn’t catch the name of the song, but the lyrics and Andrew’s voice had a piercing poignancy that achieved what this band and all Irish folk bands before strive to do more than anything else. Speak truth to power.