'Walkin' boss' on MySpace

Niall Toner writes:

On an historical note, the original video of Hank Halfhead & the Rambling Turkeys performing 'Walkin' boss' is now available on MySpace. Almost twenty years old now, the video was shot in black and white in an abandoned factory on Dublin's south quays, and directed by Richie Smith (who went on to film most of U2's videos) and Ciaran Donnelly (who was recently honoured for directing 'The Tudors'). Ciaran is a nephew of Philip Donnelly, the Clontarf Cowboy, and that's Ciaran on lead guitar with HH. The rest of the line-up was Peter Maybury (drums), Fran Scattergood (bass), Maurice McCarthy (fiddle), and Niall [alias Hank] (acoustic guitar, vocals), and the song went into the Irish charts at #12... Ah, the good old days!

Vis-a-vis Hank Halfhead & the Rambling Turkeys: as you may have seen from Clem O'Brien's MySpace page, the band has been recently revived, and played a great gig in Copper Face Jacks nightclub in Dublin recently. The line-up is: Niall (guitar, vocals), Clem (electric guitars, vocals), Dick Gladney (bass, vocals), Fran Breen (drums, vocals). They are available for all raucous and rumbunctious occasions, including weddings, wakes, and bar mitzvahs...

Also, a small correction to Holly Tashian's piece on the Bluegrass Blog [see previous post, below]. 'The promise' was not written for a competition. It was composed for possible inclusion in an album to honour the music of the Carter Family. The idea came from Peer Music International, and they were planning to release a recording of many of the Carters' classic songs, all recorded by artists such as Bono, Van Morrison, Enya, etc. Peer came up with the idea of including a newly written song 'in-the-style-of' A.P. and the gang. They were well impressed with 'The promise', but the entire project was shelved, and to date there's no news of it's being revisited. Hope this clears this little issue?


Niall's 1990 recording of 'Walkin' boss' is a strong version of a song recorded by Clarence 'Tom' Ashley (1895-1967) of North Carolina, who had heard it sung by railroad work crews in West Virginia.