Sound Check: Willie Nelson records his kind of country

By GARY GRAFF
Of The Oakland Press

Notes from the music beat ...

The Saw Doctors have been together and making music for a nearly 25 years, but singer Davy Carton says that “it finally feels like we’re getting a few breaks.”

In fact, the group is on a roll. The Saw Doctors had a No. 1 hit in its native Ireland in 2008 with a cover of the Sugababes’ “About You Now,” then followed it the next year when their own “She Loves Me Not” hit No. 2 from the best-of package “To Win Just Once.”

“We had a couple of huge No. 1’s in 1990 and ’91 (‘I Useta Lover,’ ‘Hay Wrap’) and then we just have been very solid ever since,” Carton, 51, notes. “Then we released the Sugababes song as a bit of a laugh, to be honest — we did it on a TV show hosted by two puppets, and it went down very well.

“For us, it’s kind of a bit like starting all over again. That’s the way we see it; it’s like starting over again 20 years later.”

Carton says the Galway-based group has just finished recording its first new album since “The Cure” in 2006 and will be using its live shows to preview songs such as “Be Yourself,” “Train” and “Indian Summer.” But when the Saw Doctors roll into a newly smoke-free Michigan, an older song will also be drawing attention — “Out For a Smoke,” which guitarist Leo Moran wrote in the wake of Ireland’s ban on smoking in public places, including pubs and music venues.

“It’s almost his state of the nation kind of address,” Carton says. “When they stopped smoking in pubs, people tended not to congregate as much. They tended to drink at home and smoke at home, so Leo was really lamenting one of the side effects of the smoking ban. He felt the storytelling and singing and things you find in a pub in Ireland were in danger of being lost because of that, so that was the starting point for the song.”

The Saw Doctors perform Friday, May 7, at the Magic Bag, 22920 Woodward Ave., Ferndale. Doors open at 8 p.m. Tickets are $20. Call 248-544-3030 or visit www.themagicbag.com.