Kier Byrnes & The Kettle Burners fire up an Americana fervor with ‘Before The Fall’
The feisty Boston-based accordion-driven country-rock sextet
deliver an emphatic and upbeat new EP on Friday, April 4
OUT NOW: Listen to ‘Before The Fall’ on Spotify
‘Before The Fall’ EP release party set for April 11 at The Plough & Stars in Cambridge
Potent lead single ‘White Russian’ drops on release day
BOSTON, Mass. [April 4, 2025] – Most bands tend to ramp things up around a record’s release, ending a stretch of relative silence by amplifying their presence across the digital ecosystem, rolling out a barrage of anticipatory singles, and even playing a live show or two around their hometown. But Kier Byrnes & The Kettle Burners are no ordinary band, and in turn are afforded no such casual on-ramp – because the tireless Boston-based Americana band rarely ever slows down, regardless of what’s on the calendar.
Now the high-octane sextet, led by longtime Boston music scene veteran Kier Byrnes and the recipient of Americana Act of the Year at the 2024 New England Music Awards, unleashes a breathless new EP titled Before The Fall on Friday, April 4. The spirited and feisty six-track EP, which blends a spectrum of subgenres that bridge alt-folk, gypsy punk, Celtic, old-school country, and whatever else, gets the proper release party treatment a week later at The Plough & Stars in Cambridge come April 11.
“My hope is to create a unique blend of music from genres I closely identify with; country, rock, Celtic and Bavarian folk music and turn it into something new that defies any genre,” says Byrnes. “You know the joke about what happens if you play a country song backwards – you get your car back, you get your woman back, and you get your dog back. My aim is to take a country song and turn it completely inside out.”
The Before The Fall EP, fueled by potent lead single and opening track “White Russian,” continues a dynamic 2025 for the band, with no immediate signs of a slow down. In the Kettle Burners, co-vocalist and acoustic guitarist Byrnes is rounded out by lead guitarist and co-vocalist Dan DiBacco; accordion player Jason McGorty; washboard player Monica Sager; bassist Joe Miller; and drummer Brian Lilienthal. And the band just banged out seven live shows over a five-day stretch leading up to St. Patrick’s Day, celebrating their also-new In The Key of Guinness EP of Irish music with high-profile gigs at Harpoon Brewery, The Burren, and a massive 10-hour all-day holiday set at The Stockyard in Brighton.
Shortly after the EP drops, Byrnes looks ahead to his own New England Americana Fest coming in June – where The Kettle Burners perform live, with details to be revealed soon – before taking the band and its face-melting accordion and chicken pickin’ electric guitar stylings across the Atlantic for a European summer tour in July.
Remarkably, for a band with the Kettle Burners’ hustle and all-overdrive ambition, the tracks that make up Before The Fall were all written and recorded last summer, just ahead of the band’s appearance at Outlaw Music Fest in New Hampshire alongside Willie Nelson & Family, John Mellencamp, Charley Crockett, and others. A few weeks before the gig arrived, Byrnes suffered a tumble down a set of stairs, leaving him with severe injury to his legs and requiring surgery. Finishing the songs was placed on the back-burner, allowing Byrnes time to heal and giving the record its title, as the songs were all written Before The Fall.
With its title already ominous, the lyrical material reveals a slightly darker undercurrent than what the upbeat and zestful music would imply.
“Some of my favorite country and folk songs are the ones where the music seems really nice and happy-go-lucky, but if you listen to the lyrics, it’s really gory and/or tragic,” admits Byrnes. “It’s fun to sing about darker stuff in an upbeat, energetic way.”
That vibe permeates throughout Before The Fall and its sprint through a roughly 21-minute runtime. Recorded by Rafi Sofer at Q Division Recording Studios in Cambridge and mastered by Mike Quinn, the EP immediately hits cruising altitude and then rarely lets up. It blasts out of the gate with “White Russian,” a foot-stomping, accordion-driven barnstormer that sets an immediate tone.
“It’s kind of a breakup song, relationship post-mortem, and diss track, all rolled into one fun, crazy, terrifying amusement-park-ride of a song,” says DiBacco. “And it’s unified by this somber recurring motif, the ‘la da da da da White Russian’ melody, which is as sinisterly goading as it is tragic and matter-of-fact.”
From there, the Kier Byrnes & The Kettle Burners style quickly takes hold. EP tracks like “When the Money’s All Gone” and “Train’s off the Rails” continue the boisterous gypsy-punk vibes, while the yearning “Quarter-Life Crisis” and “Hurting Or Helping” shift into more alt-country territory. Relentless EP closer “Dark Eyes” seemingly bundles all the Kettle Burners style and energy into one plucky and punchy finale.
