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Move On
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The first review is in for Move On!

And we have our first review. This was written by Mike Farragher and is going to appear in the Irish Voice in New York as well as IrishCentral this weekend. If anyone is able to pick up a copy and send it our way, it would be much appreciated.

"With the excellent “Move On,” Philadelphia’s Birmingham Six are poised to become one of the headliners in the Irish festival circuit this fall. They label themselves as an Irish punk rock band but that is a narrow view of the versatility they display on the new disc. 
“All Fall Down” opens the collection with a rollicking ditty about staying true to oneself as the years go by. “ I’m a circle peg trying to fit in a square/and I didn’t care/and I still don’t now/running away from what has begun/looking much older and feeling so young/as long as I know that I gave it my all,” sings Paul Wiese. The songs he has written on “Move On” range from relationships (the barn-burning anthem “Standing Here For You”) to the Troubles of Northern Ireland. “Sometimes wonder how you close your eyes at night when you work for the English RUC/when you know damn well deep inside the men you shot down were only trying to make their children free,” Weiss sings as Joe Arnold’s fiddle screams vengeance in the background. Barry Breslin (guitar), James Breslin (bass, vocals), and Brian Kelly (drums) round out the band of rebels that play tight behind Paul Wiese. 
To say Birmingham Six won’t be invited to Buckingham Palace anytime soon is an understatement! I suppose the rebel songs about railing against the Brits has some value in reminding us about the Irish nation’s hard-fought freedoms but we now live in an age where McGuinness is having the queen over for tea in Northern Ireland and the monarchy can scarcely hold onto Scotland. The punky bile and venom spat on the crown in this day and age seems a bit pointless. Birmingham Six might be better off directing their anger at more worthy opponents, like Congress or secretive cardinals, perhaps? Gays still can’t march in St. Patrick’s Day parades and immigration reform is a mess with plenty of undocumented Irish trapped here---it sure would be nice to have an Irish American band of this caliber tell those stories instead of picking at the bones of Bobby Sands for material. 
Birmingham Six was formed in the Fall of 2006. Taking its name from the six men wrongfully convicted of the 1974 Birmingham Pub bombings, the band mixes traditional, rebel, contemporary and original Irish music to form its sound. According to their website, they are in the vein of The Pogues, Flogging Molly and The Tossers with the spirit of the Wolfe Tones and Clancy Brothers thrown in for good measure. Their set list during the Sea Girt Irish Festival over the weekend drew from those artists to form a solid, highly entertaining set. They played Flogging Molly’s “If I Ever Leave This World Alive” as if it were their own and Saw Doctors’ “Green and Red of Mayo” was a crowd pleaser. They were able to sneak in tracks from “Move On” without anyone taking notice, a testament to the excellence of their original tunes. 
Birmingham Six will be playing The Irish Weekend Stage at Wildwood on the 19th and 20th of this month, followed by Tir Na nOg in Trenton, NJ on the 26th and the Trenton Irish Festival the following weekend on 10/4. For a full listing of gigs, check out www.birminghamsix.com"

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