AS THE RING ROLLS/THE CONTINUING SAGA
OF CLADDAGH RING -- Page 3
Top to bottom: Lloyd Helms, Lisa Hager,
Ted Hager, Shannon Wright, Devery Corteville
CLICK, WHRRRR
January 1993. We found a basement studio with an 8-track analog recorder,
and began working on our first tape, "Claddagh Ring." Boy, when Jerry would
turn that machine on, we'd just freeze up. This was for ever and ever (or
at least until all the tapes were sold). After many hours in the studio,
Lisa and Devery went back in to mix it. After mixing quite a few of the
songs, they found out the songs had to be on the tape in the correct order.
Since we didn't want to lose any more quality, they had to remix everything.
The problem was, we had already set a release party date, so we had to
get the tape sent off pronto. So, Lisa and Devery went in & remixed
the whole tape in four hours, then went to the Artichoke for a gig (talk
about fried). Yes, we did manage to get the tapes back in time for our
release party, March 12 and 13 at (then) Ric's Rib Rack. The Friday night
was slow, which was okay because we weren't used to new places and that
building doesn't have the best acoustics. But Saturday was packed, and
that's when we really found out that our fans like to eat and drink...a
lot!. Halfway through the evening, they were out of food, and by the end
of the evening, there were just 2 bottles of beer in the joint. (For all
you budding entrepreneurs out there, yes, we do restaurant openings). By
the way, Lisa did the artwork and Devery set up the rest of the J-card.
ST. PAT'S RUNAROUND
Well, if we weren't used to singing new places yet, this was certainly
our chance. March 17, 1993. We started off supplying entertainment at the
annual Blarney Breakfast at Willie C's east location. Then, Lisa and Devery
went to KFDI to do interviews and have one of our songs played on the air
(they did both AM and FM). Meanwhile, the rest of the group was setting
up the system at Wichita State University for a lunchtime concert. After
that, it was pack up and head for Ingalls Elementary (Shannon's son's school)
for an afternoon assembly. (We got so good at setting up and tearing down
our equipment!) We had an evening concert scheduled at the Juggernaut Coffeehouse,
but it had closed a week earlier.
Then on March 20 we participated in the First Annual Wichita Irish Festival
(t-shirts designed by, who else, Lisa Hager). Unfortunately, it was held
at a National Guard Armory, which is not designed for music.
ALL'S FAIRE
Claddagh Ring made its last (so far) appearance at the Kansas Newman Renaissance
Faire in April 1993. After this year, Ted and Lisa were to become King
and Queen of the Faire, and the rest were left to fend for themselves as
Dragon Baite...and Puff.
COWTOWN LAKE
Wichita's annual River Festival is attended by hundreds of thousands of
people each year. KFDI was sponsoring Kansas Music Heritage Days at Cowtown
as an official event of the River Festival in May 1993. And guess who was
invited to perform on stage, along with Bluestem, The Plaid Family with
the Crowson's, Prairie Wind, the Knapics, and many others? (If you miss
this question, you're all wet. No, wait a minute; everybody was all wet!).
Why didn't we see you there? This, of course, is a safe question, since
pretty much the only ones stupid crazy silly...oh whatever...enough to
slosh around Cowtown for the event were the performers. Still, it gave
us a great chance to sing on a real stage with real stage lighting -- we
were blinded for a week (okay, just for the length of the set, but we couldn't
see anyone out there!). And we got our first real taste of being accepted
as fellow performers -- that was a weird experience, after having spent
most of our lives watching from the audience, dreaming of the day we would
be up on stage ourselves (well...at least one, and probably two of us did).
STAGE ONE AT WINFIELD!
And speaking of dreaming of being on stage, the biggest stage to be on
locally is Stage 1 at the Walnut Valley Festival in Winfield, Kansas. This
festival of all kinds of acoustic music is a must-see for any serious music
lover. You can just about find music somewhere on the site 24 hours a day.
Many national and international performers attend, there are national and
international instrument competitions, and several now-nationally-known
groups got their "start" at Winfield (a recent example is Alison Krauss
and the Union Station Band)
Who'd figure that Claddagh Ring would get to play Stage 1 so soon? All
right, you found us out. We weren't hired performers...but we did play
Stage 1 (we have proof) -- right after the flat picking championships,
when they needed music to keep the stage from sitting empty for very long.