DiBacco adds that the lyrical themes that permeate through the record include “love that’s doomed to fail; being jaded with your place in our batshit-crazy modern world; betrayal and losing friendships and loved ones while learning to let go and keep moving… there’s lots of intra- and inter-personal struggles, and how they bubble over the surface – self-implosion, even. That last one, to me, is as human as it gets!”
The expansive “Quarter-Life Crisis” centers around being a young(-ish) adult in a messy modern world, coming to grips with aging, failures, and lost dreams while also identifying past mistakes and stirring the pot to undergo drastic changes, perhaps just to feel something.
“When the Money’s All Gone” is a rollicking toe-tapper about what happens when we hit rock bottom, but also explores the underlying uneasiness of how we never really know how another person feels about us, especially over time.
The exuberant, whiskey-stained “Train’s of the Rails” reflects a relationship gone bad, written to simulate a train wreck, first by speeding up and then with things slowly and suddenly losing control. Adds Byrnes: “Sometimes I’m the conductor of the train, sometimes I’m just the passenger.”
The anthemic, sing-along buoyancy of “Hurting Or Helping” boasts a modern country vibe and relays thoughts about the current state of the workforce in our modern world, genuinely asking if we’re helping or hurting by giving up on childhood dreams and chasing the dollar. And EP finale “Dark Eyes” ramps up the intensity with the type of fevered merriment “White Russian” kicked off with, bridging the energy of the aforementioned single without allowing the listener to catch their collective breath.
“I try to sing about relatable stuff in my songs,” admits DiBacco. “I’m a human and – I’d assume? – other people are experiencing or have experienced wins and losses, mistakes and triumphs, similar to my own. To me, good songwritings strikes the balance of honest personal experiences and relatability for the prospective listener. “
For Kier Byrnes & The Kettle Burners, all the spontaneous moments that happen in rehearsal, in the studio, in the van, or on stage are filtered into the music, the performance, the message. Not only is the band making the accordion sexy again, as Miller playfully puts it, they’re doing it with a headband full of sweat and the crisp Boston wind at their backs.
And they just want the listener to join in – from a packed show around New England, or dancing like a maniac at home alone while Before The Fall delivers its maniacal Americana seance through the speakers. The EP is a party, wherever one may take it.
“I think all good music, regardless of style or genre, makes you feel something, whether it’s happy or sad or something more complex,” DiBacco concludes. “So my sincerest hope would be that our music makes the listener feel something raw, something true… or just anything at all.”
And for that, Kier Byrnes & The Kettle Burners have all the time in the world. Even if they show no signs of ever slowing down.
Kier Byrnes & The Kettle Burners are:
Kier Byrnes: Acoustic guitar and lead vocals
Dan DiBacco: Lead guitar and lead vocals
Jason McGorty: Accordion
Monica Sager: Washboard
Joe Miller: Bass
Brian Lilienthal: Drums
‘Before The Fall’ EP artwork:
‘Before The Fall’ production credits:
Performed by Kier Byrnes & The Kettle Burners
Recorded by Rafi Sofer at Q Division in Cambridge, MA
Mastered by Mike Quinn
Media praise for Kier Byrnes & The Kettle Burners:
“...traditional Celtic fire and rock…” _Patriot Ledger
“Kier Byrnes & the Kettle Burners’ newest EP romps through time and place. Before the Fall is both an escape to thrilling times long past and an ode to the unique anxieties of the contemporary everyman. In it, the tribulations of love, youthful malaise, and artists' woes collide with high-speed showdowns and shady backroom drama. Its existence is also a tribute to the band’s ability to rally and muster forth through adversity. The EP’s name hails from a serious accident that could have derailed the project.” _The Some Publication
“Kier Byrnes & The Kettle Burners are warming up the crowd with their unique blend of Celtic, country, and rock — a sound that seems perfectly at home amid the avant-garde designs and boundary-pushing aesthetic… [The band has] built their identity on musical fusion. [it] creates something wholly original yet strangely familiar. This adaptability serves the band well in Boston’s diverse music scene, allowing them to fit comfortably in various contexts — from Celtic festivals to rock clubs, from beer festivals to high-fashion events.” _Boston Man Magazine
“[Kier Byrnes’ prior band] Three Day Threshold may have been compared to the Dropkick Murphys by some, but where the Dropkicks meld Celtic traditional sounds with punk rock, 3DT tended more to mix country/Celtic/bluegrass elements with more mainstream rock… A quick listen to some of the half dozen or so Kettle Burners videos currently on Youtube reveals that the sound is close to 3DT, but also different, with more depth and instrumental variety due to the interplay with the accordion.” _Patriot Ledger
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