The Dirty Beggars are a band that can’t seem to sit still. Not quite content with winning scores of fans on a UK tour with The Wilders, nor with taking the USA by storm, this Scottish quintet have found the time to record their debut album – and it’s rather good. This onslaught of hi-octane bluegrass – albeit with noticeable Scottish inflection – should not go unnoticed by music lovers.
Any conniptions that these young lads may suffer from a lack of maturity are blown away on the opening two tracks. “Hey Hey” and “Nashville Wave Goodbye” boast both fine songcraft and surprising lyrical sensibility while “Too Tired” allows for a little hill-billied accentuation in an otherwise rousing chorus. In any intonation, the Begbie brothers cope well with shared harmonies.
Hints at a Celtic influence appear on “Calm before the Storm”, which could easily be mistaken for a misplaced Dubliners instrumental. However, the band is truly at the peak of their form when the furious bluegrass of “When the Cockerel Crows” begins. This shack-shaker alone makes the album a good purchase.
“Tunnel Light” and “Homecoming Day” offer a less raucous quality to their sound, with the instrumentation taking even greater importance, at least until “Before the Devil Knows I’m Dead” re-affirms my belief that this group are in league with Satan. Not really, but it’s good music all the same.
Oncoming exposure for The Dirty Beggars will hardly seem a surprise to those that know them or have seen them in concert. “Bite The Bullet” is a fantastic debut release, an overdue pitchfork to the haystacks of modern popular music. Buy it or forever wallow in your own guilt.