PAPER CLIP MAY 30th

Niall Cuddy, aka VITA music, is a Cork based musician and artist. His most recent musical creation ‘Oh The Beautiful Bovine’ is a mad collection of genres, thrown into the Hobgoblin’s hat and pulled out in turns by the various members of the Finn Family Moomin troll as soundtracks to their pen and ink world. Vita’s voice can switch from Tom Waits rough to something like Brit Pop in an instant, delivering lyrics that are an intense smoke of Beefheart’esque poetry, obscure, secretive and full of dark imagery, a perfect storytelling medium that slots into the atmospheric and sometimes horrorfull (Wonder Bore) musical arrangements. Each song sneakily blends into the next, sometimes halting arrestingly before raging into Wilco style guitar riffs as in the tune Ray Davies Sais, a glorious po-going stomp of a song which wouldn’t sound out of place on any independent gangster movie soundtrack. From punk to chill out room synth, from Tijuana Brass silliness, to Beck style deviance, Vita’s mind is an interesting and truly eclectic, experimental place.

Another Cork based artist Stuart Wilde, delivers a joyous crunchy guitar, gypsy fiddled assault on his album Black Crow. The top-hatted troubadour sings songs set in a gothic landscape of old post apocalyptic coffee houses and river banks. You can almost follow a story through a day of an other world life, set in a purple and brown animated land, the main characters, a crow and a boy and girl dressed in suit tails and faded victorian linen. Digging In The Pit is undeniably a Nick Cave sounding track, but holds its own lyrically and musically with an intense plodding rhythm and bleak imagery and songs like Hot Damn display a raunchy, dirty side to the music. Stuart Wilde has a definite sound which ties all the songs on the album together nicely and Wilde’s voice is a hearty, sure, thing, with a tiny edge of uncertainty, making it sound like he could fly off into a maniacal screech at any moment, the world of his creation sucking him into its dark river water forever, with the Black Crow of the title track watching, laughing his revenge. 

Both of these performers can be seen at The Medicine Sessions on June 14th, where they will perform their stories and create their universes for all.

LINKS THIS WEEK.

Vita’s album Oh The Beautiful Bovine and his back catalogue, can be downloaded at: 
http://vita.bandcamp.com/album/oh-the-beautiful-bovine

Stuart Wilde’s Black Crow can be purchased from €8 at : http://stuartwilde.bandcamp.com/


The Medicine Sessions is a once monthly original music and spoken word event, held upstairs in The Red House bar, Lismore. For more information visit and ‘like’ us at:

www.facebook.com/themedicinesessions next sessions June 14th. 

SUMMER MEDICINE SUPREMO

May 10th. Despite a bank holiday weekend the week before, Lismoreons hurled themselves from their homes again to create a packed out Sessions, with shoulder to shoulder sitting, standing and lingering in the doorway to feast on the spectacle that was created by our performers this month. Myself and The Ronald swamped Lismore with posters in the week leading up and the evidence of word of mouth promotion has started to creep in, which is just fantastic. There were a good few familiar faces and I was delighted to see a good amount of the local 'younger' population of Lismore, which is hugely rewarding!

Niamh Murphy, aka Foxglove, opened the night to a hushed crowd and mesmerized everyone with her beautifully arranged piano pieces and stunning vocals. It was an absolute delight to witness a female singer songwriter deliver songs with substance and original, brilliantly phrased lyrics. Her soon to be launched EP 'Crazy At The Helm' will be performed at Triskell arts centre at the end of the month and she will be together with her band Foxglove. I, for one, will be trying to organize a little trip to be there.

Unfortunately our poet this month had to cancel at the last minute due to a back injury, no sweat though, luckily for us The Medicine room has its fair share of talent merchants and it added a nice unpredictability to the night having an extended 'open floor', which exposed us to the delights of Joe Power, who rendered a Percy French creation and a Tom Waits piece, in true eclectic tradition. The floor was also filled momentarily by a local children's author Mr Murphy, who recited two poems, including a dreaded (but delightful) Haiku about a ham sangedge. Then there was the fella in a stripy hat, who was entertaining in his own nightmare of one pint too many, an out of tune guitar and the loss of words, however, he really did show some glimmers of real talent that I'd love to see properly some time. 

