The Legendary Saw Doctors on Tour Again

By John O’Brien, Jr.

Recall the festival feeling of a dusk evening: it is darkening outside the tent, but glowing inside. Folks are hot, but happy. A band is deep in their set, sweating, laughing, lost in the moment. The audience is soaking it up. Mid-song, the band stops singing, but the audience does not, and the well-memorized anthems wash over the stage and reverberate across food tents and displays, reach other stages and drawing moths to the flame.

N17, Green and Red of Mayo, I Useta Lover, Clare Island, Joyce Country Ceili Band, Tommy K, Irish anthems all, and all hits by The Saw Doctors that Irish festival goers the world over know like the back of their hand. Sunday night at the House of Blues Cleveland, these, and many more of the eighteen record chart hits that the Saw Doctors have recorded over the last twenty-four years will be unleashed in the typical rollicking, exuberant and all-encompassing great night out that is a Saw Doctors concert.

Six albums, with a new one on the way, and eighteen Top-30 hits later, as twenty year band manager Ollie Jennings says, “You don’t know who is singing to who.”

The lyrics are legendary, and strike cords with fans whether on a farm in Clare or a flat on East 4th Street in Cleveland. Often compared to Bruce Springsteen for simple lyrics that express emotions every one has felt at one time or another in their lives, the Saw Doctors songs resonate because they use everyday phraseology, and speak from the heart on everyday happenings.

“People relate to the songs, they are simple songs, they have stories in them. They are about ordinary things: playing football, going to mass, romance – a mixture of observant lyrics with catchy tunes; getting away, like ‘meet me on Clare Island’ – just the two of you, simple romance,” continued Ollie.

Mary O’Connor, Davy Carton and Leo Moran started The Saw Doctors in Tuam, Co. Galway in 1986. In 1988, they were “discovered” in the back room of the Quays Pub in Galway by The Waterboys’ Mike Scott, recording The Fishermans’ Blues album in nearby Spiddal. The Saw Doctors opened for The Waterboys’ on the Fisherman’s Blues tour later that year.

Though a few band members have changed over the years, Davy and Leo have stayed constant and the song writing and tunes of the band are relevant, distinctive and a voice of both experience and longing, tempered by life and always, always a touch wit, a touch of laughter, and a dance. The name of the band? The group chose it after the itinerant Irish craftsman who traveled from sawmill to sawmill in rural Ireland, sharpening and repairing the tools of the trade.

Today, the Saw Doctors are: Leo Moran (Lead Guitarist), Davy Carton (Lead Singer), Kevin Duffy (Keyboard), Anthony Thistlethwaite (Bass/Saxophone) and Eímhín Craddock (Drums). Their label is Shamtown Records.

House of Blues, Cleveland marks the 3rd stop on this seven city tour of the U.S. promoting the new CD. Detroit, Chicago, Cleveland, New Jersey, Philadelphia and New York come at the tail end of thirteen shows in England and Scotland and eleven in Australia. Recall the festival feeling of a dusk evening. Folks are hot, but happy. A band is deep in their set, sweating, laughing, lost in the moment. The audience is soaking it up. Mid-song, the band stops singing, but the audience does not, and the well-memorized anthems wash over the stage and reverberate, live and in concert Sunday night at the House of Blues.

Saw Doctors Recordings:
If This Is Rock and Roll, I Want My Old Job Back (1991)
All the Way from Tuam (1992)
Same Oul’ Town (1996)
Sing A Powerful Song (compilation) (1997)
Songs from Sun Street (1998)
Villains? (2001)
Play It Again, Sham! [compilation] (2002)
Live in Galway [live] (2004)
New Year’s Day [live] (2005)
The Cure (2006)
That Takes the Biscuit (2007)
Live At The Melody Tent [live] (2008)
To Win Just Once - the best of The Saw Doctors (2009)
Unnamed New CD (2010)