Since the legendary Shane MacGowan passed away in 2023, a great many artists have covered his old band the Pogues in tribute: Bob Dylan, Bruce Springsteen, U2, the list goes on. Very few people, on the other hand, have opted to cover Shane MacGowan & The Popes, the band that MacGowan briefly led during his '90s wilderness years away from the Pogues. But that's why we have This Is Lorelei.
After years upon years of notoriously destructive behavior, the Pogues finally fired Shane MacGowan for being too drunk and unreliable in 1991. MacGowan assembled a new group of musicians from the Pogues' extended circle and formed the new band Shane MacGowan & The Popes. They released two albums, 1994's The Snake and 1997's The Crock Of Gold, while the Pogues struggled on without MacGowan. The Popes mostly went inactive when MacGowan reunited with the Pogues in 2001. The Popes' two records weren't terribly successful, but they had some great songs.
Last month, Nate Amos' consistently excellent solo project This Is Lorelei released The Singer In My Band, one of this year's best albums. While promoting the record, Amos recently did a live-in-studio session for SiriusXM. While rocking a Slipknot shirt, he played a lovely solo cover of "The Song With No Name," a 1994 Popes single that MacGowan built on the melody of "The Homes Of Donegal," an Irish folk song that Seán McBride wrote in 1955. Below, check out This Is Lorelei's cover and Shane MacGowan's original video.
The Singer In My Band is out now on Matador.