Jerry Fish & The Mudbug Club ~ The Beautiful Untrue (The Mudbug Club)

Six years is way beyond an eternity in Rock ‘n’ Roll, and yes, it has been that long since the release of Be Yourself. Just as well that Jerry Fish sups from a well that is sunk way beneath the topsoil of pop. Once he left the constraints of the four piece rock format, he found a whole universe of music suddenly become a tangible and touchable prospect: New Orleans Jazz, Brazilian funk. Noir soundtracks, all manner of odd mondo scenes and black mambo jive. An Emotional Fish used to cover Tom’s ‘Raindogs’, The Mudbug Club might reject it as too obvious.
On that note, the opening ‘The Hole In The Boat’ is a swampy seafood-fed shuffle with Ribot-like guitar and zombie cardship vocal from Mr. Fish. Jim Jarmusch would pawn his brothel creepers for the rights. Even more exotic is the single ‘Back To Before’, a delicate waltz around the ballroom of lost romance that’s stitched with singing saws, pedal steel and tinkertoy piano, while Fish’s latest dancing partner Carol Keogh contributes a truly remarkable turn somewhere between Patsy Cline and Mary Margaret O’Hara. One expects Lewis Carroll to pop his head through the curtains inquiring after a certain miss Liddell. Another duet, ‘Hell Or Heaven Sent’ featuring Imelda May, takes the form of a sweltering motel chronicle halfway between Howie Gelb and Barry Gifford, while ‘Rogue Melody’ is a slow C&W sway with Mariachi brass and a welcome reprise from Ms Keogh. Elsewhere on tunes like ‘It Takes Balls To Be A Butterfly’ (nice title), Mr. Fish swaggers in a Willy Deville way that suggests he really needs a Hollywood agent. The jury’s still out on whether his force of personality and the immaculate cut of the band compensate for the odd wanting song (time will tell how ‘Baby You Are In Or You’re Out’ wears with repeated plays.) but such misgivings are rare. The closing ‘Where The Sun Don’t Shine’ and instrumental closing tune deserve to accompany the end credits of some arthouse masterpiece. The Beautiful Untrue is one of those records that raises the cool in the room without breaking a sweat.

****
Peter Murphy / Hot Press

Key Track: The Hole In The Boat

THE TICKET / THE IRISH TIMES

The Beautiful Untrue ****

On MySpace, Jerry Fish, aka Gerard Whelan, lists his influences as “Beat poetry, dog, bone and sailor stories, Tom Waits, Dean Martin, Dr John, Jacques Brel, Ray Charles, One Mint Julep, Mingus, Ellington”, and his sound as “indie lounge lizard schmooze, mariachi swampadelica”. He ticks all those eclectic boxes. What he doesn’t say is that The Beautiful Untrue builds imaginatively on his debut, and that his Mudbug world of comic-cut theatre feels more attractive with each track. From the gorgeous artwork to the measured playing of Conor Brady and the singing of Whelan and guests Imelda May and Carol Keogh, this is guaranteed to put a smile on troubled faces. Indeed, The Hole in the Boat makes some kind of beautiful out of bleak. www.jerry-fish.com

Download tracks : The Hole in the Boat, Summer of Love

Joe Breen / The Irish Times - The Ticket

My God, this is a great record. Imagine the Fun Lovin’ Criminals bumping into Tom Waits in an obscure jazz bar somewhere in Mexico and you’re still not close to doing justice to Be Yourself, an album which bucks the zietgiest with so much enthusiasm you just have to love it.

Highlights are the second track Upside Down, which sounds like Bob Dylan popped into the studio for a guest vocal while sporting a sombrero, and the Bacharach-like (no really) True Friends.

When you hear a record as discordant with the music scene as Be Yourself it’s easy to assume that it’s been recorded with the author’s tongue planted hard in his cheek but that misses the point here. Yes, the smiles come aplenty and witty lyrics are definitely Mr. Fish’s currency of choice, but these songs have been so well crafted that they deserve more than a casual, amused listen.

