GREGORY Grene has had a long and successful career that spans six albums as leader of the Prodigals, whose furious punk assault on traditional Irish melodies has earned them the rightful title of jig punk kings. But there has been a flip side of his artistry that Grene has been eager to explore for a long time.

"I have been working with musicians in acoustic settings for years, in anything from sessions at Lincoln Center here in New York, and more recently in Austin, Texas, with a acoustic version of the Prodigals at the Celtic Festival and the Cactus Cafe, and in St. Mary's Cathedral with John Doyle," explains Grene.

"Whereas the Prodigals audience is this mad, ebullient sea of people pumping their fists in a wild party, in the acoustic environment people are often seated, but there is a different energy, the energy that comes from listening to and digesting every note and lyric. I was eager to explore this second side of the music."

He does so with marvelous results in the appropriately titled FlipSides, a radical departure from the punishing beats of the band that made him famous. When a new Prodigals CD came in the mail bag in the past, I would run to the car and be coached to break all sorts of speed limits as the furious racket propelled the vehicle.

I stayed in the slow lane playing FlipSides. This is an artistic triumph that instead paints a beautiful picture with introspection and melody rather than adrenaline.

"Liverpool Pandora" is the only track that injects the visceral energy of the Prodigals into the melody. It is a radical rearrangement of the trad ditty "The Leaving of Liverpool" that builds an anarchistic steam as it goes along.

While the singer doesn't exactly wear his heart on his sleeve, the choice of songs on FlipSides makes this a deeply personal journey without coming out and saying so. Along with original tunes, Grene reinterprets songs that have meant something to him in his life. The collection opens with "Work's Too Bloody Hard," a Cajun song that Grene first heard in a Louisiana dance hall.

His role as a father figures heavily into the mix on FlipSides. He has created a gorgeous, lilting button accordion melody for his daughter called "Andi's Set" and he also includes "Paper and Pins," a song he first heard from an old recording by Bobby Clancy and Peg Clancy that served as an introduction to Irish culture for his young child.

"I just always thought it was a lovely song, and it was made much more personal and special by singing it to my daughter," he explains. "It is a classic old courtship song and it's not just pretty, it's real roots music. It is a lovely tale that anyone can respond to, and many people throughout generations have. And it's great finding a song like this, that as well as being wonderful in itself, is surprisingly little known."

Grene also includes "Nancy Brown," a old-time American song that has a surprising and subversive message.

"I've always loved how the song 'Nancy Brown' turns the whole expected format on its head," says Grene. "How many songs in the folk genre exist where the woman is punished for straying? With Nancy Brown, she does her own thing and flips two fingers at the establishment.

"I love the implicit feminism, bucking a sexist tradition, and the confident non-conformism. Those are things that pop a lot more when you have a wonderfully determined and independent daughter."

Grene has amassed a wealth of connections in the music business during his long career, which gave him access to a diverse group of talent that helps FlipSides shine. Joanie Madden from Cherish the Ladies lends her flutes and whistles to make the affair decidedly Irish, while Albanian Rubin Kodheli lends a gorgeous cello to another track.

Grene was particularly excited to work with Solas guitarist John Doyle again. Doyle lent his guitar skills to Go On, one of the Prodigals' earliest releases.

"John is a very full player that can attack with an acoustic guitar. Anyone who thinks you can only be aggressive with an electric instrument has obviously never heard John Doyle play. His playing is really insane. He is a charming person to work with who is unbelievably gifted."

Offstage and in person, Grene is a brimming optimist who laughs loud and often. This can be in sharp contrast to the ferocious, snarling performer who melts the keys of the button accordion onstage.

That humorous side of his personality shines on "Emily," a Southern-fried piece of polka. "Emily come back to me, I love you/Emily, come back to me I beg/ After all your said, now your voice is dead/I just watch your face and read your lips instead," he sings to a GPS that has refused to talk to him in the car after her voice is ignored.

"The band had played a concert in Napa, California and we were heading to the San Francisco airport when we got the urge to explore the vineyards en route," he explains. "Our GPS system, which had been programmed with a snooty British voice named Emily, had the airport as her destination, and went into a frenzy of recalculating.

"We ignored her, and eventually she stopped speaking forever. I thought the story would translate well as a country ballad."

Prodigals fans needn't worry that Grene will be abandoning the band. He is stoked about the inclusion of two Prodigals tracks into the soundtrack of Pride and Glory, an action packed big-budget cop movie starring Ed Norton and Colin Farrell that hits theaters in October.

"I'm doing both; this isn't going to supersede the Prodigals," he says firmly. "It's something I wanted to do for myself. I love the anarchy of the Prodigals, and this is complementary to that, not a replacement."

Grene then discusses what the Prodigals brand means. Are there musical ideas that would tarnish the band's image? Does he feel limited by what the group can do? Grene dismisses the notion immediately.

"These are two distinct avenues - if you are riding a horse, you are not swimming," he says. "It's just another side of me. I love looking out at a huge wild crowd in places like Dublin, Ohio when I play with the band, and I also love doing the Cactus Caf in Austin, where 250 people listen to an acoustic set very intently. You get people emailing you weeks later asking you to interpret a lyric, or explain a song.

"FlipSides enabled me to express myself outside of the band parameters," he continues. "Rather than try to twist the band's sound, I wanted to create something on its own. I wanted to see what would happen when I brought it into a different format.

"Now we're reimporting those tracks as Prodigals numbers, and they're totally different songs, which I love! It's proof that a solo and a band career can co-exist nicely."

Grene has changed the lineup on the Prodigals yet again as a result of the departure of Eamonn O'Tuama, who has been replaced by Galway native Dave Fahy. The band has also added banjo player Darren Maloney. Grene seems as excited about the group as he was when the band first came together.

"I think we explored a more pop aspect in recent years," he reasons. "And there was an interesting singer-songwriter thing that evolved nicely, so that was a positive.

"But there has been this tradition of the hell-for-leather attack of the band, and that adrenaline is part of what folks came to see, and we've rediscovered that in spades. With the new lineup, the band is back to that and more, and I can't wait for fans to hear it!"

Regardless of who plays with him, Grene feels that the mark of success for the music is transcending a single culture or genre.

"I love the Irish tradition, I'm rooted in it. But I remember one time walking into a blues bar in Chicago and hearing this great, big woman, who owned the place, singing this passionate, raw music. And you knew immediately, there was something universally true in her singing; you could have been from Alaska or Mumbai and you would have identified with that truth. That's what I was shooting for," he says.

With FlipSides, Grene has successfully captured the raw roots of the Irish culture inside a package of beautifully constructed melodies that will treat listeners of any nationality. To listen to samples of the tracks or to purchase the CD, log onto gregorygrene.com.

To keep up to date with the adventures of the Prodigals, log onto prodigals.com.