Seán Griffin is a veteran Northeast rocker who has fronted the Irish punk band The Ruffians for 25 years.
Born into a large family in Danbury, Connecticut, Griffin was steeped in Irish traditional music via his barbershop quartet-singer father and his accordionist/step-dancer mother. But he wasn’t motivated to make music himself until he discovered punk and alternative rock as a teenager; in college, he formed the Brit pop-styled Svelte, which recorded one album in the early 1990s.
The Pogues were a pivotal influence, inspiring Sean to form The Ruffians in 1998, not long after he’d moved to New York. Crossing Irish folk styles with punk and contemporary Brit-pop, the hard-gigging band released three well-received albums and an EP and performed with luminaries like Shane McGowan and the Popes, Black 47, Enter the Haggis, and Gaelic Storm.
When it came time to cut the dusty diamonds sitting on his song shelf that didn’t quite fit The Ruffians’ repertoire, along with a whole chest of newer gems, Griffin went straight to Old Soul Studios in Catskill, New York, to work with Grammy award-winning producer Kenny Siegel (Langhorne Slim, New Pornographers, Low Cut Connie) and engineer Matthew Cullen (Sean Lennon, Black Lips, My Morning Jacket). And the results of the sessions, which mix ageless acoustic instruments with amped-up electric punk rock and melodic balladry, are nothing short of sublime. The album was mixed by Paul Kolderie and mastered by Greg Calbi.
“Back in the ’90s, Sean and The Ruffians were a glory to behold — a souped-up Celtic Oasis teetering on the edge,” says Black 47’s Larry Kirwan, the host of SiriusXM’s “Celtic Crush.” “But now Sean is back, a mellower, more thoughtful man with a batch of new songs and the same impressive voice. He almost sounds like a 21st-century Joe Jackson, displaying a new maturity. Gratefully, his trademark humor and sense of fun are still to be found.” “For me, the songs always come first,” says Griffin, who plans club and festival dates in North America, the U.K., and Europe to support the 2024 release. “I just want to keep the storytelling tradition that I come from alive through my songs, and for the people who hear them to get some of the same excitement and joy that I get from playing them.”