Ballydowse was an American Celtic punk rock band from Chicago, Illinois, United States, with a rare mix of anarchist and religious ideas infused into their music. Many of the group's members were from the Jesus People USA commune.Biography at Centerstage.net. Accessed October 25, 2007.interview with Andrew Mandell group founder In addition to the group's Mekons/Pogues-style Celtic punk influences, the group also draws from world musics such as klezmer and Tibetan throat singing.Interview, The Phantom Tollbooth, August 1999. Accessed October 25, 2007.
Ballydowse released two albums both engineered by Steve Albini. The debut was entitled The Land, the Bread, and the People and was a home place for many who found common cause with certain elements of Christianity while rejecting the American right wing bias so prominent in the church at the time. Their second album Out of the Fertile Crescent continued this trajectory with a growing Eastern European flavor. The group's political activism over the economic sanctions on Iraq in the 2000s, prison reform, death penalty and the short-comings of capitalism was unique among Christian bands of the time.
The group disbanded in 2003.
Discography The Land, the Bread, and the People (Grrr Records, 1998) Out of the Fertile Crescent (Diamante Music Group, 2000)
Members Andrew Mandell - vocals Robin Mandell - vocals Nate Gustafson Peters - vocals, guitar, mandolin Craig Holland - guitar Brian Grover - bass, didgeridoo, whirligig, bodhran, bullroarer Dan Kool - vocals, moohran, bodhran, concertina Chris White - drums Dave Baumgartner - violin Darren Davick - guitar, octave mandolin Levi Nerad - drums Don Anderson - drums on Out of the Fertile Crescent
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