For those unaware, Pat McManus, who is known by many from his former bands Mama’s Boys and Celtus and from the last fifteen years by his own Pat McManus Band, is back with his seventh solo studio album Full Service Resumed.

Once again Pat has delivered a brilliant Rock and Blues album, this time with the added bonus of four extra reworked and re-recorded tracks from his vast back catalogue.

This album is classic Pat McManus and showcases his simply great and varied songwriting skills. Pat is an extraordinary musician who grew up in a family steeped in traditional music.

He became an award winning violinist at a very tender age, coming to Rock and Blues in his late teens. He quickly developed his phenomenal guitar and songwriting skills.

Full Service Resumed brings us full circle as it includes the classic tracks Belfast City Blues, one of his very first compositions, Belfast Boy and two others.

1. Doomsday Clock
2. Long Haul Trucker
3. Bury Me
4. Waiting For A Friend
5. Rock You
6. Jumpstart My Heart
7. Bang Bang
8. Honey Trap
9. Stone Cold Sober
10. Crystal Sky
11. His Soul Remains With Me (Instrumental)
12. Belfast Boy [Bonus]
13. Too Little of You to Love [Bonus]
14. Hard Headed Ways [Bonus]
15. Belfast City Blues [Bonus]

Opening on the upbeat, gritty rocker Doomsday Clock and then the atmospheric, ZZ Top-esque Long Haul Trucker, we next are given one of the stand outs here, in my humble opinion, the mid-tempo blues rocker Bury Me, which is backed by the low slung balladry of Waiting For A Friend, and then more of what it says on the tin within the foot-stomper Rock You and the SRV-imbibed Jumpstart My Heart.

Up next we get the Celtic-imbued foot-tapper Bang Bang and the lit blues rock jam of Honey Trap, and they are in turn followed by the mid-tempo, guitar-writhing ballad Stone Cold Sober, the rhythmically melodic rock of Crystal Sky, the aching yearn of the Gary Moore-esque His Soul Remains With Me (Instrumental), the album rounding out with McManus’ actually noted tribute to the late, great Belfast guitarist himself, the incredibly passionate Belfast Boy, the mellow rock of Too Little of You to Love, closing on the aptly-named Hard Headed Ways and the lonesome troubadour found within an instrumental tribute to his late brother Tommy, Belfast City Blues.

Steeped from a young age in Traditional Irish music, Pat began playing fiddle at four years of age and eventually won numerous awards for his prodigious talent on that instrument. By the age of 14, he had won the All-Ireland competition on the fiddle in the adult’s category.

Eventually turning his eye towards a career in rock and roll, Pat formed the Mama’s Boys with his two brothers, John, and Tommy. The band quickly became one of the leaders of the late 70s/early 80s movement called the New Wave of British Heavy Metal.

The band’s 1985 album, Power and Passion, charted in the Billboard Top 100 and the band toured relentlessly with bands including Thin Lizzy (including opening for Lizzy at the Reading Festival on Thin Lizzy’s farewell U.K. performance) along with a Knebworth Festival performance opening for Deep Purple in front of 150,000 people.

After his brother Tommy died of leukemia, Mama’s Boys disbanded and Pat and his brother John formed the Celtus, a Celtic new age band whose music is best described as Pink Floyd meets Clannad meets Enigma.

After releasing five albums, the band split, and Pat resumed his passion for hard blues-rock by forming the Pat McManus Band in 2007.

The band, a power trio led by Pat’s inspired songwriting and his prominent smoldering guitarwork that has garnered comparisons to fellow Irish guitarists Rory Gallagher and Gary Moore, has established Pat as one of the finest rock guitarists in the world.

Although they haven’t toured the U.S. in a while, the band remains a force on the road in the U.K. and Europe while recording a catalog of hard blues-rock that stands up to anyone else’s music in that genre.

Mama’s Boys - Needle in the Groove [Video]

Pat McManus Band - Belfast Boy [Recorded Live for Bluesmoose Radio]

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