4. The Saw Doctors. In the late winter of 1995, The Celtic Fringe, a local Irish organization to which I belong was preparing to build its very first St. Patrick's Day Parade float. We were doing the building at Matt Mooney's auto repair shop on Gillham Road. Matt, a gregarious transplanted Dubliner, popped a cassette (hey, it was 1995) into his battered tape player. And out of the speakers came a sound unlike any I'd heard before. The Saw Doctors of Tuam, Co Galway, says Matthew. And I've been hooked ever since. I've seen the Docs play here in small pubs. I've seen them play in front of 40,000 in Chicago. I've seen them in a jam packed old theater in New York with 1000 people singing every lyric back to them. And it's always the best Saw Doctors show ever.
We talk a lot in this business about artists and performers. It's a delicate balance at a festival. We're not a concert hall. You can take a breathtakingly talented Artist, someone who would keep a concert hall crowd enraptured, put her on a festival stage and watch her bomb. I've seen it happen. Or you can find somebody who has all the personality in the world but doesn't have the musical chops. These guys are the whole package. Engaging, funny, entertaining, original and musically tight as a bodhran. The fact that they're legends in the realm of Irish rock is a bonus.
It took us years to get these guys here. It may be a long time 'til they come back. Don't miss this Sunday night show.
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