This Norwell musician had an eventful 2023, opening for several high-profile acts

Norwell’s Kier Byrnes spent more than a decade as leader of Three Day Threshold, a rock group that fused traditional country, Celtic, folk and bluegrass, and had built a sterling reputation up and down the East Coast.  Three Day Threshold could’ve toured more extensively, but most of the members had thriving careers with their day jobs, so they essentially carved out the music career that fit them, and earned plenty of high-profile gigs around New England opening for touring national acts.

In fact, the last time we spoke with Byrnes, in 2015, 3DT was preparing to open several New England dates for the late surf-rock pioneer (and Quincy native) Dick Dale. The 3DT songbook, you see, was so broad and eclectic that they actually did do surf rock songs themselves, and that kind of versatility – not to mention the "anything goes" ethos of their live shows – won them legions of fans.

Like many other musicians, Byrnes and 3DT slipped off the radar during the pandemic. But in recent months he’s been back, fronting Kier Byrnes and the Kettle Burners, a new quintet that performs Saturday night at the new Rockwood Music Hall in Boston.  (Rockwood Music Hall is located at 88 Van Ness St. in Boston, a couple blocks west of Fenway Park, and all tickets are $15 for the Night of Alt-Country. Byrnes and the Kettle Burners play at 7 p.m., will be followed by Wheaton grad Daniel Miller and the High Life at 8 p.m., and Elisa Smith at 9 p.m. For ticket information check www.rockwoodboston.com).

Pandemic brought changes

During the pandemic, members of 3DT moved away from the Boston area, had kids and drifted away from music. Those are all common factors that shuffle bands’ lineups, and the lack of places to perform also pushed along the band’s dissolution. But Byrnes had the itch to write and perform music, so he kept going out and listening to local acts.  Byrnes and his wife now have three kids of their own, boys 11 and 5, and a 9-year-old daughter, and his "day job" is surely time-consuming too. Byrnes is the managing director of the Robsham Theater Arts Complex at Boston College, which includes the university band program, marching band and campus radio station.

“Well, over that time of the pandemic, like a lot of people, we realized that the music business is not the same,” Byrnes mused over the phone from his Medford home this week. “Some of our old bandmates decided they just weren’t ready to go back to playing in bars anymore. It was just tough for me to get things going again. Before COVID-19, musicians like us wouldn’t miss a show if you lost a leg, but since COVID, you realize there are times you just have to stand down. For example, we had a real family reunion planned for Christmas, and my oldest son, Aedan, came down with COVID, and although he didn’t have a bad case, we just had to cancel seeing all our family as a result. It’s just the new reality.”

Over the past couple years Byrnes has gradually found a new group, basically from networking on the local Boston music scene. The Kettle Burners take that same approach to merging traditional elements with rock ‘n’ roll but push it out into new directions with an accordion in the quintet. 3DT 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. But with 2023 concluding as the first real year for the Kettle Burners, Byrnes can look back on a successful year, with 49 shows and some high-profile opening slots.

A year of high-profile shows

“There were a couple years with Three Day Threshold where we got to 120 shows in a year,” he said, “but when we got serious about this band, I was hoping for 50 shows, and so 49 is pretty good. We got some good luck, opening for touring national acts like Hank Williams Jr. and also the Old Crow Medicine Show, and picked up a few festival gigs, too. For a new band, this summer was better than we’d imagined.”

When Byrnes was offered the spot opening for Williams he quickly accepted.

There was one problem, in that his band hadn’t yet found a drummer.

“They wanted a band roster for the program, so I gave them my neighbor’s name,” said Byrnes. “He’s not a musician, but he got to see himself listed. The Kettle Burners are definitely in the same vein as Three Day Threshold, musically. We still stake out a lot of the old 3DT ‘hits’ – or most popular old tunes – in our shows. And this band does have incredibly talented musicians, just like 3DT. But what really fired my vision for this band, and the biggest change people will notice, is the chance to play with accordion. I met Jason McGorty by chance, and his playing is the inspiration for what I want this next chapter of our music to be. I found that accordion and guitar pairs up very well, and the fact that Jason is this amazing virtuoso on accordion just opens up so many possibilities for us.”

