KNOW YOUR PRODUCT: X-Press & the Senators Roll On
by Lee Gardner
From the City Paper - April 5, 2000
When the mayor's Irish band puts out a CD, you might rightfully expect it to somewhat overshadow new releases by other local Irish-flavored outfits. But it would be a real mistake to overlook Quinn's Diaries, the self-released sophomore effort from the Donegal X-Press, despite the lack of elected officials on board. In contrast to the relatively stolid Irish music of O'Malley's March, DXP has matured into a full-on creative explosion with Irish roots, an irreverent group whose music bubbles up with ideas and cocky panache like a fermenting vat full of Guinness. Quinn's Diaries does a great job of capturing the fizz.

DXP's debut disc, Whiskey, Bars, A-Go-Go, was a typical first effort - roughly recorded highlights of the band's live set, including novelty tunes such as the Celtic/blaxploitation riff "McShaft." The new album is a much more accomplished affair. Old fans will find plenty of rowdy, good humored Irish rockers, such as the fiddle-driven "Paddy's Lament" and the shout-along "Tell Me Ma," but Diaries also includes more subtle shadings, from the excellent eternal-return yarn "Hills of Marna" and the bluesy "Dustbowl" to delicate ballads such as "Roan" and "Dangerous Games." Here and there, the band leaves behind the auld sod entirely: "Brandy Alexander" is a slinky, jazz-tinged ode to the title cocktail that no one enduring a blindfold test would suspect of a Baltimore-based pub band.

Guitarist Brad Dunnells, who handles most of the lead vocals, has a light, breathy quaver that recalls (on the rock side) the Waterboys' Mike Scott, and the DXP shares Scott's ebullient, free-wheeling approach to roots music - and his grand ambitions. Parts of Quinn's Diaries teeter on the edge of pretension, and some parts fall right over that edge. The various X-Press writers have knacks for smart lyrics, but the spoken-word bits that open and close the album might go down like a skunky pint with less indulgent listeners, as might the American-born singers brogues as the vocalists belt out some of the broader "choons" of drunkenness and strife. But on the whole, Quinn's Diaries earns the Donegal X-Press its pretensions, and then some.