Thy Kingdom Strum

It all started 20 years ago, as an informal, weekly singer-songwriter session, upstairs in a Dublin pub. Over the years, it has nurtured talent such as Glen Hansard, Damien Dempsey, Declan O’Rourke, Gemma Hayes and many, many others. The man behind this breeding ground for a generation of Irish talent still hosts a Tuesday night session under the banner of “Dave Murphy and Friends”. He recalls how it began, all those years ago.

“I was a regular musician around town playing support to every Tom, Dick and Harry,” he remembers. “It would be Freddie White one night and the Fleadh Cowboys the next. I was a regular in The Bailey pub, where they didn’t normally have music. The manager said to me one night, ‘You’re a musician - would you fancy doing something here?’ I thought, ‘Great, I finally have my own gig’.”
Murphy soon realised that he’d been handed several hours to kill and would need some help if it was to succeed. He had a brainwave and decided to round up some of the burgeoning busking talent he had begun to notice as he walked around town.
He reveals: “I just ran up and down Grafton Street and I introduced myself to anyone I saw with a guitar and asked them would they like to come along to a session.”
As he recalls, the first night saw the like of Glen Hansard, Mark Dignam, Leslie Keye (from The Wilde Oscars), Miriam Ingram, Dave Odlum and Noreen O’Donnell – the first singer with The Frames – all turning up.
“It was a decent crowd. Hansard and Dignam asked could they play their own songs I said, ‘Of course, play what you like’.”
After a few months in The Bailey the session moved across the road to McDaid’s pub and finally settled in the International Bar on Wicklow Street, where it enjoyed its most creative and fruitful period.
“From then on I had a notebook full of names and numbers and I was able to call on people for the first time. It became known as a songwriters’ club but it was understood that it was about singing your own songs. It was a voice thing, a vocal thing.”
Tuesday night in the International Bar soon became the established first port of call for anyone considering a career as a singer-songwriter.
“The only rule was you brought your guitar and if you played you didn’t pay,” Murphy explains. “There are too many names to remember, people like Nigel Plaice, Terry Sutton, Anne Scott and Joe Chester came along. Jack L actually came in the early days but he was shy about playing the guitar. And Paddy Casey was only let in on the understanding that he didn’t have a drink as he was underage at the time. Gemma Hayes had heard about it and came along, and of course people like Christy Moore, and Luka Bloom would come in to have a look. Paul Brady looked in once or twice and Declan Sinnott and Jimmy McCarthy all dropped by. Mundy came when it was in McDaid’s but never played and Damien Rice came in once or twice. Even David Gray came in one night and was impressed.”
It wasn’t all earnest, serious-minded troubadours turning up however. “Yeah, we had a few chancers coming in,” Dave says, “but they were mostly good-humoured and the wonderful thing is, they weren’t treated any differently to the serious guys. You still got the same respect from the audience – they didn’t shout up, ‘You’re crap’. Christy Moore was gobsmacked at the silence of the place. He used to play the Coffee Kitchen and the Universal folk club in the 1960s and it reminded him of that scene. Without realising it, I was re-creating all those coffee houses.”
Despite his crucial involvement in setting up the songwriters night Murphy says he rarely offered advice, unless it was requested.
“I feel it’s better when they find they own feet, it’s like an open workshop. If they’re really clued in they will be able to give and take from it. They were all teenagers at the time and they were watching each other like hawks with notebooks and pens, writing down a chord sequence or lyrics.”
According to Murphy, Damien Dempsey was one of the last of the big names to get some kind of recognition.
“I think he was the most original in the sense that he was doing something from the folk idiom and was trying to superimpose a contemporary style. The quiet gentleman – that was him. He was a great observer and would rather sit there and read a book.”
Amazingly the Tuesday night session is still going and is as strong as ever this time in The Banker’s pub on Trinity Street.
“The new breed are good,” Murphy enthuses. “Niall Kearney – he’s very good and has a hint of Ray Davies. There’s a second generation of songwriters who are influenced by Irish songwriters, which is great. A guy called Matt Lennon was a ringer in the beginning for Damien Dempsey – he writes quirky, funny songs. And Nico Fitz is terrific. It was always a place where people could develop with freedom and without negativity. It’s still like that.”