There is nothing wrong with “playing covers”. So many bands and artists who eventually became famous or well-known started off playing music that already existed. It’s the perfect education. How to build a song. How to overcome bashfulness, connect with an audience, project energy. Plus, classical orchestras do it all the time. Except they may perform a piece that was composed, say, 250 years ago by a 20-year-old called Wolfgang Mozart. Whereas rock musicians gigging in pubs around West Cork tend to mostly cover songs written in the last century or later. Sometimes, they mix established repertoire with self-penned pieces. Often, pub audiences prefer covers that are easy on the ear and offer an unobtrusive backdrop to a social night out.
Musicians who go to the trouble of writing their own songs may well harbour dreams of fame, glory, fortune. They need to find audiences that resonate with their music to have any chance of successfully navigating the long and winding road travelled by the lucky few – from local pub gigs to stadiums and arenas filled with tens of thousands of people.
A logical next step would be to try and get a gig at a live music venue with a name that rings bells in many corners of the world. In West Cork, that may be slightly less impossible than in many other rural areas. Accidentally (or is it something in the ley lines?) the region boasts three truly legendary performance spaces (and a lot of smaller but nice venues where musicians can dip their toes into the water). They’re also pubs: DeBarra’s Folk Club (Clonakilty), Connolly’s of Leap, and Levis Corner House (Ballydehob). Located in two tiny villages (345 and 167 residents) and a small market town (5112 people). All three have received very prestigious awards. DeBarra’s was crowned “one of the Top 10 best venues in the world” in 2024 by Lonely Planet and the two other “temples of sound” are not far behind. They do serve drinks and food (Levis regularly puts chefs in the spotlights during summer) but music is always the driving factor. Original music, mostly. Naturally, there are exceptions. After all, playing someone else’s music can be profoundly meaningful. A tribute to past masters is an excellent way to honour (and reinterpret) work that stands the test of time.
This is certainly one of the main reasons why (fairly) new West Cork residents Stu and Ali Crampton have been organising events around other people’s music, off and on, while simultaneously working on (and playing) their own ‘originals’.
Before moving from the Greater Dublin area to West Cork (which they already knew well) in 2022 – Stu: “We did an event called the Rock ‘n Roll Vaudeville Circus in Naas and Greystones, seven years ago, as we were living up in Kildare at the time. We had burlesque, a strongman, a snake charmer. Music of course and spoken word. Comedy. Our presenter was a drag king. It was a humorous and spectacular show. At the same time, it’s like herding cats as you’re working with so many different people. Ali and I often kill each other over the big productions. We fight regularly because they’re so stressful. But it’s something that we actually do very well.” They often do it for charity. “The Vaudeville Show was to build a hostel for at-risk youths. And we’ve raised money for Penny Dinners in Cork.”
Another motive that drives them is: community. A veteran of many bands – The Water Gypsies, Driftwood, The Acoustic Couch, and in West Cork, The Galleyheads – Stu loves playing purely for music’s sake. He is a multi-instrumentalist. Acoustic and electric guitars, piano, banjo, mandolin, harmonica, vocals. In essence, guitar and piano are his main instruments, “but since we moved here, it’s been all guitar, guitar, guitar. My piano has actually been in storage for the past five years.” Ali: “Stuart had a very successful teaching career in Greystones and taught some very well-known people.” A former model, she sings (lead and backing vocals), organises, plays mandolin and harmonica. Once settled in West Cork, they went looking for other musicians in places where rock ‘n blues sessions took place.
Stu: “There’s a great community of musicians in and around Clonakilty. Or maybe I should have said, “communities” for there seemed to be a divide between, let’s say, musicians playing in Ardfield, Castlefreke, Fisher’s Cross, Shanley’s. They never really overlapped. We had no historic affiliations, just took people at face value. And then we put on a few Bob Dylan concerts and everybody got involved in it. There was no division that we could see, all and sundry joined in and it worked out really well. It was also about giving people the opportunity to be part of a live gig who might never have done that before. Our youngest player at the time was 16 and the oldest was 80.”
They set up a new band, Last Chance Coyote, with Anthony Noonan (drums and vocals, has played with Roy Harper, Bill Shanley, Dogtail Soup, Glen Hansard, The West Cork Ukelele Ochestra and releases solo music under the moniker Q.U.I.E.T.), Pat Crowley (keyboards, accordion, vocals, played with Sleepy Hollow and is the longest-standing member of Mary Black’s band), and Brian Hennessy (bass, vocals, session musician, plays with Captain Kangaroo and others).
On November 28, Last Chance Coyote will pay tribute to a legendary outfit called The Band in DeBarra’s Folk Club (Clonakilty) to celebrate the 50th anniversary of The Last Waltz, The Band’s historic farewell concert on November 25, 1976 at San Francisco’s Winterland Ballroom, which was filmed by Martin Scorsese and later augmented with short interviews and newer versions of some songs, filmed on a soundstage. The film was released in 1978 and is available online.
The Band started as The Hawks, became Bob Dylan’s first electric live band and subsequently issued 10 studio albums with, largely, original music and some covers. Their music is brilliant. Although they themselves never quite achieved star status, the Last Waltz features a large array of famous guest musicians including Bob Dylan, Muddy Waters, Eric Clapton, Ringo, Joni Mitchell, Van Morrison, Emmylou Harris. The guest stars at the Clonakilty tribute are Ricky Lynch, Joe O’Callaghan, Eugene Brosnan, Kevin McNally, Eithne O’Mahony, Rian Crowley, Eoin Barclay, Liam De Barra, Kate Whelton, Dominic Whelton, Ger Duggan, Des O’Mahony, Grainne O’Brien, Zachary-Scott Harte.
All the members of The Band are now deceased. They struggled with addiction, depression, internal strife but also displayed a zest for life. Their music remains and is vibrant, warm, intelligent. It will be covered forever.
