Archive News
Evening of songs with US troubadour David Dondero at Crane Bar
Date Published: {J}
Whatever’s in the calendar for Thursday, September 29, clear it. Because that’s the night when David Dondero, an American songwriter of genuine class, plays The Crane Bar. The show is part of the monthly Musical Mayhem series, a night hosted by the Galway-based band Mikey and The Scallywags.
David Dondero has been a solo artist since 1998, in which time the folk/rock singer has picked up a fair share of praise along the way. He has also toured alongside acclaimed Americana artists like Jolie Holland, Bright Eyes and Willy Mason.
Dondero has spent 10 of the past 12 months on the road, but it’s a touring cycle that he’s used to, and loves. At the time of this interview, he’s in the middle of another US jaunt. So, how have the shows been going?
“They’re going good, mostly good,” he says. “It’s highs and lows. Some are better than others, last night was really great. I was really happy with last night, in Denver. I’ve had a run of good shows this week. For the most part, it’s going pretty well.”
In his song The Living and the Dead the narrator recalls driving ‘14 hours / Just to play to the sound guy’. Did this actually happen, that nobody was there, except his own sound man?
“Yeah, it’s true!” says David. “That song was written in Detroit. I had driven 14 hours [just] to play to the sound guy and the bartender. That’s what inspired that song; that was years ago. A couple of people showed up eventually, though. I wasn’t going to [do the gig], and then they showed up. Now, it’s not like that so much.”
He might not have to worry about playing to empty rooms any more, but Dondero’s dedication to his craft remains. His lyrics show an eye for detail, and are delivered with an impassioned preciseness. Does he write the words separately from the music?
“Well, sometimes it’s all together at once,” he says. “Sometimes it comes together slowly, building over time. It depends on the song. It’s different every time.”
“What’s the longest time he’s spent working on a piece?
“Jeez, probably 10 years, 12 years, on one song,” he muses.
“Anything from two minutes to 10 years!
“I can’t think which one it is,” he says of the one that took a decade. Then his memory kicks in. “The One that fell from the Vine – 10 years! I like the pedal steel part in it, but I’m still not happy with it.”
One of Dondero’s most arresting numbers is a song called Rothko Chapel, a song he wrote after a trip to Texas.
“I was down in Houston,” he says. “There was a chapel down there made by Mark Rothko, the artist. And it’s just a temple representing all religions, and non-religions and Taoists and mathematics, so it basically represents everybody. It’s a real peaceful place; I was inspired by it so I wrote that song.”
Many of the current news stories in the Irish media about the US, document the economic and political woes of a once-mighty country. Given that he spends so much of his time touring America, has David noticed a change in the national mood?
“I think it’s a little different,” he says. “I think a lot of people are disillusioned; I think it’s probably necessary. Over the years, people have been living beyond their means in America. And that finally . . .the bubble popped, a reality check.
“I think it could be a good thing for America, I’m no expert on economics but it seems like it could be a good thing, eventually.”
For more, read this week’s Connacht Tribune.
People’s living conditions less than 100 years ago were frightening. We have come a long way. We talk about water charges today, but back then the local District Councils were erecting pumps for local communities and the lovely town of Mountbellew, according to Council minutes, had open sewers,” says Galway County Council archivist Patria McWalter.
Patria believes we “need to take pride in our history, and we should take the same pride in our historical records as we do in our built heritage”. When you see the wealth of material in her care, this belief makes sense.
She is in charge of caring for the rich collection of administrative records owned by Galway County Council and says “these records are as much part of our history as the Rock of Cashel is. They document our lives and our ancestors’ lives. And nobody can plan for the future unless you learn from the past, what worked and what didn’t”.
Archivists and librarians are often unfairly regarded as being dry, academic types, but that’s certainly not true of Patria. Her enthusiasm is infectious as she turns the pages of several minute books from Galway’s Rural District Councils, all of them at least 100 years old.
