Featured Musician Interview: The Whiskey Boys

Lace9: I'm interviewing David Delaney and Mark Kilianski of The Whiskey Boys, an Irish/Bluegrass/Rock/Jazz group. Welcome.

David: Thanks

Lace9: How long have you been in the music business?

David: Mark and I have been making our living at music for 2 years now. The band was jamming and performing another 2 years before that, however!

Lace9: What Genre is your music?

Mark: We play Folk music with a modern twist

Lace9: Describe your musical style and inspirations.

David Delaney

David: The Whiskey Boys are a Fiddle, a Guitar, and two voices, primarily. I play some banjo now, and if it's got frets Mark can play a solo on it that will change your life! But the original two instruments are still our core sound. We love traditional music (Irish, Old Time, Bluegrass, you name it) and folk songs, anything that sounds old or timeless. At the same time we also enjoy music written a little more recently; jazz, rock, I have a real fondness for cheesy pop like Lady Gaga, Ke$ha and 90's Boy bands... The pull of both of these two fairly contradictory batches of music is at the heart of what we play. Our old covers have arrangements, chord choices and syncopations that would have dreadfully confused the ears of people living in the time the music was written and, likewise, when we write a song or play a modern cover our final product almost always sounds like it was written a long time ago.

Lace9: Have you released an album? If so, provide some details.

Mark Kiliansky

Mark: The Whiskey Boys have one published album, Mary Come to Boston available on Amazon and iTunes, and one secret album. We're in the middle of recording our second non-secret album, "Crescent Moon." Metronome Magazine in Boston recently reviewed "Mary Come to Boston." Here's what they had to say!

"Whiskey Boys David Delaney and Mark Killianski bring the spirit of Celtic folk music to the forefront on their debut CD, Mary Come To Boston. Delaney is a fine fiddler in the Irish tradition as Killianski adds percussive and rhythmic accompaniment with his acoustic guitar to this fine collection of nine originals and two covers. The duo displays their considerable musical prowess and understanding of the Celtic idiom on the songs "Madeline The Quaker," "Carolina Blue" (written by Margaret Mackay & Jeff Butcher), and "The Sad Reel." Next time your in the city on a beautiful summer day and you hear the sounds of a fiddle and guitar piercing the air, go and check it out. Chances are, it will be The Whiskey Boys pouring listeners a finely concocted elixir of Celtic lore. Good stuff! [D.S.]"

Lace9: Where can we get your music?

David: You can find it on CD Baby, Amazon.com or in the iTunes music store. Or, even better, at one of our shows!

Lace9: Do you have any upcoming gigs? If so, where?

David: Checking our website frequently is the best way to keep updated about upcoming shows or you can "like" us on Whiskey Boys on Facebook as we frequently post about them!

Lace9: Which of your songs is your favorite?

Mark: One of our favorites is "Block Island" a tune written by Dave. Check it out under Free Music on our website!

Lace9: That's a great point, you guys have something like 30 free podcasts of your music on your site for people to listen to, I think that's great.

Lace9: In your own words, why should people check out your music?

David: If you like Folk music, Irish Music, Bluegrass Music, Old Time Music or really anything acoustically oriented, I'm very confident you'd be into our music. So if that's the case check it out!

Lace9: Thanks to The Whiskey Boys for doing this interview.