The Great Western Squares

Sometime in the mid-nineties Gary Fitzpatrick got offered free booze to sing country songs upstairs in the Hut in Phibsboro. He asked Oona White to share the blame. After the first night of countryfying Adam and the Ants and the Bee Gees they realised they might need to listen to some actual Americana. A friend gave them a c90 mix tape of everything from the Louvins to Hank to Gram to Uncle Dave etc and their world altered. An accident in the studio with Gary's punk band led to him getting a free day's recording which,in turn, led to their first cd Judas Steer. By this stage a band had accidently formed, though the actual line up was only finalised by whoever showed up at the studio (the drums being added later that night). Stupidly good reviews followed, tours started happening, and our folks ended up meeting Gay Byrne on the Late Late Show. A second album, Almost Sober, was released in 1998 and the stumbling around continued. A third album was recorded but never released as the band fell out with each other, and their label, sometime around 1999, I think.