Part of her role involved cataloguing all the records of the Councils – Ballinasloe, Clifden, Galway, Gort, Loughrea, Mountbellew, Portumna and Tuam. These records mostly consisted of minutes of various meetings.
When she was cataloguing them she realised their worth to local historians and researchers, so she decided to compile a guide to their content. The result is For the Record: The Archives of Galway’s Rural District Councils, which will be a valuable asset to anybody with an interest in history.
Many representatives on these Councils were local personalities and several were arrested during the political upheaval of the era, she explains.
And, ushering in a new era in history, women were allowed to sit on these Rural District Councils – at the time they were not allowed to sit on County Councils.
All of this information is included in Patria’s introductory essay to the attractively produced A4 size guide, which gives a glimpse into how these Rural Councils operated and the way political thinking changed in Ireland during a short 26-year period. In the early 1900s, these Councils supported Home Rule, but by 1920, they were calling for full independence and refusing to recognise the British administration.
“I love the tone,” says Patria of the minutes from meetings. “The language was very emotive.”
That was certainly true of the Gort Rural District Council. At a meeting in 1907, following riots in Dublin at the premiere of JM Synge’s play, The Playboy of the Western World the councillors’ response was vehement. They recorded their decision to “protest most emphatically against the libellous comedy, The Playboy of the Western World, that was belched forth during the past week in the Abbey Theatre, Dublin, under the fostering care of Lady Gregory and Mr Yeats. We congratulate the good people of Dublin in howling down the gross buffoonery and immoral suggestions that are scattered throughout this scandalous performance.
For more from the archives see this week’s Tribunes here
Date Published: 23-Jan-2013
SLIGO 0-9
GALWAY 1-4
FRANK FARRAGHER IN ENNISCRONE
GALWAY’S first serious examination of the 2013 season rather disturbingly ended with a rating well below the 40% pass mark at the idyllic, if rather Siberian, seaside setting of Enniscrone on Sunday last.
The defeat cost Galway a place in the FBD League Final against Leitrim and also put a fair dent on their confidence shield for the bigger tests that lie ahead in February.
There was no fluke element in this success by an understrength Sligo side and by the time Leitrim referee, Frank Flynn, sounded the final whistle, there wasn’t a perished soul in the crowd of about 500 who could question the justice of the outcome.
It is only pre-season and last Sunday’s blast of dry polar winds did remind everyone that this is far from summer football, but make no mistake about it, the match did lay down some very worrying markers for Galway following a couple of victories over below par third level college teams.
Galway did start the game quite positively, leading by four points at the end of a first quarter when they missed as much more, but when Sligo stepped up the tempo of the game in the 10 minutes before half-time, the maroon resistance crumbled with frightening rapidity.
Some of the statistics of the match make for grim perusal. Over the course of the hour, Galway only scored two points from play and they went through a 52 minute period of the match, without raising a white flag – admittedly a late rally did bring them close to a draw but that would have been very rough justice on Sligo.
Sligo were backable at 9/4 coming into this match, the odds being stretched with the ‘missing list’ on Kevin Walsh’s team sheet – Adrian Marren, Stephen Coen, Tony Taylor, Ross Donovan, David Kelly, David Maye, Johnny Davey and Eamon O’Hara, were all marked absent for a variety of reasons.
Walsh has his Sligo side well schooled in the high intensity, close quarters type of football, and the harder Galway tried to go through the short game channels, the more the home side bottled them up.
Galway badly needed to find some variety in their attacking strategy and maybe there is a lot to be said for the traditional Meath style of giving long, quick ball to a full forward line with a big target man on the edge of the square – given Paul Conroy’s prowess close to goal last season, maybe it is time to ‘settle’ on a few basics.
Defensively, Galway were reasonably solid with Gary Sice at centre back probably their best player – he was one of the few men in maroon to deliver decent long ball deep into the attacking zone – while Finian Hanley, Conor Costello and Gary O’Donnell also kept things tight.
For more, read this week’s Connacht Tribune.
Date Published: 23-Jan-2013
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