With spring on the way, here’s the first record that deserves to soundtrack your summer.
Playmusic Magazine (UK)

The arrangements are full of lovely little touches: flourishes of Spanish guitar, bursts of swinging horns. It’s like Tom Waits in a good mood, or maybe Leonard Cohen doing Dean Martin backed by an Irish showband. There are a lot of obvious influences, but the Mudbug Club embrace them in such good spirit it is impossible not to be carried along by their enthusiasm.
Neil McCormick / The Telegraph (UK)

...from the infectious swing of ‘My Friend Jim’ to the sweet melancholia of ‘True Friends’, the addictive swagger of ‘Upside Down’ to the emotional honesty of the title track, this is a record that’s as warm as an open fire: an album to cherish for many years to come.

‘Be Yourself’ has achieved double platinum status in The Mudbug Club’s native Ireland. The debut single ‘True Friends’ was chosen by Vodafone to spearhead a TV ad campaign, and became a massive hit single into the bargain. Indeed, ‘True Friends’ was the only independent Irish single to feature in the Irish Christmas Top 20; when it nestled at number 15 in the national charts, and went on to spend over three months in the Irish Top 20. The follow up single, ‘Upside Down’ cemented The Mudbug Club’s reputation as one of the finest new acts in the country.

Jerry Fish and the Mudbug Club were nominated for two Meteor Music Awards, Ireland’s biggest annual musical awards ceremony, where they were up for ‘Best Album’ and bizarrely, ‘Best Roots & Country Artist’. Somewhat ironically, they won the latter award, much to the bemusement of Jerry: “At the time, I thought it was a bit hokey to win the Roots and Country Award, but now, in hindsight, I can see where they were coming from, and since there was no award in a ‘Swampadelic’, ‘Best Swamp Crooner’ or ‘Circus Band’ category ‘Best Roots & Country Artist’ was surely the next best thing”.

The ever-expanding Mudbug Club Troupe released ‘Be yourself’ in the UK and busily toured the length and breadth of Ireland and the UK including Sell-out shows at Dublin’s famous Olympia Theatre, The Ambassador and Vicar St. as well as jubilant performances at many of the UK & Irelands summer festivals, ‘Fruitstock’, ‘V Festival’, ‘The Isle of Wight’, ‘T in the Park’, ‘Oxegen’.

In 2004 The Mudbug Club were invited to Glastonbury to play all three days of the festival and were widely hailed as one of the hits of the entire weekend, they returned to Glastonbury in 2005 and 2007 to deliver yet more storming sets to the assembled masses.


‘Showbiz Nostalgia’

Jerry Fish is the alter ego of singer Gerard Whelan who through the 1990’s was the main creative force in An Emotional Fish, the Irish rock band who released one of the most successful debut Irish albums ever.
An Emotional Fish were courted and signed to Atlantic Records by the labels legendary founder the late, great and much loved Ahmet Ertugen. The band released three albums, their eponymous debut, produced by Tim Palmer, which featured the massive hit single ‘Celebrate’, in 1990; ‘Junk Puppets’ produced by Alan Moulder, Dave Stewart, and Clive Langer in 1993; and the independently released ‘Sloper’ in 1995. In between, they managed to tour the world many times, sharing stages with the likes of Nirvana, Sonic Youth, Iggy Pop, Depeche Mode, The Velvet Underground and U2.

However, when An Emotional Fish’ last and most critically acclaimed album, the fabulous Sloper, saw the band end up in a legal dispute with a record label, the Fish became disillusioned with this business they call show, dropped out, and turned their fins to something completely different.

Jerry indulged in another passion, restoring old motorcycles. He then upped sticks and travelled to India and Nepal, where he fell head over heels in love. However, it wasn’t until the birth of his daughter, Ella Joy, that The Mudbug Club’s bandleader felt he had to follow his heart and return to the other thing he loves most in the world, music.

Jerry set up his own independent record label and set about recording ‘Be Yourself’ and with a little help from his friends, a veritable who’s who from the Irish music industry, including Damien Rice, Anuna, Maria Doyle Kennedy, Bronagh Gallagher, Josie Doherty, and an international brass section. With the album ‘Be Yourself’ Jerry Fish & The Mudbug Club were born. The rest, as they say, is history…

“I wanted to record an album that sounded like a Tarantino soundtrack,” Jerry explains. This, he has most certainly achieved, and then some.

‘Trivia’
Jerry Fish is the presenter of Philip King’s music television programme ‘Other Voices II’ broadcast by RTE, featuring ‘The Handsome Family’ ‘Simple Kid’ ‘Paddy Casey’ ‘Gemma Hayes’ ‘Glen Hansard’ ‘Christy Moore’ and many more.