Young Dubliners - Absolutely To Saints and Sinners

Absolutely To Saints and Sinners

During 2001, the Young Dubliners continued to tour seasonally throughout the US. In the spring of that year, violinist Mark Epting announced his retirement from the group to pursue writing screenplays. Chas Waltz returned to the band after a five year absence.

During the summer the band was booked as the support act for Jethro Tull on their tour of Europe, playing 30 shows throughout Germany, Italy, Holland, France, Belgium, and Switzerland.

After the fall tour, the group began writing material for their next album. During preproduction, multi-instrumentalist Jeff Dellisanti announced he would leave the band to retire from touring. He did stay on as a studio musician to add tin whistle, woodwinds, and keyboards to the tracks for the new album, which became Absolutely.

Absolutely, produced by John Wooler and engineered by Sally Browder, had a generally newer sound for the Young Dubliners. The production was sparser, influenced by the wave of new garage rock bands like the Strokes. Most of the material was cowritten by the entire band, another first for the act. The singles released off the album were “Scream” and “Knickers”, the latter being used as the soundtrack for a national TV ad campaign for the Killian’s Red beer brand.

Absolutely was released in June 2002, and again the Young Dubliners toured in the US supporting Jethro Tull. After the conclusion of that tour, the band joined with Canadian band Great Big Sea and American Celtic rock band Seven Nations and played as the Uprooted package tour. As the tour commenced throughout the US, the nightly order of the bands was determined by which group was the biggest draw in the area - thus GBS headlined shows in the Northeast, Seven Nations headlined in the Southeast, and the Young Dubs headlined in the western States.

During 2003, the band negotiated to record a third album for Higher Octave. Unlike their previous albums, the group was afforded a lengthy time to write and record the songs during 2004. Titled Real World, the album was produced by Dublin-native Tim Boland in Los Angeles.

During the recording of Real World, Keith Roberts underwent surgery to remove nodes from his vocal cords, which resulted in a slight delay in recording and touring during 2004.

In the summer of ‘04, the band opened for Jonny Lang.

The album was released on February 15th, 2005, and received glowing national reviews. The Washington Post published,”’Real World’ might finally be the commercial gold at the end of the rainbow for this criminally under-appreciated rock band.”(4) Amazon.com stated, “(the songs) range from stadium-friendly extravaganzas to more intimate but equally outspoken pub-sized opuses. Lead singer Keith Roberts' powerhouse vocals front a maelstrom of fiddle vamps, howling guitars and frenzied drums. But even so, the hint of rueful melancholy that lies at the heart of traditional Celtic music survives, transformed yet triumphant.”(5)

The band toured Ireland in November, 2005. In November 2006, they returned to Ireland, and toured Denmark for the first time.

2006 saw the group’s contract with Higher Octave come to a close; they subsequently signed with their current label, 429 Records. The seventh release the Young Dubliners recorded was titled With All Due Respect - The Irish Sessions; this was an album filled entirely with covers of Irish ballads and shanteys - reworked in the group’s trademark style. Released in February 2007, With All Due Respect was the fastest selling CD for the band to date, with much publicity hitting nationally during their March Madness tour which climaxed with the sold-out Shamrocker festival in San Diego.

In the summer of 2007, the Young Dubliners toured Denmark, appearing at many large festivals, including Tunoe Island, where a live recording of their entire show was produced. Also, they performed a handful of shows in Norway, and at the G! Festival in the Faroe Islands.

On March 15, 2008, the group appeared live on the CBS Early Show. During March and April, 2008, they toured the United States, Ireland, and Denmark.

Beginning in early 2008, the band recorded their latest album. Titled Saints And Sinners, the CD was released on February 3, 2009, on 429 Records. The single, "Rosie", went on to become the top added new song in the AAA radio format during March of 2009. On March 17th, 2009, the band appeared on ABC-TV's Jimmy Kimmel Live!, and performed Rosie and the new album's title track, Saint And Sinners.

Jimmy Kimmel Live! featured the group a second time on March 17th, 2011. This performance was actually taped on March 16th because the band was booked to play in San Diego on the night of the 17th.