The Saw Doctors were formed in rural west Ireland in … "well, we can’t find our birth certificate," Moran says. "This tour does mark 20 years of touring," You’ll hear all sorts of life-is-a-grind on the road from many bands, but not the Docs. Moran: "It’s’ a wonderful privilege to make a living from something you love doing. I love the traveling, getting on a tour bus, having nothing to do for a day except feed yourself, be sociable, walk around for a day, have a couple of drinks, meet people, do a soundcheck, and play a show. We’ve been to over 20 countries. We’ve seen more of the US than most Americans."
Inde
ed, the Docs tend to tour here twice a year – around St. Paddy’s Day and in the summer. (Smart lads.) They have four Massachusetts gigs, starting with their first of the tour at Boarding House Park in Lowell Thursday Aug. 7, part of the Lowell Summer Music Series.
They broke through in Ireland back in the late 1980s, with people singing along boisterously to a breakup song "I Useta Lover." The quartet’s latest album is called "That Takes the Biscuit!," and it’s a 22 song collection of what the Docs call, on the liner notes, "misfits, ones left behind, creatures that didn’t fit the current bill of the time, sometimes unfairly, orphans that weren’t given as much care and attention as others." Whew. But there’s more: "This is not a collection for those who like their albums all correct and polished, it’s littered with rough edges and imperfections, so be warned. They’re all part of the story."
Moran explains, on the phone: "It’s all over the place. It was (singer-songwriter) Davy’s (Carton) idea. He assembled it. We went through all the stuff we had – and the guy mastering it made a wonderful job of making it sound good. A couple of things were off cassettes, not even first generation ones. Davy brought the songs with him on tour last December and I was very pleasantly surprised at the quality."
They’ve got one song on there, "Bebo," where Carton sings "I won’t be on Myspace anymore!" Are they anti-web? Not exactly. They have mixed feelings, as should we all. "We heard of somebody being stalked on the Internet," says Moran, explaining the song’s genesis. "It’s bound to be something happening nowadays. One time we were a lot less findable, and that has its pros and cons. It’s gonna become a huge issue with Youtube and the lack of privacy. I don’t do anything on the Internet I would want to be read. You can always go on the phone, and hope no one’s listening in."
The Saw Doctors are a populist band. In Ireland, says Moran, the Dublin-based media "see the Saw Doctors as being a hick band, being from the country. They would like to believe the things we sing about are part of our past rather than something current. They don’t realize the things we’re doing - we are celebrating stuff; they don’t see it as being suitable for rock ‘n’ roll. We’ve brought a local, regional vocabulary to our tunes and subject matter. That’s what Hank Williams did and Bruce Springsteen on a much larger scale. That’s what we would hope to try and emulate. We’ve never been the darlings of media or had a big record company behind us."
Still, Moran doesn’t consider that any great downside. C’est la vie. His only gripe – and he admits it’s minor in the scheme of things – is the arduous task that flying has become. Wait. Wait. Wait. Search. Search. Search.
. This summer, you’ll find the Saw Doctors at Lowell’s Summer Music Festival Aug. 7. Tickets are $21 in advance, $25 at the door. The show starts at 7:30. The Docs are also at Look Park in Northampton Friday Aug. 8 and back at the tents, the South Shore Music Circus in Cohasett Wed. Aug. 13 and the Cape Cod Melody Tent Thurs. Aug. 14.
50 French St., Lowell, 978-970-5000, www.lowellsummermusic.com
