In the darkness of the late 80s there were the Silos.
Like the Mekons they had a fiddle. They also had a big drum sound, and spoke the vernacular English.
Like the Mekons they never had a hit, and maybe came even more unclose. They don’t rock nearly as hard as the Mekons, and didn’t endure nearly as long, since they were mostly a one-man band. Eventually he went solo, which made not much difference except his nut was smaller.
Is that a good thing?
But if you’re mixing up rock and folk, smarts and rock, this is a pretty fine band to have.