BAND BIOGRAPHY
Paddy Garrigan - Vocals/Guitar/Mandolin
Darren Leadsom - Bass/Backing Vocals
Ben McCabe - Drums/Backing Vocals
REVIEWS
“Absolutely awesome record, been singing it for days.” - Tom Robinson (BBC6 Music) on ‘Sea Monsters’, played on his BBC6 Introducing and Saturday night show
"Bonkers but amiable three piece from the far north of England take two years plus to produce a debut which has some trouser-bursting brass and lots of chutzpah. Mandolin ska folk psychedelia doesn’t even make a halfway decent description. Off the wall and up the alley." - fRoots Magazine
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"Excellent debut album…highly enjoyable listening experience - 4 out of 5 stars” R2 Magazine
“The first thing that strikes you is the muscle of the performance…Paddy Garrigan and the Stroller Priests pump out a fair amount of clout…There’s also a fairly acerbic sense of humour and a sometimes savage lyric or two, along with some ear-catching narratives.” - FolkWords
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BIO
Paddy Garrigan and the Stroller Priests are a three piece band from Ulverston and Lancaster, featuring songwriter Paddy on guitar, mandolin, banjo, harmonium and piano; Ben McCabe on drums, french horn and backing vocals: and Darren Leadsom on bass and backing vocals.
The band’s music is best described as alt-folk/rock. Story songs with great melodies, occasional wig outs and pleasant squawks. Sea monsters, James Joyce, the afterlife, Dad’s Army, the stoned freaks in the town centre and the universe blues are just some of what awaits the listener, set to a deftly musical soundtrack of runaway grunge, barreling (or barrelhousing) rock’n’roll, mandolin dub, melodious folk and epic guitar heroics.
Their debut album ‘I Jumped Ship’ was self-produced by the band over a two year period, recorded and mixed by Darren. In addition to the band themselves, the songs feature Ben’s extra-curricular wind quartet Burst Horns, who add parping and pumping horns arranged by Ben to four songs. The all male singing group It’s A Man Thing appear on ‘Sea Monsters’, adding boozy bar-room harmonies to the song’s call and response lyrics. A unique 100 year old harmonium emerges in two songs, the epic narrative of an avaricious man ‘Now I Want More’ and the delicately atmospheric ‘The Honey Mead’, linking the modern and witty tone of the band’s songs to the traditional folk of Paddy’s deep musical roots.
Footnote: What is a Stroller Priest? According to the respected historians of Horrible Histories, a stroller priest was a disreputable man of God who roamed the roads of medieval Britain and could be called upon to perform various religious duties for cash. By contrast, the band’s record for random roadside religiosity is so far unmarked.
Contact: strollerpriests@hotmail.co.uk
