Why the Saw Doctors should be seen as a national treasure

Date Published: {J}

It is a tribute to their longevity that the Saw Doctors’ brilliant new drummer Eimhín Craddock was born the same year the band was originally formed, back in 1986 – and 24 years on, through many changes, they sound fresher as ever.

Last weekend they played Glastonbury, having warmed up for the task with a series of Galway city showcase gigs at Kellys over the last few weeks either.

Through all the changes, there have been constants – Davy Carton and Leo Moran for an obvious start in terms of the line-up, but just as importantly their originality and energy that has seen them stay at the top of their game.

And yet they’re dismissed in some quarters as a sort of good time novelty act who sing about lost love and the Tuam Road but who shouldn’t be taken all that seriously.

In fact the complete opposite is the case – the Saw Doctors aren’t just one of the best live acts around; they are also social commentators who write and sing about a side of this country that is so familiar to so many of us.

They observe life in a way we can all recognise but could never get down in words; there is humour, pathos, love, longing, exhilaration, depression....all emotions delivered in lyrics that stay in your head forever.

It’s been something of a traditional pursuit for some Dublin media to poke fun at the Saw Doctors as though they were some hick outfit from the back of beyond, but to dismiss the band because they sing about their own history and home town is ridiculous.

Did Bruce Springsteen limit his appeal by singing primarily about New Jersey? Were the Beach Boys naive to return time and time again to California and surfing as a recurring theme?

The Saw Doctors have painted musical pictures of Irish life as we know it or knew it, but they’ve also sung about first love, lost love, missing home, golden moments....the sort of stuff we can all share in no matter where we’re from.

And, yes, there’s a song on the new album with a chorus that lists the townlands ‘as Gaeilge’ around Caherlistrane which is as brilliant as it’s bizarre – but that’s how to get the place on the map up there with the global recognition the N17 now enjoys!

The showcase gigs represented quite a risk – a few old songs topping and tailing a complete run-through the new album that only a few have been lucky enough to hear – and yet it went down an absolute storm.

Further Adventures may well be the Saw Doctors’ best album to date and the instant approval from their audience would suggest that it’s a guaranteed best seller even before it hits the shops.

For more, read this week's Connacht Tribune.