After a brisk change over, during which the bucket was passed, Daniel Valle and Ross Gillanders of Horsemen Pass By, revved up their pedals and blinking boxes and launched into their set from their soon to be released album. I overheard one fella in the audience say to his friend how he had seen the lads at Citog in Galway and that "they are rad"... who knew that the slang of old was groovy again!.. at least, I presume that 'rad' has the same meaning as it ever had! Anyway, They were fucking great! Myself and the Ronald have a bit of a penchant for Spaghetti Western soundtracks and old sic-fi, so watching these guys was like a heavenly exposure. I love the idea of live soundtracks and the guys played with fantastic energy and timing, hooking everyone's imagination and admiration.

Yet again, all the performers were brilliant to meet and thankfully helped each other soundcheck, as we had a loan of someone else's, slightly more complex PA, with even more switch things on than usual. Everything sounded amazing, everyone left full up and light headed and healed. One of my favourite things is to look at the faces in the crowd. Some are familiar, some are new, all were delighted. My job, for another month, has been done.

DUNGARVAN OBSERVER Wed May 2nd

Yet again, time since last month has whipped past at an incredible pace, bringing with it the promise of another fantastic line up for The Medicine Sessions on Thursday May 10th. May’s line up includes some of the finest emerging and emerged original talent in the Country and will include beautiful voice, music, imagery and words!

FOXGLOVE, is the creation of Niamh Murphy a singer songwriter incorporating lush arrangements to her songs which her easy, Celtic tinged voice delivers with genuine talent. Foxglove have been gigging almost constantly around Ireland leading up to the release of their EP, ‘Crazy At The Helm’. Hotpress short listed their song ‘Land’s End’ as one of only a few out of thousands to make an up and coming shortlist and another song ‘Winter’ has appeared on an Irish compilation CD. Niamh’s set will be well worth the journey to see in the intimate surroundings of The Medicine Room.

HORSEMEN PASS BY. Live guitar, vocals and keyboards, coupled with digital beats and projected visuals will leave the audience members stunned. This band create an all encompassing experience that you won’t find easily very often. Their set will include creations from their up-coming new album. Witnessing this band is highly recommended no matter what genre of music you sway to, as this will be a chance to discover something truly original.

STEPHEN MURRAY will be our spoken word artist of the month and promises to be an act well worth hearing. His book ‘House Of Bees’ was released to much acclaim by Salmon Poetry Press in 2011. A typical review reads; “House Of Bees announces the arrival of a brilliant and unique voice into the realm of the contemporary Irish poetry scene.” Stephen’s poetry is deeply personal and full of dark wit and is delivered in passionate, rhythmical style. Last year he cycled across America to read in coffee houses and poetry venues from his book and now works as director of InspireIreland, a job which sees him travelling the country to inspire and promote poetry to Ireland’s youth. 

And some sneaky peeks for Medicine followers.

OBSERVER ARTICLE APRIL 25TH

Anyone who has ever organised an event I‘m sure has a story or two to tell about stress. Generally I’m a very relaxed person, it takes a lot to get me pacing. Since setting up The Medicine Sessions, my yearly stress levels have elevated considerably though. The single most stressful moment of the entire operation, is the wait. The moment when doors open (9pm), to when the first act is due to go on (9.30pm). It’s an excruciating time when the streets are void of footfall, there is no noise of humans ascending stairs, the air hangs heavy in the cosy room, with expectant bands, ready to entertain, with a room not yet bustling with audience. My worst nightmare, is having no crowd. Luckily, the last sessions swiftly filled up once it got nearer to time, allowing me to relax and breathe and smile again.

