''The Irish Volunteer'' is David Kincaid's first album of Civil War related Irish music. For years Kincaid has been the lead singer, lead guitarist, and leading songwriter for the American roots rock band,

The Brandos The Brandos are an American rock band formed in 1985 in New York City by Dave Kincaid (vocals, guitar), Ernie Mendillo (bass, vocals), Ed Rupprecht (guitar, vocals) and Larry Mason (drums, vocals). The Brandos achieved commercial success in th ...

. Kincaid, a long time

Civil War A civil war or intrastate war is a war between organized groups within the same state (or country). The aim of one side may be to take control of the country or a region, to achieve independence for a region, or to change government policies ...

enthusiast, assembled a collection of songs written during the Civil War era about

Irish American , image = Irish ancestry in the USA 2018; Where Irish eyes are Smiling.png , image_caption = Irish Americans, % of population by state , caption = Notable Irish Americans , population = 36,115,472 (10.9%) alone ...

soldiers fighting for the

Union Union commonly refers to: * Trade union, an organization of workers * Union (set theory), in mathematics, a fundamental operation on sets Union may also refer to: Arts and entertainment Music * Union (band), an American rock group ** ''Un ...

. Most of the songs only came with lyrics so Kincaid had to find traditional Irish music to set the lyrics to. Kincaid was devoted to historical accuracy in performing the songs, the pieces are performed only with instruments that would have been available to the people of the period. With the exception of "Free and Green" all the songs were written either before or during the Civil War. The songs praise the Irish immigrant volunteers who fought for the Union, most of the songs mention

Thomas Francis Meagher Thomas Francis Meagher (; 3 August 18231 July 1867) was an Irish nationalist and leader of the Young Irelanders in the Rebellion of 1848. After being convicted of sedition, he was first sentenced to death, but received transportation for life ...

Michael Corcoran Michael Corcoran (September 21, 1827 – December 22, 1863) was an Irish-American general in the Union Army during the American Civil War and a close confidant of President Abraham Lincoln. As its colonel, he led the 69th New York Regiment to ...

, and the famous Irish Brigade. " Pat Murphy Of Meagher's Brigade" is the only previously recorded song on the album.

Personnel

David Kincaid David “Dave” Kincaid (born March 21, 1957) is an American musician who co-founded the Seattle band The Allies, and the New York band The Brandos with Ernie Mendillo in 1985. Besides playing with The Brandos, Kincaid has also released two al ...

– lead and harmonic

vocals Singing is the act of creating musical sounds with the voice. A person who sings is called a singer, artist or vocalist (in jazz and/or popular music). Singers perform music (arias, recitatives, songs, etc.) that can be sung with or without ...

guitar The guitar is a fretted musical instrument that typically has six strings. It is usually held flat against the player's body and played by strumming or plucking the strings with the dominant hand, while simultaneously pressing selected stri ...

banjo The banjo is a stringed instrument with a thin membrane stretched over a frame or cavity to form a resonator. The membrane is typically circular, and usually made of plastic, or occasionally animal skin. Early forms of the instrument were fashi ...

mandolin A mandolin ( it, mandolino ; literally "small mandola") is a stringed musical instrument in the lute family and is generally plucked with a pick. It most commonly has four courses of doubled strings tuned in unison, thus giving a total of 8 ...

, and bodhran. * Liz Knowles –

fiddle A fiddle is a bowed string musical instrument, most often a violin. It is a colloquial term for the violin, used by players in all genres, including classical music. Although in many cases violins and fiddles are essentially synonymous, th ...

. * Jerry O'Sullivan –

uilleann pipes The uilleann pipes ( or , ) are the characteristic national bagpipe of Ireland. Earlier known in English as "union pipes", their current name is a partial translation of the Irish language terms (literally, "pipes of the elbow"), from their ...

and

tin whistle The tin whistle, also called the penny whistle, is a simple six-holed woodwind instrument. It is a type of fipple flute, putting it in the same class as the recorder, Native American flute, and other woodwind instruments that meet such criteria. ...

. * John Whelan –

accordion Accordions (from 19th-century German ''Akkordeon'', from ''Akkord''—"musical chord, concord of sounds") are a family of box-shaped musical instruments of the bellows-driven free-reed aerophone type (producing sound as air flows past a reed ...

. *

Ernie Mendillo Ernie Mendillo (born October 23, 1959) is an American musician who co-founded the New York band The Brandos with Dave Kincaid in 1985. He left the band in 2015. Besides playing with The Brandos, Mendillo was also a member of the Sarajevo rock b ...

- bass on "Paddy's Lamentation".

Track listing

The writer of most of the songs is unknown but is noted where the author is known. # "The Irish Volunteer" written by Joe English – 4:34 (to the tune of "The Irish Jaunting Car") # "Boys That Wore The Green" – 4:00 # "Opinions of Paddy Magee" – 3:37 # "The Boys Of The Irish Brigade" – 3:10 # "Paddy's Lamentation" – 5:26 # "The Irish Volunteer (Nr. 2)" written by S. Fillmore Bennett – 4:21 # "My Father's Gun" written by Joe English – 3:09 # "Meagher Is Leading The Irish Brigade" – 5:35 # "Free And Green'" written by David Kincaid and Carl Funk – 4:15 # "The Harp Of Old Erin & Banner Of Star" – 3:44 # " The List Of Generals" written by Joe English – 3:58 # " Pat Murphy Of Meagher's Brigade" – 4:40 {{DEFAULTSORT:Irish Volunteer, The 1998 albums David Kincaid albums