# National Heroes (Music)

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/national-heroes-music/458653>\
**Category:** Cafe Society\
**Created:** [August 3, 2008, 1:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/national-heroes-music/458653 "2008-08-03T01:05:14Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 1\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![An\_Gadai](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/d6d6ee/32.png) [@An\_Gadai](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/An_Gadai)\
**Post date:** [August 3, 2008, 1:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/national-heroes-music/458653/1 "2008-08-03T01:05:14Z")

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Ok what bands are big in your country or locale but not so much further afield?  
I’ll start with a few in Ireland. Some of these artist are known abroad but are huge here. Some are Irish, some not.

**Jape** - [jape | Listen and Stream Free Music, Albums, New Releases, Photos, Videos](http://www.myspace.com/richiejape)

Dublin laid-back electro-rock, most famous for the song Floating as covered by The Raconteurs. Main guy Richie is the hardest working man in Dublin music also being a part of post-rock group, The Redneck Manifesto.

**Damien Dempsey** - [http://www.myspace.com/damiendempsey](http://www.myspace.com/damiendempsey)

At various times a rapper, a Celtic reggae proponent and a folk balladeer, Dempsey combines traditional elements of Irish music with contemporary pop. He’s a huge live draw here. Songs to check out include Patience, Badtime Garda, Party On, Colony and his latest album of folk standards.

\*\*Josh Ritter \*\* - [Josh Ritter | Listen and Stream Free Music, Albums, New Releases, Photos, Videos](http://www.myspace.com/joshritter)

A native son of Moscow, Idaho, Ritter is the latest in a long line of foreign singer-songwriters adopted by Irish audiences as their own (cf. David Gray). Although he’s attracting attention nowadays in his native land and other countries he has been hugely successful here as a live act for a number of years. He has so many good songs, I recommended him already in the One Hit Wonders thread.

**The Frames** - [http://www.myspace.com/theframesofficial](http://www.myspace.com/theframesofficial)

Glen Hansard of Once fame’s ‘proper’ band. Doing the circuit since 1992 they’ve built up a huge following and had several well respected albums. Their styles have changed over the years from Irish-inflected grunge to Alt-Americana to stadium rock. Songs to check out include: Star, Star, Red Chord, Pavement Tune, God Bless Mom, Fake, Lay Me Down and Revelate.