Contraband

To say musicians like to use contraband could easily be interpreted as an attempt to malign the world's most important profession. To say they like to use Contraband is another story, or better yet another band and another and another. Unlike the band name Joker, which seems to be the exclusive domain of hard rock and country rock bar bands, Contraband has had dealings as a moniker in genres ranging from fusion jazz to heavy metal to, in this case, the traditional Celtic scene. Featuring, among others, the brothers George and Billy Jackson, this Contraband gets its musical fix from a stash of Irish and Scottish folk music. Bandmember Mae McKenna claimed in one interview that the group was so enthusiastic about its music that the members sang and played together in the van on the way to and from gigs as well as on-stage. This might be a trifle exaggerated, but the band certainly could never have been faulted for a lack of energy, an aspect made apparent on their self-titled debut in 1974. The group's sound was seen as innovative in the spread of folk-rock ideology, one of the earliest bands to wear the Celtic rock kilt. Despite the enduring potential of this concept, this Contraband busted up in 1975. ~ Eugene Chadbourne