We left him one evening in March 2020, during a concert at the Confort Moderne in Poitiers. The Celtic Social Club is back with a fourth album with a title that slams like an injunction: Dancing or dying. Recorded remotely during confinement, the disc has been in stores and on all platforms since October 8. But for the Franco-Irish group, the real reunion with the public will take place from the beginning of 2022, with a major tour across France and a concert at the Café de la danse in Paris scheduled for March 12.
Dance or die, the tone is therefore set for this fourth opus from Celtic Social Club. An album which brings together twelve titles in English with Dan Donnely always on vocals. If the Irishman wrote the majority of the texts, the music remains a collective work. With its Celtic influences and even more assumed folk pop melodies, Dancing or Dying elegantly mixes Irish music, shaken by good rock energy. Alternating skipping melodies (Time’s Up, For Real), titles reminiscent of the good old Pogues standards (Eldorado) or even ultra sustained rhythms, Dancing or Dying is far from a dance of death. “The color of the album is different from the first three, we wanted to change the color of the sound, it’s very English pop and that’s good because we’re going to play a lot in England on the next tour”, explains harmonica player Mathieu Péquériau.
Last June, the Celtic Social Club unveiled to the public his first single and the music video of For real. An invitation to jump into life and enjoy the present moment. “Forget the past and don’t worry about the future, because there will be no going back!”, sings Dan Donnelly.
In seven years of existence, the Celtic Social Club has succeeded in imposing a sound, a style and a name. With today four studio albums and two lives on the clock, the seven Franco-Irish continue to refine their daring reinterpretation of the tradition of Celtic music (Brittany, Ireland, Scotland, Asturia) by rubbing them with rock, pop, to folk and groove. But for this fourth album, the group decided to gain independence by creating their own label. The musicians have also chosen to surround themselves with Gérard Drouot, the largest producer of concerts in France, a name that could change everything. “More weight on the tour, an international influence, potentially from the opening acts of big groups, so there are a lot of advantages”, assures Manu Masko, the drummer and founder of Celtic Social Club.
The Celtic Social Club redefines the contours and possibilities of “traditional music” by propelling it to new horizons. To discover on tour throughout France in 2022!
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– Gérard Drouot Productions (@GDP) October 15, 2021