The Further American Adventures of The Saw Doctors

by Brian Fitzpatrick

In a time of financial crises, NAMA and bank bailouts, they were recently memorably described in the Connacht Tribune as “the only Irish institution worth saving”. On the back of a hugely successful run of Irish shows, The Saw Doctors hit these shores once more in the coming weeks for their annual Stateside summer pilgrimage.

Their new album The Further Adventures of The Saw Doctors was put together over the past year at Rockfield Studios in Wales and Grouse Lodge Studios in Co. Westmeath, and it’s “our most Rock ‘n’ Roll album yet”, according to frontman Davy Carton. “The response has been great. We went with the songs we most liked ourselves, and made a massive effort to really get it right.” he tells the Irish Emigrant. If the album’s first single, Takin’ the Train is anything to go by, they’ve done just that.

The large gap since their last full studio album, 2006’s The Cure, indicates a preference for the road over recording, and indeed Carton says there were times along the way when he felt the Saw Doctors would just “slip away gracefully”. However a 2008 appearance on RTE’s Podge and Rodge Show, which Carton himself admits to being “a deadly dangerous slot” due to the risqué nature of the questioning, ended up thrusting the band back into the limelight in a way they could never have imagined. Asked at the end of the show to spin a wheel and play whatever song the needle landed on, their impromptu cover of the Sugababes’ About You Now was an overnight sensation in Ireland, going straight to Number One ahead of Pink and The Kings of Leon.

“All of a sudden we were all the rage on the college scene again, so we had to put the retirement plans on the backburner!” laughs Carton. In typical fashion, the band donated the proceeds from the hit single to the Salerno Cystic Fibrosis Fund in Galway, and they haven’t looked back since. A week after the Podge and Rodge appearance, they were presented with a Lifetime Achievement Award at the Meteor Music Awards. This summer they’ve played Glastonbury and Oxegen, with an upcoming booking at England’s V Festival among others. So here they are, enjoying perhaps their best summer to date, after a gap of some 17 years between Number One singles. (Hay Wrap being the previous chart-topper in 1991) “It’s mad- that’s a fully grown man!” Carton jokes of the timeframe involved.

Carton tells the Irish Emigrant the gigs will contain the usual raucous mix of Saw Doctors classics to keep the punters happy, as well as the new album material. “Sure if we left a building without playing the N17 we’d be lynched!” he laughs, and you have to agree with him. Of the venues to be played, Davy is most looking forward to the Cape Cod Melody Tent, which has become a home away from home for the band over the years. “We really love it. We play on a revolving stage; it can be almost overwhelming. You really need to be at the top of your game to play down there.” Lucky for The Saw Doctors, then, that this is exactly where they find themselves in 2010.

The Saw Doctors play the Highline Ballroom (431W 16th Street), New York on Saturday August 7th and the Cape Cod Melody Tent, Hyannis, on Friday August 13th. For the full US Summer Tour schedule and ticket details see sawdoctors.com