Sunday afternoon, a glorious hot summer’s day. I feel quite pleased with myself because this morning I made the supreme effort and brought the hosepipe through the house and out the front door and washed the pollution from the road off the front of my house. It looks a lot brighter and cleaner now. I will try and do it every Sunday from now on. I am now sitting in the cool of my kitchen listening to a CD that I bought in a charity shop yesterday afternoon. It is called Puddles & Rainbows by Padraig Stevens. I actually briefly met Padraig over twenty years ago. There was a time in the late 90s & early 2000s when The Saw Doctors were almost my favourite band. Kim & I saw them several times, mostly at festivals, but also a memorable concert at the Royal Albert Hall when all the Galway football team came on stage with the Sam Maguire trophy which they had just won.
One night we went to see the Saw Doctors at the venue in Bristol now renamed The Bristol Beacon. During the interval we went outside for a cigarette and had a few words with a man who had the same idea. It was only later in the evening that I realised it was Padraig Stevens. I knew him best for writing The Tuam Beat for the band and I was reminded of him a few years ago when Christy Moore recorded a great version of that song on his album Lily. Anyway, this CD was released in 2004. I thought I might like one or two songs, but I am pleased to say that I love the whole album. When I read the sleeve notes I recognised several of the musicians. As well as Leo Moran, Davy Carton and Anthony Thistlewaite who I know from The Saw Doctors I was also pleased to see that Jimmy Higgins who I have got to know through his work with Christy is a major player on this album.
The Streets Of Galway is a delightful catchy song to open the album, with a great sax break by Anthony. Ireland For The Summer is also a wonderful song. It makes you want to pack your bags right now and get over to Ireland. The Irish Tourist Board should use it in their commercials. Jimmy Fitzgerald excels on guitars. Good Girl Delia is a humorous cheerful song which develops into a hornpipe called Pocai Folamita composed by Jim Stevens who I assume is Padraig’s brother. Breda Smyth and Jimmy Higgins are brilliant on whistle & Bodhran. Waiting For The Swallows is a beautiful evocative song featuring Aine Ni Shioradain on harp and Olivia Donnellan on accordion. The Galway Races is played at the rhythm of a horse race and gets faster and faster towards the finishing line. It features the noise of the crowd during the Galway Plate of 2002. Bring It All Your Love is a moving ballad in which Padraig is helped out on vocals by Sarah Keating and Sarah Jane Burke, and Nuala Ni Channain on fiddle. Still The Only One features Leo Moran playing guitar on this great love song. Musha Raftery is an outstanding atmospheric track with just Padraig, Mairtin O’Connor accordion and Brendan O’Regan bouzouki. I’m not sure what it is about, some of the words are in Irish, but I do know that Raftery was the name of a blind Irish poet who came from my mother’s hometown of Kiltimagh in County Mayo. That might not be the Raftery that Padraig is referring to though.
A Punt, A Punt is a very funny song about money, loosely based on Seven Drunken Nights by The Dubliners. Jimmy plays no less than six percussion instruments on this song. Constant Heart could easily be a Saw Doctors song because it has the great sound of Leo & Davy on guitars. Gone, Long Gone is a melancholy love song with Mouse McHugh on vocals and Derek Murray keyboards. It’s The Life (Maybe) is a nice optimistic song which brings this most enjoyable album to a close. Well done Padraig Stevens and everyone else who worked on this project. Sorry it took me 17 years to discover this album, but I am very pleased I finally found it yesterday afternoon.
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