Sunday Night Irish Music Byte

The Saw Doctors at the Melody Tent on Cape Cod, MA

Irish music byte week continues.The Saw Doctors are currently my favorite Irish pop band. They seem to perform in Boston at least three or four times a year so there is plenty of opportunity to see them live in the Bay State.

The Saw Doctors are an Irish folk rock band. Formed in 1986 in Tuam, County Galway, they have achieved eighteen top-thirty singles in Ireland, including three number ones. Their first number one, “I Useta Lover,” topped the Irish charts for nine consecutive weeks in 1990 and still holds the record for the country’s all-time biggest-selling single. Renowned for their barnstorming live performances, the band has a loyal following, especially in Ireland, the United Kingdom, and the United States.

The Saw Doctors rose to gain national attention during 1987 and 1988 as they toured in support of popular Irish bands such as the Hothouse Flowers and The Stunning. They also proved to be a major hit when they played at the 1988 Galway Arts Festival. In the spring of 1988, when The Saw Doctors were playing a six-week residency at the Quays Bar in Galway, their energetic live show attracted the attention of the The Waterboys, who were then recording their Fisherman’s Blues album in nearby Spiddal. Pub sessions and budding friendships among the two groups would prove fruitful for the Saw Doctors’ future, and would see eventual crossovers between the two groups. The band’s current bass player, Anthony Thistlethwaite, and former drummer, Fran Breen, have both been members of The Waterboys.

In the fall of 1988, The Saw Doctors filmed a satirical “rockumentary” on a flat-bed truck while driving between Galway and Salthill. A parody of U2′s newly released Rattle and Hum film, in which U2 play Bob Dylan’s “All Along the Watchtower” from a flat-bed truck in San Francisco, The Saw Doctors’ Crackle and Buzz had its “world premiere” at the Claddagh Palace Cinema in Galway. The Saw Doctors played live from the cinema’s balcony, caricaturing the short acoustic set U2 played atop the Savoy Cinema on O’Connell Street when Rattle and Hum premiered there on 27 October 1988. Footage from the tongue-in-cheek stunt was featured on RTÉ’s main evening news.

In late 1988 and early 1989, The Saw Doctors accompanied The Waterboys on tours of Ireland and the United Kingdom. In August 1989, The Waterboys’ frontman Mike Scott produced the band’s first single, “N17,” a song about an Irish emigrant longing to be driving on the N17 trunk road that connects Galway with the Saw Doctors’ hometown of Tuam. Although “N17″ did not chart upon its original release, the band’s barnstorming live performances over the next year, particularly their appearance at the inaugural 1990 Féile music festival in Thurles, County Tipperary, cemented their reputation as a formidable live act. The song became known as the band’s anthem.

The band is often compared with American singer-songwriter Bruce Springsteen due to their frequent invocation of local atmosphere, haunts, and characters, and their penchant for singing about ordinary people’s lives in economically difficult times. Some Saw Doctors songs take autobiographical youthful memories — of an attractive schoolgirl from the local Catholic boarding school (“Presentation Boarder”), of a missed opportunity to score a goal in a gaelic football game (“Broke My Heart”), of driving with a father while he points out local landmarks (“Galway and Mayo”), of first love (“Red Cortina”), of clumsy teenage seduction (“D’ya Wanna Hear My Guitar?”), of dreary Irish summers (“Will it Ever Stop Raining?”), or of farmers’ harvest banter (“Hay Wrap”) — and weave them into wry but often touching portraits of rural Irish life. Other songs, written from more mature, serious perspectives, explore themes such as depression and desperation (“Same Oul’ Town,” “Sing a Powerful Song,” “To Win Just Once”); emigrant longings for home (“N17″, “The Green and Red of Mayo,” “Midnight Express,” “Going Home”); and cravings for adult love, acceptance, and togetherness (“Share the Darkness,” “Clare Island,” “Wake up Sleeping”).

On recent albums Villains and The Cure, the Saw Doctors’ longstanding affection for the landscape and local history of western Ireland led them to criticize the country’s Celtic Tiger economic boom. Commenting on how the many new roads and houses throughout the Irish countryside disrespect land and ancestry, “Out for a Smoke” features the lyrics “The bones of our ancestors / Are buried in the field behind the shed / They could be lying there oblivious / Underneath cement before I’m dead.” Having chronicled an era of economic depression, poverty, and emigration, the Saw Doctors find themselves in the ironic position of being unable to approve of how an economic boom had changed their country’s social and cultural fabric.

The Saw Doctors have a rabid international fan base that has been compared to that of the Grateful Dead. Fueled by those in Ireland as well as those of Irish descent in the US, UK, and elsewhere, this unofficial fan club prides itself on seeing the band live as many times as possible. They meet online in a forum on the band’s website and pursue ongoing global conversations about the band.

Please enjoy the following two video clips of the Saw Doctors but be forewarned, they are addictive.

Sunday Morning Coffee (or Tea) – 29

Just a few noteworthy political meteorites  that have been careening around the galaxy this past week.

