Boiled in Lead

History

Bassist Drew Miller, the only original member to play in all incarnations, grew up in Washington, D.C., and was inspired by that city's hardcore punk scene to merge rock energy with traditional folk. British folk-rock groups like Fairport Convention and Steeleye Span also influenced the band. The first lineup in 1983 included Miller, vocalist/guitarist Jane Dauphin, fiddle player Brian Fox, and a drum machine called 'Amos Box. Second fiddler David Stenshoel and drummer Mitch Griffin joined in time for the first concert on St. Patrick's Day 1983 at Goofy's Upper Deck in Minneapolis, sharing the bill with Hüsker Dü and Otto's Chemical Lounge.

The first release was a 45-minute live cassette-only album, Boiled Alive, in 1984. After Fox left, the remaining lineup recorded the debut studio album BOiLeD iN lEaD in 1985, with Dauphin singing most lead vocals and Miller performing on a few tracks including 'Byker Hill'; after that album Miller stayed strictly an instrumentalist. In a 2026 interview, Miller contrasted Boiled in Lead with The Pogues, noting that while both emerged around the same time blending punk and Irish folk, the Pogues drew on the ballad tradition and groups like the Clancy Brothers and the Dubliners, whereas Boiled in Lead's influences were jigs and reels of instrumental music broadened to many places, along with traditional songs on the dark side.

In popular culture

Boiled in Lead's 1995 album Songs from the Gypsy was created in tandem with Steven Brust and Megan Lindholm's novel The Gypsy. Brust also modeled the character Aibynn in his novel Phoenix on Anders, his former drum teacher. The band and its album Hotheads appear in Emma Bull's 1987 urban fantasy War for the Oaks, where the group opens for the protagonists at Minneapolis's First Avenue. In Barth Anderson's 2008 novel The Magician and the Fool, the band performs at a Minneapolis restaurant.

Solo projects and associated bands

Miller formed Felonious Bosch in 2003 with members of other Twin Cities bands, blending European medieval music with rock on a self-titled EP and the albums New Dark Ages (2006), Toybox (2010), and The Bent Slinky Session and Phenomena (2012). The group performed on the audio book of the 2011 anthology Welcome To Bordertown, backing Steven Brust on a reading of his poem 'Run Back Across The Border.' Miller also produced five additional tracks with Stenshoel and Bosch singer Kari Tauring for poems by Jane Yolen and Neil Gaiman.

Felonious Bosch disbanded in 2012. Miller is also part of Paris 1919, an avant-garde collective led by Chris Strouth. In 2018 Miller formed Kinda Fonda Wanda, a rockabilly group inspired by Wanda Jackson, which released the album Aces in 2022. Menton has released four solo albums: Punts (2003), Where Will You Land? (2004), The Dolmen Field (2008), and Rosie in the Stars (2015).

Anders has recorded three solo albums—Blue Buddha (1995), Omaiyo (1998), and Cantar Tambor Bailar: To Sing to Drum to Dance (2003)—and three with Darbuki Kings: Doumtekastan (2006), Lawrence of Suburbia (2008), and Been Laden You Too Long (2009). He has performed with Greg Brown on Dream Cafe and The Poet Game, and played on the 1989 3 Mustaphas 3 album Heart of Uncle. Marc Anderson has recorded as a sideman on dozens of albums including Steve Tibbetts and Peter Ostroushko, and released two solo albums: Timefish (1993) and Ruby (2002).

Stemple released a solo album, 3 Solid Blows To the Head, in 2006. Magraw performed in a duo with Peter Ostroushko and has also performed with Tim Sparks and John Gorka, releasing seven solo albums.