Kildare band bring back memories of youth with timeless setlist

MUSIC and memory are deeply intertwined as suggested by research carried out by academics, who agree that the brain engages differently with musical information compared to linguistic. Music not only enhances memory but also plays a significant role in shaping one’s self-identity and social relationships, particularly during formative years. This phenomenon can evoke vivid recollections, such as a middle-aged person reminiscing about their teenage years upon hearing a familiar song.

I write this by way of an introduction to a musical event I attended in the magnificent surroundings of the Visual Theatre in Carlow recently. A friend of mine suggested I go along to see the Naas-based group The Muddy River Band. The band are selective in the music they play and have made their reputation singing the songs of Bob Dylan, Van Morrison and Neil Young and if you were to throw Leonard Cohen in there, you would have 80% of my vinyl record collection.

When I left secondary school in 1977, I went to Carlow, to the Regional Technical College for a few months to study to be a laboratory technician, but having failed all of my Christmas exams, my mother shipped me off to Kilkenny to train as a hotel manager in the Newpark hotel. Nevertheless, during those few months in Carlow RTC, my musical education was expanded. Carlow at the time was a million miles removed from Athy, it had numerous dance venues and music clubs, Archie’s, Lennon’s, The Tavern, a pint of Smithwicks was just 30 pence and the smell of exotic green leaves perfumed the air like patchouli oil on a combat jacket.

It was in Carlow that I found my love of music, listening to Dylan, Joni Mitchell, Leonard Cohen and Neil Young in damp basement flats warmed only by our youthful enthusiasm and a one bar electric fire, but we were young and hardy and the world stretched out before us, long before pain and loss and love and the daily grind of working for a living kicked in and dampened the fire of youth.

It was around this time that Martin Scorsese directed a movie entitled The Last Waltz purporting to be the last ever performance by the Canadian/American group The Band. I saw it in Jack Nash’s Grove Cinema, where Lidl now stands in Athy, around 1978. The live recorded concert featured bob Dylan, Neil Young, Muddy Waters, Van Morrison, Joni Mitchell and a host of other performers. The one standout performance from the movie, for me, was when Neil Young came on stage to sing Helpless with Robbie Robinson and The Band, a memory that has stayed with me all these years and one that showed the magic of Scorsese as a director; as Neil Young was singing Helpless, the camera cut to a silhouette of Joni Mitchell singing harmony from backstage. Mitchell was just 34 at the time with a voice that carried and filled the Winterland Ballroom in San Francisco, it was powerful.

Which brings me back to the Visual in Carlow last weekend. The Muddy River Band sang every song I wanted to hear, it was like getting all of the selection boxes on Christmas morning full of your favourite sweets; Heart of Gold, Into The Mystic, Gloria, Like a Rolling Stone, All Along The Watchtower and Long May You Run. Hit after hit they played and each one was delivered with passion and precision. Then, early on in the set, Willie Headon sang Helpless and when Pat Silke joined him with the harmony, I was right back in the velveteen double seat in the old cinema and, just like Joni Mitchell, Pat’s vocal hung over the audience and haunted the auditorium, a perfect accompaniment to Willie’s wonderful rendition of the classic number. And that was just one of the many highlights that this group of musicians treated a hugely responsive audience to on the night.

The band is fronted by three singers, Willie Headon singing the songs of Neil Young, Pat Silke sings Van Morrison and Pete Kavanagh the troubadour Bob Dylan. They are backed by a dynamic quartet of Joe Ryan on pedal steel guitar, Baz Daly on bass, Lee Murphy on lead guitar and Dave on the drums. Southern Man was the epitome of the Godfather of Grunge sound of Neil Young - raw, driving and dynamic - and it saw the band let loose in a solid six-minute rendition, it was one of the many high points of the night. Pete Kavanagh sang an emotional rendition of Forever Young, which he dedicated to the late Celine Garvey of the Moat Theatre in Naas. It was a moving tribute to a special lady. In all, the band performed 28 songs, each one a classic and each one rekindling a memory of times and people past.

The final song of the two-hour set was Keep on Rocking in The Free World and it brought the house down, just like Neil Young’s 12-minute performance of it at Glastonbury in 2009.

Driving home past the old beet factory, but no longer with its once pervading aroma of cooking sugar that filled the winter nights over Carlow town, I was high on the music and the memories that this wonderful band created. Get to see them wherever you can.