BREAKING NEWS: Befuddled bloviator Rush Limbaugh announced on his radio program last week that if the Health Care Reform bill is enacted into law, he will flee the United States and move to Costa Rica in 5 years (when all of the provisions of the bill will kick in). Problem is, Costa Rica has a socialized medical system which covers approximately 95% of its citizens. Would someone please inform Limbaugh of this?

THIS JUST IN: Moonbat crazy Sarah Palin has announced that she will be hosting a fundraiser for moonbat crazy Republican Congresswoman Michele Bachmann. Those two alone will provide enough insanity to fill an asylum.

BREAKING NEWS: Things just got a little worse for Republican Senator John Ensign of Nevada. You might recall that Ensign is the “family values” politician that cheated on his wife with a married staffer and when he was caught, he tried buying off her husband by finding him a job. He also arranged to have his parents pay hush up money to his mistress and her husband. Now some previously undisclosed email messages have emerged which may indicate that Ensign violated federal laws by attempting to steer lobbying work to the embittered husband of his mistress. The FBI and Senate ethics investigators are reviewing the emails to determine whether criminal charges will result therefrom. Maybe the Republican leadership should stop hurling stones at resigning Democratic representative Eric Massa lest they shatter their own glass house. At least Massa had the decency to resign while Ensign refuses to do so.

THIS JUST IN: Another Republican lie regarding health care reform has been debunked this week. The most recent AP/GfK poll reveals that 50% of Americans believe the health care system should be changed “a great deal” and only 4% believe that the system should not be changed. So, the Republicans are lying when they claim that Americans do not want massive change to the health care system. No surprise there.

BREAKING NEWS: This week’s edition of “Despicable Human Beings” features Karl Rove who  told a BBC interviewer that he is “proud” of waterboarding and that it is not torture. Perhaps then Rove might be willing to undergo the procedure by means of standing in for the chicken-hearted Sean Hannity who remains unwilling to take the offer from Keith Olbermann who has agreed to donate $ 10,000.00 to charity for every second that Hannity can withstand the procedure.

THIS JUST IN: This week’s episode of “Republicans Behaving Badly” features Utah House Majority leader Kevin Garn. He resigned from the Legislature, two days after his confession about sitting nude in a hot tub with a teenage girl 25 years ago stunned the conservative state. The 55-year-old Garn acknowledged the indiscretion late Thursday immediately after the Legislature adjourned for the session. He says he paid the woman, Cheryl Maher, $150,000 to keep quiet about the episode when he unsuccessfully ran for Congress in 2002. Maher was 15 and a legal minor when the hot tub incident occurred. The Salt Lake Tribune reports that Garn was 30.

BREAKING NEWS: This week’s episode of “Conservative Pundits Telling The Truth” features David Brooks of the New York Times. In his March 11th column he said that President Barack Obama  “is still the most realistic and reasonable major player in Washington”. See David, that wasn’t so hard now, was it? Just imagine what the likes of Limbaugh and Beck will say about Brooks.

THIS JUST IN: Those crazy, secession happy Texans are at it again. The state that claims to have given us George W. Bush except for the fact that he was born in Connecticut, raised in Maine and secondary schooled in Massachusetts before attending college back in Connecticut has gotten itself all mixed up once again.  The far right leaning evangelical Christian dominated Texas Board of Education voted this week to revise its social studies curriculum by means of refusing to require that “students learn that the Constitution prevents the U.S. government from promoting one religion over all others.” It also voted to remove Thomas Jefferson from the Texas curriculum, “replacing him with religious right icon John Calvin.” So much for the high status of those “founding fathers” that the conservatives so often make reference to. The new Texas state motto: “Texas Education, Don’t Let Facts Influence Our Children”.

Please click on the song link below to familiarize yourselves with the tune and to have more fun singing along with today’s song parody.

California Dreamin’ song link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2xN9r0bWe78

CONSERVATIVE DREAMIN’

(sung to the Mamas & The Papas song “California Dreamin’”)

All their shirts are brown
(All their shirts are brown)
And their hair is grey
(And their hair is grey)
Listen to them talk
(Listen to them talk)
As they loudly pray
(As they loudly pray)
Scandal is their norm
(Scandal is their norm)
They have one every day
(They have one every day)
Conservative dreamin’
(Conservative dreamin’)
And politics of hate

Members of John Birch
Some won’t admit they’re gay
But when they get down on their knees
(Get down on their knees)
That’s when they like to play
(When they like to play)
These slimy creatures should be told
(Creatures should be told)
Membership’s gone away
(Members gone away)
Conservative dreamin’
(Conservative dreamin’)
Has led them all astray

(musical interlude)

Glenn Beck is a clown
(Glenn Beck is a clown)
What does Limbaugh weigh?
(What does Limbaugh weigh?)
Palin cannot talk
(Palin cannot talk)
She’s no Tina Fey
(She’s no Tina Fey)
Somebody should tell her
(Somebody should tell her)
To just go away
(To just go away)
Conservative dreamin’
(Conservative dreamin’)
Has become so cliché
(Conservative dreamin’)
Has lost all its cache´
(Conservative dreamin’)
Drives voters all away

Saturday Night Irish Music Byte

St. Patrick’s Day, as you might imagine, is the most celebrated holiday in Boston for obvious reasons. In fact, all schools and public offices are closed for the day. As a nod to the notion of “separation of Church and state” however, the holiday is officially known as Evacuation Day and is alleged to commemorate the evacuation of British forces following the Siege of Boston early in the American Revolutionary War. But we know better. Lynnrockets’ Blast-Off will kick off it’s own St. Patrick’s Week celebration with tonight’s music byte.

