The Valley of the Shadow of Death (CD - 2005)

Personnel: Tony Duggins (vocals, mandolin); Mike Pawula (guitar); Clayton Hansen (banjo); Aaron Duggins (tin whistle); Dan Shaw (accordion).

Liner Note Author: Tony Duggins.

Recording information: Million Yen Studios, Chicago, IL.

Photographer: Paul Friemel.

Chicago-based heirs to the Pogues' booze-soaked mantle, the Tossers have built up a reputation since the mid-1990s for purveying high-quality contemporary Irish folk-punk with a point of view from about the bottom third of a whiskey bottle. Their fifth album increases their legend with a confident set of alcohol-based themes. Singer and main songwriter Tony Duggins mirrors Shane MacGowan's displaced person's yearning for Ireland in songs like the tear-stained ballad "The Crock of Gold" and the raucous "No Loot, No Booze, No Fun," and, if he doesn't possess MacGowan's poet's soul, he at least for now still has his own teeth, and a functioning liver. minimize