Marking a Decade, Seven Albums and a Major Movie Placement: NYC's Prodigals to Launch 'Whiskey Asylum' With Ohio & NYC Concerts

Marking a Decade, Seven Albums and a Major Movie Placement: NYC's Prodigals to Launch 'Whiskey Asylum' With Ohio & NYC Concerts

NEW YORK, Nov. 21 /PRNewswire/ -- New York's THE PRODIGALS will be releasing WHISKEY ASYLUM: Select Prodigals Tracks 1999-2009 in the upcoming year. An official street date has not yet been set; but there will be advance release concerts in Ohio at the Beachland Ballroom in Cleveland on Nov 26, Thanksgiving Eve; and the LC Pavilion, a 2,500-seat venue in Columbus, OH on New Year's Eve, December 31st, 2008. The latter concert will be co-produced by CD101, the premier independent radio station in the area. A third advance concert will take place in New York, NY, on January 3rd at the band's long-time residency, Paddy Reilly's Music Bar.

"Because of the band's extraordinary relationships with Ohio and New York, these were the obvious gigs to launch this," says founding band member Gregory Grene.

Grene says the catalyst for the album was twofold: the placement of two tracks (The Open Reel and The Bunch of Red Roses, both included on this compilation) on the 2008 Ed Norton/Colin Farrell Warner Bros' film Pride and Glory; and the decade that has passed since Go On, the album that first brought the band major critical and audience attention.

The album will consist of eighteen tracks, which in the words of Grene, "comprise a kind of best-possible-set if we were playing tomorrow. It's both back catalog and new songs that the band never recorded before. There were two deciding criteria: first, they had to be representative of the current band - these are all songs you will hear if you go to a concert right now, songs that have stood the test of time. And second, among those current songs, what are the tracks folk most avidly respond to at our concerts? Which are the ones that come up again and again as requests, 'Where can I find this track?'"

Over the course of ten years and eleven members the band has undergone significant change, but according to Grene, there is a strong through-line. "One of the unexpected pleasures of putting together this album has been discovering how cohesive it is. The themes, the writing, the sound - they have a consistency that is really gratifying. It feels like a band that has continued to grow and explore but has maintained an immediately audible, identifiable integrity."

The back catalog tracks on Whiskey Asylum span seven albums and ten years. All manifest a sound that is so iconic and specific that, paradoxically, it has transcended any one locale or demographic, resulting in headlining concerts from Los Angeles to Maine, from the Guinness Fleadh to Music Midtown to the House of Blues.

There is Grene's "songwriting strength" [Irish Times], "thoughtful, intelligent lyrics" [Washington Post] combined with "beautifully constructed melodies" [Irish Voice]. There is a rhythm section that is "one of the most powerful and pulsating within the genre" [All Music Guide], laying down "a musical anchor that couldn't be moved with a backhoe." [Cleveland Scene] There is Grene's "lightning-quick accordion licks" [Mountain XPress], a musical attack that is "fiery, fierce and frenetic, and just the ticket" [Irish Times]. In all, "the core of The Prodigals' style comes across so distinctly that it might as well be trademarked" [Weekly Planet], is "indelibly Irish" [New York Times], and makes the band "NYC's jig-punk answer to the Pogues" [Village Voice] and resulted in the Prodigals topping an Irish Echo readers' poll above Van Morrison and Sinead O'Connor.

Of eighteen tracks, five are new, recorded specifically for this album. Those tracks clearly show this is a band that has not been content to rest on its laurels. Grene says, "I think the band is at an extraordinary strength right now, the strongest melodically it has ever been. Coincidentally, it's the only time since the very first album that we have recorded as a five-piece, and it's an alchemical combination."

The band currently features Grene on vocals and button accordion; Dave Fahy on vocals and guitar; Darren Maloney on tenor banjo; Ed Kollar on bass; and Chris Higginbottom on drums.

The Prodigals show a unique balance between the continuity of a powerful personal voice, and the avid exploration that has defined the band from the beginning. The album, like the band in concert, manifests both for all to see.

BAND WEBSITE: http://www.prodigals.com/ PUBLICITY SITE: http://www.alrpr.com/prodigals

PHOTO LINK http://www.alrpr.com/prodigals/docs/jpgs/prodigals_Gregsing2.jpg

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Source: The Prodigals

CONTACT: Alison Roberts, +1-941-737-2344, alison@alrpr.com, for The
Prodigals

Web Site: http://www.prodigals.com/

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Profile: International Entertainment