Artist: The Mandolas
Song: Greatest Day
Album: My Greatest Day (2012)
It’s been fifty years since an executive at Decca told the Beatles that “groups of guitars are on their way out,” and it’s been fifty years of proving just how wrong he was. The Mandolas are a quartet of men from lovely Cork, Ireland, and they all play some type of stringed instrument: Between Michael Grace, Colm Hayes and brothers Paddy and Dorian Kelly, they employ acoustic guitar, mandolin, mandola, bouzuki, banjo and viola in their music. Their special blend of folk and pop, along with their flawless harmonies, make them an easy comparison to groups such as the Beatles, the Beach Boys and Fleet Foxes, but don’t be so quick to pigeon-hole them. Their mellow sound instantly makes the listener want to sing along, swaying their heads and wishing they were back on the Emerald Isle (even if they’ve never been before). Their traditional Irish folk music, mixed with contemporary pop, makes them instantly memorable, and the listener craves for more. It’s music that you can put on any playlist, whether it helps you fall asleep, makes driving around town just a bit better, fits as the “mellow song” on your party mix, or even inside your own head when you hold that special person’s hand for the first time. The Mandolas have a beautiful and simple message to their music—that life is good. If you have friends and lovers and music, then it is a good day, or possibly your greatest day. As they say, “I’m happy, at least for today.” Our lives are filled with “todays,” so why focus on what bad things happened yesterday or what could happen tomorrow? “Life, it ain’t easy, but who said it was? You just hold what you can, and forget what you’ve lost, and move forward, and make amends.” Rarely do I hear lyrics that speak so simply, yet so truthfully and poetically. Currently, the Mandolas have one EP out, My Greatest Day, available on iTunes or CDBaby.
