Title: Bottoms Up
Artist: Whiskey Bards
Label: CD Baby
Product Type: COMPACT DISCS
UPC: 804879064220
Genre: Celtic

Adult Content Advisory Warning: Warning! This album contains songs about everyday things that humans spend inordinate amounts of time pursuing (like SEX) and some of the strange lengths they go to in order to get it (or to just feel better about themselves). It also contains some profanity. If this offends you, don't buy the CD. If you think it's funny, buy the CD. If you buy the CD and get offended, well, at least you were warned. Sincerely, The Whiskey Bards. ********************************************** from No Quarter Given magazine, Vol. XIV, No. 2 - Nov/Dec 2007 Hang on hard for a merry & risque time with the Whiskey Bards in Bottoms Up. The album comes with an Adult Content Advisory Warning (I'm sure this alone will compel many of you to get this album). However, these lads sing with such infections enjoyment that the 'adult content' never comes across in a rude manner. It's all in fun, and we, the listeners, are invited to the party. The portrait of the Whiskey Bards on the cover gives an intro to the musical contents: one beefy lad in milkmaid drag, another in a flamboyant purple doublet with a foot-long codpiece, a tall one in nothing but a hat, and the last one in a sheep suit. This same variety in character comes out in their singing as well. The only song on the album with a nautical background is the traditiona shanty 'Maid of Amsterdam'. Not on of the most graphic versions I've run across, buty a litle more ribald than most published versions. Despite the lack of a salty nature to the rest of the songs they are mostly about drinking and wenching, so I'm sure most of you'll be able to find something to enjoy here. Only five of the selcetions are 'traditional'. The rest are modern compositions (several by the Bards themselves), so there's plenty here you might not be familiar with. With a good variety of styles, sounds, and individual characters, you'll not get bored with it sounding all the same. Some fun sound effects are thrown in, but they aren't overdone. My favorite, 'The Sheep', is not nautical, but is very funny & infections, complete with a failrly good Scottish accent. 'Deformed Farm' is a hilarious send-up of 'Old MacDonald'. It is so politically incorrect,yet sweetly done. Despite my having pointed out the tunes involving the livestock, let me not lead you astray. There are songs aplenty about various parts of the human anatomy, milkmaids, lusty smiths, troopers, and various other human ne'er-do-wells. Almost an hour of bawdy, ribald, lusty antics makes this an album most pirates will enjoy, despite the lack of piratical subject matter. The Bards don't come across as a bunch of rowdy drunken salty types, but more as lute-wielding troubadours. More evoking Danny Kaye rather than Robert Newton. However, all the lyrics are sung very clearly, with a lot of fun, and a lot of winking and nudging. This album's well worth the doubloons asked for it. We favorably reviewed their earlier 'The Recruiter...Free Run ain't Free' [Nov. 06]. Let me also recommend their first album, 'Women, WHiskey, & War'. Overall it's not very piratical but it does include the shanties 'Drunken Sailor' and 'Whiskey-O' (both with hilarious new additional verses), along with several other rum-soaked (well, actually whiskey-soaked) and lusty selections. Much for a pirate to enjoy.

Tracks:
1.1 Another Irish Drinking Song
1.2 Rake
1.3 Maid of Amsterdam
1.4 Sheep
1.5 Beer Goggle Blues
1.6 Small Miracles
1.7 Libido Man
1.8 Don't Drink and Strum
1.9 Trooper
1.10 Enormous Penis
1.11 Oh Boy
1.12 Keep Your Wits
1.13 Ballad of the Trades
1.14 Lusty Young Smith
1.15 Riddle
1.16 Deformed Farm
1.17 Bottoms Up
1.18 Blooper Reel

Audio Sample:
All soundclips are provided by Tidal and are for illustrative purposes only. For some releases, the tracks listed may not accurately represent the tracks on the physical release.