Picture this: you’re sitting on a dock by a river bank, fishing rod in hand and a cool glass of lemonade rests next to you. The air is warm and your bare feet are dangling in the cool water of the river. Somewhere in the distance you can hear the sounds of the jug band, it’s one of those wonderful, lazy summer days. This is the feeling you get when listening to Shakey Bones. Shakey Bones is a band I discovered at a hobo show at the Gilman, despite their down country sound they are a local band from Dublin, who frequently play shows at the Gilman.

Shakey Bones has that down home sound. This all acoustic band rocks out loud with out amps. One cool aspect of the band is the amounts of kazoo and ukulele solos which gives a whimsical feeling to their music.

How many band do you know of that have kazoo and ukulele solos?

Also some of their songs are rather emotional in a sad hobo walking down the street in patched-work-pants kind of way. They have both happy and sad songs that make you feel the need to pick up a jug of cheap wine and walk along some rail road tracks.

The song “Sailors on the roof,” uses the rhythm of the ukulele, guitar, drums and an accordion case for percussion to make you want to jump up and dance with your best guy or girl. The lyrics however tell the tale of going to a really shitty party where things are more out of control than the singer would have wanted.

“There are sailors on the roof/ smoking cigarettes and chewing tobacco/drinking champagne and juice/ throwing rocks up their nose/ and getting drips from a hose/ it’s all very sad/ but it kind of makes me glad/ that I know better then them.”

Though the singer may be a drunk and smokes too much pot, he knows that he won’t ever move on to the hard core drugs because he knows better and doesn’t want his life to go down that path.

There are slower songs like “Swamp Walk,” that tells the tale of a man who moves down the swamp to live the life of a hermit. The song has a sad feel to it, because the man is all alone in the swamp with no one to talk to. Then one day, a girl comes to see him and brings him his old guitar and tries to bring him out of the swamp.

Shakey Bones is a local band that is definitely worth your time to check out.