IT'S A DOGS LIFE!

You wouldn't think it to look at him but that dog on the album cover was a serious ball-sniffer and it took a lot of dog biscuits to coax him away from sniffing around us every time we sat down", says Gino Lupari the animated bodhran player and resident funny man with Four Men ... A Dog.
"But we eventually got him to stay still long enough for the photo," he adds. "To make things worse we were all suffering from hangovers after a heavy session the night before - hence the glazed look in the band photos. Still it looks great and I suppose we have to suffer for our art." (Surely you mean suffer for your artwork - Ed)
Three of The Men - Gino, Kevin Doherty and Cathal Hayden - are gathered in the Harcourt Hotel in Dublin on this balmy evening to launch their new album "Shifting Gravel" - the long-awaited follow up to their award-winning debut, "Barking Mad". Passing up on any jokes about the 'hair of the dog' etc. we move swiftly on, to discuss the current state-of-play in the Dogs' camp. The album is already receiving heavy radio play, particularly their bouncy version of Fats Domino's "I'm Walkin'".
"We did try to make it a bit more radio friendly, more mainstream," Kevin observes, "but it always difficult to capture our live sound on record. I mean, we can be pretty spectacular live and it all gets a bit wild at times. Anything can happen!"
The Dogs, as they have become unofficially christened, have certainly had enough practice on the live front during the past year. Since the release of "Barking Mad" and its subsequent nomination as Album of the Year by Folk Roots magazine in the UK, the band have been on a gruelling non-stop trek all over Europe, as well as across the US and Canada.
"That award brought us a lot of recognition and really increased our profile," says Gino. "We were able to tour out of the country for seven or eight months of last year."
One result is that the band are even tighter and more powerful than before. Another is that they have an endless supply of tales of fun and frolics in their travels. Like the time they were at a festival in Finland and they went on the piss with a bunch of Russians.
"Yeah we decided to check out the Russian contingent to see what they were up to," says Kevin. "I don't know what they were drinking but it was strong stuff" (laughs).
Also in Finland they encountered a group of Muslims who were performing at the festival . . .
"It was during Ramadan, when Muslims aren't supposed to eat between sunrise and sunset," says Gino. "The problem was, the sun never sets in Scandinavia in the summer so these guys hadn't eaten for three days - they were all dropping off like flies. They ended up phoning their embassy for advice and eventually a darkened room with mats was organised for them to worship."
The Dogs have gone through some fairly major personnel changes since their first album with the original vocalist Mick Daly dropping out, along with Brian McGrath and Donal Murphy.
"Mick actually gave us our name," says Gino, "He was always known around Cork as 'Mick the Dog' so there was the four of us plus Mick - hence Four Men ... A Dog! He and Brian and Donal hadn't envisaged the album taking off like it did and they had other commitments at the time so they bowed out."
The band now number six, including the ubiquitous and supremely talented Arty McGlynn on guitar, Gerry O'Connor on fiddle and Conor Keane on accordion. The addition of Kevin Doherty on vocals and guitar has given the band a real boost - not only does he sing and play but he writes a mean tune or two as well. He'd previously played in local bands around the Donegal area, the most recent being The Gooseberries.
"We always wanted to have a songwriter in the band and do original songs - it's the only way to make any headway," says Gino. "Mick Hanly would have been the obvious choice but he wasn't available at the time so we bumped into Kevin Doherty in Sligo one night and he ended up in the band!"
Four of Kevin's songs have made it onto "Shifting Gravel" - two upbeat country blues numbers and two ballads. He admits to a certain influence of Van Morrison but also listens to Hank Williams, Neil Young, Tom Waits and good country.
"It would be crazy and stupid to deny the Morrison influence - he's such a towering presence over everything," he says. "In fact I sometimes have to stop listening to his, and other people's stuff when I'm writing - you just end up comparing yourself to other and trying to measure up to them."
There was much mirth among the assembled Dogs when they read a piece in the current issue of Vox magazine which described one of Kevin's songs on the new album, "Where Has My Lady Gone" as a song "Michael Bolton would kill for". The general consensus among the band being: Go ahead Michael. Record it. Please. Slaughter it - we need the money!
The new album was recorded at Homestead Studios outside Belfast, in just ten days - pretty impressive going by anybody's standards. Arty McGlynn produced and the band give him the credit for the crisp finished product.
"He's such a talented musician that he's in demand all the time'" says Gino, "he spends most of his time in studios these days."
Given the difficulties in recording an acoustic-based band, the Dogs have achieved a dynamic sonic quality with "Shifting Gravel" that sets them apart from some of their contemporaries in Irish music, who don't always seem to pay such close attention to achieving a quality end-product. "We took a lot of care over the mixing," says Cathal. "But Arty and the engineer Shawn (Mudd) Wallace knew exactly how to bring out the best of the band in the studio, so we were in good hands."
Was there any pressure to come up with a similar album to the first one, given the level of acclaim with which it was greeted.
"No, not really," offers Kevin. "We're not afraid to take chances - we just get up and do it. If it works, great. If it doesn't, it's not the end of the world."
The one thing they all agree on, is that they'd like to do more gigs in Ireland. They acknowledge that they're more popular abroad than in their homeland - an anomaly which they'd clearly like to rectify.
"I think I can say without contradiction that we're one of the biggest folk attractions in Britain," offers Gino. "We've packed out all the main venues, and even played the Cambridge Folk Festival and Fairport Convention's annual festival, Cropedy. But we're not all that well known in Ireland, particularly in the south of Ireland.
"I was talking to the lads in Altan the other day and they said they've done about six gigs in Ireland in the last year but they've played all over the place the rest of the time. It's a bit like that with us - we've done about ninety gigs in Germany alone in the past year and only a handful here, so hopefully we'll do some more in this country in the near future."
What about America - do they see themselves having an impact over there?
"Well it's all down to Michael Bolton," laughs Gino. "But seriously we have spent a bit of time over there - we did the New Music Seminar in New York and we got a good reaction there. Just after that we played in New Jersey at a folk festival in a town that was a cross between The Waltons on acid and Happy Days! The security was unbelievable. We were assigned our own personal security minder - a big hairy Vietnam Vet! He introduced himself formally to us - sort of 'Hi I'm Chris, your security officer for the day."
When he heard the band had just arrived in from New York, he asked them had anyone been bothering them or had they been followed!
"'Is there anyone I should be aware of?,' he says. Weird, really weird," Gino reflects. "We thought if there was any trouble it would be napalm or Agent Orange or something, but that's America for you and I got fucking robbed in Boston!."
The Dogs found Canada to be an altogether more enjoyable experience and they played about six gigs right across the country.
"We did the Winnipeg Folk Festival in front of about seventeen thousand people and we also appeared at the Calgary Stampede. We drove across the prairies and through the Rockies - brilliant. You look out the window and go asleep for five hours and take a look again and it's exactly the same - amazing!"
With the release of "Shifting Gravel", 4 Men And A Dog are quietly confident about their immediate future. They'll be touring until Christmas and doing more festivals this summer, including a huge one in Eastern Germany which will be televised live.
Judging by the reviews and reaction to "Shifting Gravel", there's every chance it will be even more successful than the debut. Both their albums will be officially released in America this summer. They're already doing well in the mail-order market over there and songs for the next album are being incorporated into their live set.
What was that old proverb about sleeping dogs?