The Hired Men Recordings

Practice Recordings (Free Curbside album download)

by Peter O’Halloran & The Hired Men

From the liner notes of our release on Rum Bar Records

The Hired Men are a ragtag band of musicians cobbled together by Peter O’Halloran (from Boston music staple the Dogmatics). The group usually includes O’Halloran brothers Jimmy and Dan, as well as friends Johnny Coe, Marie Kettenring & J. Young.

The band has also had the honor of collaborating with additional artists, including various multi-generational members of the O’Halloran family, The Dogmatics, Tom ‘TK’ Keenan, Wynter Pingel, Dominic Spinzola, Kate Roper, Thomas Rose, Jed Chrysler, Stephen Fredette, and the late accordion virtuoso Gerry “Brickie” McNamara.

Over the last decade, band members from The Hired Men have also jumped on stage with the Dogmatics for live performances and contributed to recent recordings.

Peter has a long-time habit of conjuring up an eclectic variety of tunes from the extensive archives in his head while in the company of family and friends. Somewhere around 2008, this evolved into a more structured band to play at family gatherings, parties, and local venues (for drinks and possibly also money).

The band has yet to hit the studio, and past attempts to record live shows didn’t work out. The tracks on this release are from a variety of informal practice sessions spanning 2010 – 2019. Think of them as ‘demo tapes’ that capture the raw energy of bandmates hanging out and having fun.

Note from the band: We are sharing these substandard-quality practice recordings amid these trying times in the hopes they may brighten your day. We can’t wait to get back to playing at venues and around beach bonfires among our incredible community of music lovers.

P.S. They initially used the name The Hired Hands to play a gig on a farm. They later learned that this name was already taken, so they changed it. The current name is inspired, in part, by the poem The Death of the Hired Man by Robert Frost.