The Irish Rovers are an Canadian Irish folk group created in 1963 and named after the traditional song “The Irish Rover”. The primary voices heard in the group’s songs were Will Millar (tenor) and Jimmy Ferguson (baritone).

Will Millar had been singing in Ireland with his sister since he was 10. After he arrived in Calgary, Canada he met Les Weinstein, who arranged for him to appear on television show, and would later manage the group throughout the group’s career. Will’s younger brother George Millar and his friend Jimmy Ferguson came out from Toronto for a two-week holiday with Will. They had been singing as a weekend hobby with Will’s father and sister, and so Will invited the two young travellers to sing on his TV show. When the holiday was over, George and Jimmy asked if they could stay on, and so Will enrolled George in a local high school and got Jimmy a job.

Will then invited his cousin Joe to join the group. Later, the boys became part of a popular folk club of the time called the Depression, a club that also kick-started the career of Joni Mitchell.

Will had the idea for the Irish Rovers to relocate to California in the USA, which at the time was the focus of many folk singers. On the journey there their car broke down in Northern California, which is when they met some Irish pub owners and an agent who helped them secure a gig at the popular Purple Onion in San Francisco. The group subsequently began performing in folk clubs all over California. Wilcil McDowell joined the band in 1966, around the time the group was signed by Decca Records, when “The Unicorn” became a global success.

The group is best known for their recording of Shel Silverstein’s “The Unicorn” (1967) and Irish ditties “The Orange and the Green” / “Whiskey on a Sunday” (1968). They also hosted several variety TV programs in the 1970s on Canadian television. Although they recorded many albums after that, they weren’t as successful commercially as “The Unicorn” until 1980, when the band had a crossover hit with a cover of Tom Paxton’s “Wasn’t That a Party.” The success of this, which was performed in a country-rock style rather than the band’s familiar folk style, led to the band rebranding itself as The Rovers and changing styles for the remainder of the 1980s, scoring follow-up hits with songs such as “Chattanoogie Shoe Shine Boy,” “No More Bread and Butter,” and the Christmas hit “Grandma Got Run Over By a Reindeer.” By the 1990s, however, the band was once again known as the Irish Rovers.

Will Millar left the group in 1995; he subsequently recorded solo works and also wrote a book entitled Messing Around in Boats. He later did some acting, including playing postal carrier and boat owner Jimmy McVeigh on the Canadian comedy program The Red Green Show, and Jimmy, the crusty handyman in the 2005 Canadian slasher film Sleepover Nightmare. Millar, a neighbour and good friend of writer-director Boon Collins, was also the production designer of the film, along with his wife, Catherine Millar. The bulk of the film was shot on Millar’s property and in his home.

Founding member Jimmy Ferguson died in 1997. The remaining members of the group, augmented by new musicians, continue to tour as the Irish Rovers.

Please enjoy this video clip of The Irish Rovers performing “The Orange And The Green” in 1995. The song is about a young boy who is the child of a Catholic mother and a Protestant father and all the trouble that results therefrom. It is very funny. We have printed the lyrics to the song below as they are quite funny and the Irish brogue might be difficult for some to understand.

Oh, it is the biggest mix-up that you have ever seen.
My father, he was Orange and me mother, she was green.

My father was an Ulster man, proud Protestant was he.
My mother was a Catholic girl. From county Cork was she.
They were married in two churches, lived happily enough,
Until the day that I was born. Then, things got rather tough.

Oh, it is the biggest mix-up that you have ever seen.
My father, he was Orange and me mother, she was green.

Baptized by Father Reilly, I was rushed away by car,
To be made a little Orangeman, my father’s shining star.
I was christened “David Anthony,” but still, inspite of that,
To my father, I was William, while my mother called me Pat.

Oh, it is the biggest mix-up that you have ever seen.
My father, he was Orange and me mother, she was green.

With Mother every Sunday, to Mass I’d proudly stroll.
Then after that, the Orange lodge would try to save my soul.
For both sides tried to claim me, but i was smart because
I’d play the flute or play the harp, depending where I was.

Oh, it is the biggest mix-up that you have ever seen.
My father, he was Orange and me mother, she was green.

One day my Ma’s relations came round to visit me.
Just as my father’s kinfolk were all sitting down to tea We tried to smooth things over, but they all began to fight.
And me, being strictly neutral, I bashed everyone in sight.

Oh, it is the biggest mix-up that you have ever seen.
My father, he was Orange and me mother, she was green.

My parents never could agree about my type of school.
My learning was all done at home, that’s why I’m such a fool.
They’ve both passed on, God rest ‘em, but left me caught between
That awful color problem of the Orange and the Green.

Oh, it is the biggest mix-up that you have ever seen.
My father, he was Orange and me mother, she was green