PressGang: A revolution you can jig to

REVIEW BY BILL NEVINS

Dancing in our Dreams
PressGang
Voxpop records
<http://www.voxpop.demon.co.uk>

Cheerful harmonies, dulcimer, double bass and danceable praise of the egalitarian Chartist faith of the English working class. This is music for a grand fair on the village green, or a rowdy trashing of any city's grim marketplace!

PressGang is a musical challenge to folk piety and social complacency alike. Like Steeleye Span long before them, or their contemporaries Chumbawamba, the sprightly Brit rebels of PressGang offer up a revolution you can jig to!

On this, their fifth CD, PressGang is Damian Clarke, (vocals and guitars), Miranda Sykes, (vocals and bass), George Whitfield, (vocals, accordion and whistles) and Maclaine Colston (vocals, hammered dulcimer and percussion).

They revive sounds from a century or two ago in a spritely way that is very appealing. And tucked neatly into the songs are jabs at elitism, poverty and those who would discourage the hopes of the poor.

PressGang may, by recent accounts, be struggling financially to keep their collective musical project afloat, a daunting task in an age of bland corporate control. Their voices on this cd are nonetheless encouraging. Reckless rogues they are, and more power to the lot of them!

[Bill Nevins is a resident of Albubuerque, New Mexico. He has written on Irish politics and cultural topics for a number of progressive publications.]

From GLW issue 427