It’s important to me that performers are almost guaranteed a crowd to play to. I don’t think it should be the job of the performer to ‘bring their own crowd’, which often seems to be the way at the moment. The point in organising something, is that you provide a service for the artist and the audience. Performers work hard enough travelling about playing for nothing, never mind expecting them to advertise the gig for you! There is a huge imbalance at the moment in the Irish and UK music ‘scene’. It is almost a given that bands will be happy to play for free and bring their own crowd and bizarrely, in some cases, even be expected to ’pay to play!’ Only recently there was outrage when it was reported that musicians in the UK were being expected to play for free as part of the Olympics celebrations, to ‘showcase’ themselves. It’s understandable that small, local venues can only offer bands a token gesture, but when large International events start expecting bands to give their time for nothing, then someone needs to shout hard!

Most performers who I’ve met are miffed that ‘money’ is not part of the deal, but at the same time accept the fact and so long as there is some effort made towards fair treatment, they are more than happy to entertain, particularly if you can gather a nice respectful, interactive crowd. As organisers, we need to keep in mind the fact that anyone currently out gigging, particularly their own material, have sacrificed a small lifetimes worth of hours in creating their art. They have honed their skills, so that we might be touched by something. Ask anyone on the street “do you love music” and a typical reply would be “I couldn’t live without it.” Now, more than ever, original music needs support, not just in buying albums instead of illegally downloading, but by actually going into a pub and experience it being performed. If we cannot pay our musicians hard cash, the least we can do is open up our souls for them… just make sure you all arrive before 9pm, to help save the organiser from her panic attacks.

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 :)

THE GOOD MEDICINE.

Sometimes, you have ideas, vague dreams maybe, whilst drifting off to sleep. They juggle for position with thoughts of what to do with lottery winnings, the oh so witty comebacks you never got to make but should have and imaginings of sun-swept coastlines. You ponder on them for a moment, then move on, dismissing them as fancies, tell yourself; "sure I'd never be able to do that! It would never work!"

But what if one day you thought; "fuck it! I'm going to have a go at doing the thing! It might work! Even just for a little bit.."

So, I decided to try... and on Thursday 8th of March 2012.... It worked!

From moment one (the vague dreaming) I had a sequence of images in my head of the night. It contained a completely eclectic array of performers who would be big and bright and stunning, the sound would be perfect, the night would flow, the spoken word would hook the capacity audience, everyone would get on, there would be laughter and tears of joy, banter, a brimming bucket, calls for "MORE!" and dancing.

There was at least as much as that and as I looked around the faces during the night, to see the most unlikely of Lismore's people with eye's closed, lost entirely in some hidden part of themselves, there was evidently more. Since then, people have been coming up to us saying things like;
"best night I had in ten years!"
"how did you get the bands to come they were amazing!?"
"the spoken word stuff is brilliant, it made the night totally different"

Everyone is a little bit shocked.. including me.

I have to of course thank all the performers who risked the first night and absolutely made it! All the lads from TORCAN (with a fada) and FEAR STALKS THE LAND were fantastic at mucking in together during sound checks, as there wasn't a huge pile of room and I'm no sound technician! All the lads are so professional though that they know their gear inside out and the sound on the night was just spot on. .. apart from the odd mobile phone interference from somewhere. Plus they were all genuinely nice guys and a pleasure to work with.

Massive appreciation to Rab Urquhart aswell, another all round good bloke, who did a huge service to The Sessions by being the first spoken word performer, a brave task to an uninitiated crowd I would say. I could sense that the audience was a little unsure as to the protocol involved in spoken word at first, their faces went something like this: is it alright to clap after every poem? Do you laugh when it's funny? Should we make intellectual faces whilst listening? what is this!?.. I think I like this stuff... hahahahahahhh! different stuff!... BOOM!.. got it.! LOVE IT!
Nicola Tull stepped onto our 'open floor' as the first 'open floorer', another brave gesture, especially considering it was her first time reading her poems publicly. Would love to eventually drum up more 'open floorers', but they are proving elusive so far, think I need to market it better.

It's taken me far too long to realise that IT IS OK TO TRY YOUR IDEAS OUT. I need to give MUTANT ARTSPACE  a nod here too, because I have had great words of encouragement from Moray along the way... and while I'm here, more than a couple of words need to be said about my lovely other half, The Ronald, who made the Medicine Room magic and generally propped everything/everyone up, and fashioned a projector screen weight from an old iron.

CHEERS! Vick.