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Peach Jam Podcast: The Muckers
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Irish folk punk rock in Atlanta? The Muckers join the Peach Jam Podcast to shed light on a music scene that is bigger than you expect it to be. Plus, learn about their wild St. Patrick's Day itineraries and what it is like for them to play DragonCon.
Peach Jam Podcast features stories and songs recorded live in our GPB studios from a variety of incredibly talented and diverse bands and artists who call the Peach State home.
Jeremy Powell: I guess the first question comes to mind is why is there an Irish folk punk band from Atlanta?
Ty Watkins: I don't know.
Jeff Shaw: I moved here from a much more Irish town than Atlanta. I'm from Buffalo, New York, and I fell in love up there with this guy I think is based out of D.C. But Seamus Kennedy and he plays very much that pub style involve the crowd, you know. Be silly, be irreverent. And then around college, I started discovering the Pogues and Flogging Molly and those sorts of things. And I was already a violinist. And so it was kind of like, Well, that's all I ever want to play. And then I moved a bunch of times and picked up weird, different things from Louisiana. And I lived in Boston, which is obviously known for having a huge Irish scene. So actually I can use that to, you know, tell the story of how I started it. When I moved to Boston. I posted something on Craigslist that was like, Hey, fiddle and mandolin player specializes in Irish music, and within 24 hours I couldn't. Like I was telling people, I can't even consider you. I have too many people from the first day that I need to weed out and figure out who I want to play with. Then I moved to Atlanta and I did the same post and it was literally not a single response. So I decided I guess I was going to have to start it and started picking up these fine gents.
Jeremy Powell: Are you a novelty band?
Jeff Shaw: I wouldn't call us that, but, yeah, we are novel for Atlanta.
Dave Long: Yeah. Novelty band......
Jeremy Powell: Do people treat you like a novelty band?
Jeff Shaw: Sometimes
Ty Watkins: All. The. Time.
Jeremy Powell: Yeah?
Eric Betsill: Especially St Paddy's Week.
Dave Long: Oh, yeah.
Jeremy Powell: So how do you balance being a musician and doing this, this project with The Muckers and having full time jobs? I mean, there's six of you all sitting here in front of me.
Ty Watkins: Very carefully.
Jeff Shaw: Yeah. I got very lucky to find a group of dudes like this that both have the willingness and the ability to do tours. I know I mentioned to you before the interview started, we went to Alaska last year and that was just an incredible experience for everybody. And, you know, to be able to do something like that, to get paid to do, go do something like that was an incredible opportunity. But it's really just I've played in a lot of bands over the years and like, I know how good we all have it, that we have this group of guys and everybody is a genuinely nice, good person. Everybody is willing to make sacrifices in their personal life to to work for this band and try to make something out of it. So like I said, I know very well how lucky we are that I that it is all guys willing to work and, you know, do this as a second job, as a side hustle.
The Peach Jam podcast from GPB features songs and stories from a variety of the incredibly talented and diverse bands and artists who call the Peach State home.
Recorded live in our GPB studios, you get a front row seat for the intimate musical performances and free-flowing conversation from a truly eclectic variety of Georgia musicians. You can find more at GPB.org/PeachJamPodcast — please download and subscribe on your favorite podcast platform as well.
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