Bote

"With it's mix of acoustic and electric songs, Bote offers up a variety of music that a variety of people will love."
- Marc Gunn

How many times can you go to the bar and hear someone sing about “barnacles” while sipping on a Guinness? Actually, have you ever heard anyone sing about “barnacles” that wasn’t in a pirate movie? Probably not, but a South Carolina band out to change that.

Bote, a Celtic folk rock group from Greenville, is crashing bars in their home state and shipping into North Carolina, as well. The group sings about cheering up “the lads,” “fishing the whale” and of course, drinking some “rum” and beer.

“Our point of departure is Celtic-Irish traditional, seafaring and drinking songs as well as some of our own originals,” said bandmate Dwayne Grassie. “We cover the genre from The Chieftains to Dropkick Murphys.”

So they are a bit of a cover band, but in a genre that’s rarely covered. They just released their first recording, “Work and Worry” (seems like all Celtic groups sing about work, too) and self produced 50 copies for promotions.”Work and Worry” is a collection of 15 songs that are perfect for having your friends over, playing drinking games, arm wrestling and dancing.

This album does get away from singing about Irish Whiskey for a bit though. “Calls my name” still has those Celtic lyrics but does have a more modern folk sound. Skeptics from the modern era might be surprised to find they already listen to this type of music. Just think of The Decemberists’ “The Mariner’s Revenge Song” and you got some insight into what Bote is doing. The group actually covers “Crane Wife 3.” Overall Bote did a good job of creating an album that respects their ancient genre and is good for listening to while sipping a modern Irish stout.

The group has several Carolinas live shows coming up, and Grassie promises the live shows are not something to miss.

“Live, We morph into a jam-party band and are known to pull requests out of our hats and don’t limit ourselves to Irish,” Grassie said. ” Club owners always re-book our live act because we really put on an entertaining show.” - Brad Luttrell, Shock and Yawn Magazine

"Bote means recompense or amends and have given us a super compensation for our time."
--Gary

"It's been a while since we've heard some great folk, and these guys have a superb sound."
--Ruth - Gary and Ruth Colcombe