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employs regular choruses to make the song accessible to all and mixing the left wing social penning of Thomas Paine with a musical account of life at sea in Georgian times. Its and odd mix of calypso edged rock and more authentic historical folk approaches.

"Red is the colour of the new republic,
blue is the colour of the sea,
white is the colour of my innocence

not surrender to your mercy"

This style of song typifies the Men's ability to have one eye on the history of the tales and another on the injustices of the times. This song also gives you an idea of their live sound, boisterous; sing along drinking songs, an energetic band and an even more energetic audience.
Midnight Train is another paced number, with its full on rockabilly beat and double vocals, something again used to great affect, with two excellent front men in the band, and the vocals are always sumptuous and often epic. They do show a more reflective side on Fathers Wrong, a track that takes the difficult subject of child abuse and manages to maintain a dignified and poignant stance. If there was such a thing as Heavy Folk then Life of a Small Fry is it in all its glory. Guitars and mandolins are played through heavy metal effects pedals and the song teeters through out its duration on the edge of anarchy.

The final song, Mary's Present is one of the most immediate on the album and certainly the most pop orientated and as the song fades with the final words " your futures been stolen by the past" an allusion to a forthcoming unexpected child, you might reflect that the opposite of this statement is actually what the band are all about. They have stolen the past from the dry teachings and dusty books and brought it to light for the future.

The album manages to mix an intricate way of blending different acoustic instruments, without losing the clarity and depth, but in such a way that creates a powerful force, which will get you up and dancing. Its a pity that the term "dance music" has so many connotations because to me this is the ultimate dance music, every song makes you want to stomp or dance, waltz or sway, this is what originally dance music would have been like, and The Men They Couldn't Hang blend these old folk styling with some great contemporary sounds, and manage to tell an informative story along the way.

To sum up, this is an album to play, as you are getting ready to go out on a Friday night, this is music for those loud party nights. It's also the music that showed people that you could mix folk with rock without watering it down. Most of all on a personal level, this is the band that made me want to become a musician. Buy it, play it loud and then go and see them live, it changed my life, you just never know........

Learn more about this author, Dave Franklin.
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