22. Never Going Back
S.Rhatigan/J.F Morrison © 1999
UPDATE…
If you didn’t make it last night to Whelan’s Song Cycle, and I know you didn’t because there were 8 people there and 6 of them were other songwriters then this is what you missed!
Read on or scroll down to see how it went!
Trying to decide whether to play this song tonight at Whelans Song Cycle….
Photo taken by Gina Birch
No mystery here, does what it says on the tin. Never Going Back was written in an afternoon and played no more than 5 times including the recording… Sometimes the simple ones get overlooked and then you can spend days/weeks torturing a song and arrangement out of existence. Not to mention the abyss that can be the recording process. Endless refining everything at the expense of the spirit and soul of it. Not so with no 22 I think?
PS: Since this blog was a bit of a rush I may add to it later…
PPS: If you’re in Dublin tonight pop into Whelans, I’ll be upstairs at the Song Cycle night from 9PM, songwriters galore and it’s free!
Suzanne Rhatigan Vocals, guitar…
John Morrison Bass…
Paul Murphy Drums…
UPDATE…. 11/02/2014
I can understand how hard it is to drag yourself out on a freezing February night to take your chances with songwriters you’ve likely never heard of, I had a tough time pushing myself out the door, but it was worth it. In fact it almost always is. In Ireland we are over run with talent, there are more songwriters and poets, play writes and storytellers of every type here than there are people.
I must admit the 1st act was a bit of a challenge. Yong Buddha was in fact a duo. A gorgeous guy singing his quite engaging folk/soul songs reminiscent of Terry Callier, which is no bad thing, but slightly let down by a badly out of tune guitar and some occasionally pretty wayward slide guitar played by his partner, which I was pretty sure was surplus to requirements until toward the end when he perhaps accidently, contributed some interesting counter melodies. Early days for these guys but there was something in there all right…
2nd up me… I can’t critique myself because I’m never as good as I want to be, maybe that’s what keeps me going. But the ‘crowd’ seemed to like it and I came home with 4 names for my mailing list which is 50% uptake! I’m pretty sure in marketing terms that’s a good result right?
If it’s fast fretwork and strident strumming you’re into then Paul Fitzpatrick won’t disappoint. I confess I am more drawn to the storytelling end of the songwriting spectrum and Paul was very shy which I think hindered him making that crucial connection with the audience, but an impressive talent none the less.
Next a real find. Engaging, poetic with subtle melodic turns and assured velvetine vocals, I liked everything I heard from Miriam Donohue. She has an EP on Bandcamp called Bookmarks. miriamdonohue.bandcamp.com have a listen and purchase her music, simple as.
By this time I was making my exit to avoid another hour of babysitting charges, so I didn’t hear the last couple of performances, yet another reason why it’s hard to coax yourself out on a Monday perhaps, but between Song Cycle at Whelan’s run by the lovely John Byrne and the great Station House Sessions in Raheny every Monday, it is absolutely my favourite night of the week! Hope to see you there next time.
