Mexican Hat Jigs 'n' Reels
by Tom Nelligan
Among the many performers making new music out of North America's diversity of imported and homegrown sounds, few have blended two different traditions as well as the Arizona-based quintet called The Mollys. They draw on the Irish and Mexican roots of two strong woman singers, one of whom would have sounded at home fronting a show band in an old Irish music hall, the other singing like she's Shane MacGowan's long-lost Mexican-American sister. Powered by a nimble-fingered accordion player who usually looks like he's about to burst, and guided by a hot, tight rhythm section, they bounce around the stage like the aftermath of some high-speed collision between the Pogues and Los Lobos, two of the groups they mention as influences.
Any show they do is bound to involve a lot of energy, a fair amount of sweat, some songs that are serious (and a lot that are fun), numerous hats, and always a cranking good time as cold Irish mists meet scorching Southwestern deserts. Their sets might spin from frantic covers of pub standards like "Finnegan's Wake" to ballads with Spanish choruses, from sets of Irish jigs and reels backed by Mexican-flavored squeezebox riffs to old songs updated with modern and often hilarious new words. Bright pennywhistle and mandolin leads dance with Tex-Mex accordion, and if the room is big enough the audience dances, too. But there's another side to the music as well: Many of the songs are sharp pictures of people who are lost, searching, or balanced on the edge. Sometimes it's party music with a message for the morning after...
This is an excerpt from Dirty Linen #77
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