“My bass player, Joe Miller, and I found this new guitar player, Dan DiBacco, purely by chance at (Cambridge club) the Plough & Stars,” Byrnes related. “Meeting people out there who love the same music you do is the best way to find band members, I think. So, we had been talking to Dan at the Plough, and just asked if he wanted to be in a band with us. We found drummer Brian Lilienthal in a similar way, and this group has really good chemistry. We’ve been writing and recording together and it has all been going terrifically well.”

EP set for February release

Just last Friday, Byrnes and the Kettle Burners spent their evening recording at Q Division in Cambridge, and they’ve finished a five-song EP scheduled for February release.

“It was cool to record in one of the last major Boston-area studios,” said Byrnes. “In fact, Ed Sheeran had been there just a few days before us. We have much more new music in the tank, and we plan to release more EPs, and then at some point pull that music into a full-length album. Friday night we recorded demos until 2 a.m., driving rock but with folk, Celtic, country flavors.

“I think the big difference we’re seeing from Three Day Threshold is that that band was more guitar-driven, while this group, with the accordion, can tackle a broader horizon,” Byrnes added. “We can go for more nuances, and it’s a very interesting new aspect. We’ve always had one foot in the Celtic music camp, of course, and as a result we’re booked solid in March, around St. Patrick’s Day. But now the accordion also allows us to dabble in other music, like polkas or Bavarian. There’s a lot of commonality between Celtic, Americana and Bavarian music – they’re all cousins.”

A similar sound

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, and Byrnes and DiBacco on guitars. Byrnes is still the main singer, but DiBacco takes the lead vocal on a suitably rowdy take on The Beatles’ “I Want to Hold Your Hand,” so his vocals add even more versatility to the group.

This is the first time at Rockwood Music Hall for Byrnes and the band, but he’s enthusiastic about the new venue. He’s also chiding his fans who complain about the lateness of their shows, noting that on this Night of Alt-Country, as it’s billed, the Kettle Burners go on at 7 p.m.

“It is refreshing to see a nice new venue like the Rockwood, and it is small, 120 capacity, so cozy and intimate,” Byrnes said. “Any place like this that makes an effort to support local music, and provides a nice space where people can experience music together, is a bonus for all of us. That’s why we’ve always loved the Plough and Stars, where it’s in your face music, and you may have to dodge the band members to get to the rest rooms. Small places, where you’re not a hundred feet away from the performers, make it a totally different experience. You can pat the musicians on the back if you want to, and we like that. The Snug in Hingham is like that, so that's a favorite spot of ours on the South Shore. But we are excited and happy to be playing at Rockwood.”

GA-20 sells out Narrows Center

A quick flash back to before New Year’s, when it was so gratifying to see Boston blues trio GA-20 pack the Narrows Center in Fall River for what was in many respects a homecoming show. The band with guitarist Matt Stubbs and singer/guitarist Pat Faherty and drummer Tim Carman, had spent most of 2023 on the road, all over the country and for long periods in Europe. And as we’ve noted before, the best thing about their drawing power is that it includes crowds that are predominantly 20- and 30-somethings, much younger than the typical blues demographic.

The Dec. 29 show was a blazing burst of roadhouse blues, much in the primal Chicago style of Hound Dog Taylor, the late guitarist who was saluted in GA-20’s breakthrough 2021 album, "Try It You Might Like It". Whether it was the loping original “Dry Run,” or Taylor’s raucous and witty “Gimme Back My Wig,” the combination of sizzling guitar lines and Faherty’s room-filling vocals were a hit with the nearly 500 fans on hand. Faherty showcased his own slide talents on a solo run through R.L. Burnside’s “Come On In,” and invested real emotion in his vocal on the wrenching love song “I Let Someone In.” There was even a James Brown cover, “I Don’t Mind,” and Stubbs dedicated a Bo Diddley cover (“Crackin’ Up”) to his father, who’d first introduced him to guitar. GA-20’s 20-song set ended with the encore of “Easy on the Eyes,” another barn-burning blues-rock delight.

The other notable part of this concert was the opening act, as Cody Nielsen and his band made their Narrows debut. Nielsen is best known as the lead guitarist in Scituate’s Ward Hayden & the Outliers, but with some down time this fall, Nielsen began working on some of his own tunes. I noticed a definite Drive-By Truckers, and Jason Isbell influence, but Nielsen also had his own slant, and a resonant baritone voice. With only a handful of gigs under their belts, Nielsen and his band are major talents to watch

This article originally appeared on The Patriot Ledger: Kier Byrnes and the Kettle Burners set to release new EP in February