Fri. June 13

 Politically oriented Celtic rock is not a new venture for singer-guitarist Larry Kirwin (front, center in photo.) He moved to New York, at 21,  from a small town 80 miles outside Dublin - he was inspired by "Midnight Cowboy." That was about 30 years ago. He came, not as many Irish did (Ireland's failing economy) but in search of, he says, “adventure.” He wasn’t yet in a band; he was writing plays. But in 1989 he formed Black 47 and the sextet has been a mainstay on both the Irish and rock club circuit since. They’re workhorses, playing 48 weeks out of the year - including Tommy Doyle's in Harvard Square Friday June 13.

96 Winthrop St., Cambridge, 617-864-0655 www.tommydoyles.com/harvard

Kirwin began addressing the Troubles in Northern Ireland right away in song, and has continued to weave politics in and out over the years. Black 47’s latest disc, its 12th, is called “Iraq,” and it’s the most political yet, with most of the settings and characters drawn from the war. What does Kirwin know about the Iraq war? “I don’t more than anyone else,” he says, “but the genesis (of the album) came from Black 47 fans (who were soldiers) writing back from there and me feeling we’re not getting the full story here. I felt that all along. I tried to visualize what it’s like from their point of view, in the same way … other writers have written about war.” People hear a song, he says, “and they may go and do their own research rather than depend on a sound bite from FOX. It makes it fresh and in peoples faces, they have to confront” how they feel. Black 47 will be playing about half-dozen songs from “Iraq” during its set in Harvard Square, the rest of the material coming from its vast catalog. They'll also be reviving "Bobby Kennedy" in honor of the man 40 years after his assassination
Kirwin came to America after the Pogues hit upon the idea of mixing Celtic music with punk rock. “We had a lot of the same influences,” says Kirwin. “And we’re somewhat similar. We use a New York prism; they use a London prism.” What’s rather amazing, Kirwin admits, is the personnel in Black 47 has remained very consistent over the years. “But,” he adds, “there’s a lot of freedom within the band to play what you feel like playing and we play all the time. It comes from a working band ethic. We’ve intersected with big record companies and gotten publicity at various times, but we formed to play music.”
This “Iraq” music has been controversial – more so when people in the US were more in favor of the country’s actions. Kirwin says people have booed and walked out during “Downtown Baghdad Blues.” (He says their fan base come from everywhere – left, right, military, civilian.) The CD starts with  “Stars and Stripes,” its melody nicked from the Beach Boys “Sloop John B.”  Shouldn’t they be credited? No, says Kirwin. “The song is a traditional sea shanty and Al Jardine, who liked folk music, brought it to Brian Wilson. The song was quite big in Wexford where he grew up. He decided to tell a tale about two young men awaiting a chopper rescue from an ambush in Anbar Province. A reason he did it, Kirwin says, is an old folkie came up to him at a Pete Seeger Festival and said he liked Black 47’s songs but he couldn’t sing along immediately to them. Kirwin thought: Why not do what Seeger does, take this traditional song and make it their own?
   “It’s such a drama, the war,” Kirwin says. “It’s wide open in all its complexity, all the moral choices. Why isn’t everybody (writing songs about) this?” Kirwin is troubled by recent polls that show American’s putting the Iraq War further down on their list of pressing concerns. “That was one of my fears,” he says. “War is the root of every problem, like no health care.” That is, the money spent on the war has to come from somewhere and it doesn’t go somewhere else.
   What Kirwin wants to achieve at a Black 47 gig: “Two things. People walk out of the place with a smile on their face; they’ve experienced something. And second, the political songs aren’t meant to preach, but in a day or two something will cause you to question something going on. That’s what bands should be about, (confronting) this vast ignorance, make an impression. We’re not gonna change the world, but we can have an effect. It’s a bully pulpit.” But it also is – Kirwin stresses -  “music, not spectacle.
  The June 13 gig at the 300-capacity Doyle’s starts about 9 with the Gobshites opening.  Tickets: $15.

96 Winthrop St., Cambridge 617-864-0655  www.tommydoyles.com