APRIL 12th MEDICINE MAKERS.

The Red House pub is the sort of place where anything can happen. Visiting ‘luminaries’ from Lismore Castle occasionally intermingle with the regulars from the town and divulge in all manner of conversation from Tolstoy to turkey rearing. In the creation of The Medicine Sessions, we’ve tried to reflect the nature of the venue and last Thursday remained perfectly true to form. The full responsibility of being the organiser is sinking in now though, I had a tense few moments waiting for the public to arrive from the empty streets of Lismore, which they did eventually, only delaying the start by a few minutes. The Irish public seem to be notoriously bad at adhering to punctuality when it comes to gigs, so from now on posters will state a start time of 9pm. Yet again all the performers were absolutely brilliant, sorting out their sound in good time and being all round nice guys, which makes doing all this well worth the effort, as does seeing the Medicine Room fill up with good heads!

Cormac O’Caoimh began the night, gently weaving a hush over the room with his beautifully rendered tunes. There is something magical about watching a lone artist lose himself in his performance and the ability to do so is the magic ingredient that arrests an audience. Excellent finger picking on his electric nylon string guitar, combined with the occasional use of a ‘stomp’ box and loop pedal, created a sound perfectly complimented by his mellow vocals, which themselves, contained an emotive nuance in their delivery. Cormac performed songs from his new album ‘A New Season For Love’ an object well worth hunting out on itunes when it is released on April 26th.

Our Spoken Word section quite frankly, took everyone by surprise, not only because only two of the Poetrio could make it, but, because the two who did turn up managed to invoke all the Gods of old gloomy beat clubs with wonderfully spun phrases and extra sensory imagery. Using their voices, a guitar and a saxophone, Gary Baus and Bren O’Ruaidh built an entire universe of lonely, wandering characters, old legends and rainy monochrome streets with the distant sound of trains. I have a theory that it helps to have a strong accent when it comes to performing spoken word and with Gary’s light tripping American tongue and Bren’s deep rooted Irish turn of phrase, the pair made the room into an international oasis of words.





The 'Open Floor' section of the night was graced by our local regulars, Matthew and Nicola Tull, who displayed guts and talent as they recited their poems. It really does take balls to lay bare your soul this way!

Dimitry Datus ended the night with an up-beat, ska-seated, bass-ripping, head-shaking set of original songs. Their tunes contained some gems of lyrical wit, which were delivered with a sure hand and a rhythm as sharp as a Spiv’s suit! Steve, the drummer, also did an excellent job playing a drum kit at a suitable audio level for the cosy Medicine Room, a feat which is almost unheard of in such band members. Their whole set added perfectly to that ‘end of the night’ feeling, giving the audience an injection of energy to add to the soothed hearts and electrified brains, administered earlier in the night by Cormac Gary and Bren.



Next month we have another excellent line up, so if you are any way curious, please feel free to call in and see what happens when you mix a room hung with oddments, three acts of completely different genres, an open fire and an audience from every viewpoint.

Thanks again to all the Medicine makers and takers who came along this month. Cheers!

THE APRIL 12'TH'ERS

Well, March Medicine Sessions gave Lismore's nightlife a proper slap in the face. People haven't stopped gibbering about what a good night it was, the good sort of gibbering that is. The fact that I got handed a weekly column in the local newspaper has also been fantastic, allowing me to waffle about various stuff that I like whilst keeping The Medicine Sessions 'brand' in the subconscious minds of West Waterforders. Whether they actually read the article or not, the brain cannot escape the black, white and red header titled "The Medicine". (See page titled 'paper clips')

Keeping an article is actually great fun, of course I know 'The Dungarvan Observer' is hardly MOJO magazine, but it's nice to see your stuff in print. A couple of weeks ago I even got asked to do a review for a single by Cormac O'Caoimh, who will be playing April Sessions. I didn't initially believe it was my place to be reviewing other people's art, but I actually enjoyed the process. The fact I know absolutely nothing technical about the ins and outs of music helps I think. It would be great to include reviews more often and particularly of those artists who have played/will be playing the sessions.

Of which, here is the line up for Thursday April 12th.

CORMAC O'CAOIMH

Former front man of 'The Citadels', Cormac is currently putting final touches to his new album "A New Season For Love", the single of which is available RIGHT NOW. Or you can purchase an album from him in person, after his set at The Medicine Sessions. He recently supported 'The 4 Of Us' and gigs frequently up and down the country.



DIMITRY DATUS

A three piece band currently gigging regularly on the Cork scene and who will play as part of the "Cork Rocks" concert at the Opera House on April 21st. You can see them at The Medicine Sessions first and witness a slightly tweaked (for a small room) version of their "odd rock" sound, face to face/ear to ear/eye to eye.. etc.



POETRIO.

The Medicine Sessions main spoken word performance for the night,  promises to be an unpredictable and completely original act. The Medicine Sessions will see Mo O'Connor, Gary Baus, and Bren O'Ruaidh, who usually perform together in various Jazz band incarnations, collaborate in a poetry performance/instrumentation/spectacular... to be honest, anything could and possibly will, happen.

And don't forget that there is the "open floor" time, for those who want to experiment with reading/performing their own compositions of words to a friendly, open and supportive room full of people. Give your name to me (Vick) when you arrive so I can slot you in.

Doors open at 9.00pm, get there in time for a seat and the 9.30 start.. on the dot! See you all there and don't forget to bring your bucket money :)