Bio
Plague Dad is the most recent project from Portland, Maine-based singer/songwriter Frank Gallagher – no, not the guy from Shameless. This Frank Gallagher’s a veteran of the indie rock scene who did a couple of years at the Berklee College of Music in Boston and then got his start back in the day out in San Francisco. As an underage kid, his first band, Scouts Honor, shared stages from LA to Seattle with a long list of acts, including Nirvana, Love Battery, the Goo Goo Dolls, Alice Donut, Mary’s Danish, and Primus. After a couple of years grinding it out up and down the west coast, though, the Scouts imploded.
Now, he’s back. And this time, it’s personal. At least, the tunes are.
Plague Dad is an acoustic act, steeped in the old-timey sounds of Jimmie Rodgers, the Carter Family, and the Stanley Brothers, but infused through and through with the punk-rock ethos that led Gallagher toward making music in the first place. The repertoire draws from a deep well of tightly crafted original tunes and carefully curated covers.
One writer called the Plague Dad sound three parts Stanley Brothers and two parts Minutemen -- and a Plague Dad set is just as likely to feature a song from the one as it is from the other -- but a growing number of folks who’ve caught them live don’t really care what the label says, they just like what they hear.
Plague Dad came together in the early days of the pandemic. Laid off from his job, Gallagher spent the time up in his attic, writing and recording songs, and just trying to make sense of it all. Thanks to the magic of social media, some of those tunes got loose in the wild and found some traction. With local stages unavailable because of, you know, the plague, Gallagher took his act to the streets, busking throughout southern Maine and playing outdoor parties to growing crowds.
These days, Plague Dad shows will feature a range of hot, local players, depending on the gig and who’s available. Sometimes, it’ll be a solo act, sometimes it’ll be a power trio, or maybe it’ll be a small combo featuring a sax and a cello. Either way, it’s a good time.