Of course, we ended up having to play opposite Scartaglen and the other
"official" Irish groups who were giving an Irish workshop on Stage 2, but
we did pull a few people from that workshop ("We didn't know there were
any other Irish groups here"). We decided that, with this coup, Robert
made up for Kansas City -- and at both turning points we were playing opposite
Scartaglen (I guess they couldn't take it, 'cause they broke up shortly
thereafter).
CLADDAGH RING 2
Armed with new-found confidence after Winfield (and 10 months more practice),
the group decided to go into a digital studio and re-record our first tape.
We knew that many of the songs deserved a better recording and, hey, we'd
already done the studio thing once -- we were old pros this time around.
We went to Olde Wicke Studios in November 1993, and got 4 or 5 songs recorded
and mixed. Then, as usual, things went funky around the holidays, so we
let it slide. Then, we heard that Olde Wicke was closing at the end of
January 1994, so we ran back into the studio to finish. Highlights of this
experience: Lisa "getting comfortable" in the warm studio (you'll have
to ask her about it and see if she tells you -- she'd kill us if we printed
it here!); Devery's rendition of "Siuil Arun" having everyone crying (yes,
more than usual); various members of the band getting locked out of the
studio while going to the bathroom; and, of course, the Spaghetti Warehouse
wrap party!
Why haven't you seen this yet? First, we haven't quite sold out of the
first one. Second, we never mixed the remaining songs. At one time, we
were planning to put many of these as bonus tracks on the Circle of Friends
CD, but we found out that the sound can vary as much between digital studios
as between an analog and a digital (i.e., the sound quality was too different).
And yet, you do have part of it, if you have Circle of Friends. The piece
of "Bully in the Alley" at the end of "Mingulay Boat Song" was the re-recorded
version, and "The Session (Brian's Road to Maggie)" was the last thing
we recorded there.
NTIF ANTICS
We all attended the North Texas Irish Festival in 1994. We stayed at the
hotel, so we could be close to the jam action. One night, however, the
ladies decided (spurred on by future booking agent, Patricia Helms) to
have a little fun with the guys. Patricia had purchased magnetic earrings
for each lady, and they congregated in one room (the guys were in another
room watching TV) to plan the deed. The story was that Patricia had talked
them all into getting their noses pierced, but they were just going to
see how long it took the guys to notice before they said anything. Devery's
allergies, however, made a magnetic earring in the nose difficult, so she
put hers on her ear -- the story being that she had chickened out (it would
be true). Actually, the guys later said that Dev's "reluctance" was what
led them to believe that the ladies had really done this. Oh, it didn't
take long for the guys to notice, and it took varying times for them to
realize they'd been had. Lisa helped Ted out with that by moving the earring
to different parts of her nose every so often (like the Prince John's mole
in Robin Hood: Men in Tights). What did this have to do with the music?
Nothing, but it was so much fun, we had to include it so you could see
how deranged we sometimes get.
CIRCLE OF FRIENDS
St. Patrick must have been smiling on Claddagh Ring in March 1994 (to make
up for the Second Wichita Irish Festival being held at the armory again?),
because an anonymous patron graciously offered to partially finance our
first CD. So, in May, we went to Emerald City Studios and began recording.
The studio has a great feel to it, and our engineer, Mike Curtis, fit right
in with the group's warped sense of humor (plus, he really knows his stuff).
Mike somehow made sense out of our descriptions of what kind of sound we
wanted and could often pick out what was wrong when we couldn't pinpoint
it. Then he had to put up with Lisa's and Devery's mixing frenzy. The poor
man even came in for eight hours on the Fourth of July so we could complete
the studio portion of the project.
Our next stop was at Elephant Music Productions, where Chris Neal helped
us master the CD, piecing together parts of songs, cutting excess out of
the middle and making it appear seamless.
Unfortunately, Murphy (of Murphy's law) caught up with us by the time
we started working with Paul Bliss at MasterTape Audio. We had to survive
computer crashes and printer screw-ups, among other things, to get our
tapes and CDs ready for our release party and third birthday bash on August
26 at the Wichita Boathouse.
WICHITA BOATHOUSE CELTIC CELEBRATION AND CLADDAGH RING CD RELEASE PARTY
August 26, 1994. We got to play in front of the Jayhawk, the
boat that won the America's cup race a few years ago. We helped launch
a curragh built by local enthusiasts. And we had a great party!
STAGE ONE, PART TWO
Yes, we got on Stage One at Winfield again in September 1994. This time,
we had our brand new CDs and tapes, which Alcazar agreed to sell for us.
Our stuff was placed in among the hired performers there that year, and
the person running the booth played our CD from time to time during the
weekend. Thanks to Lloyd, we also got CDs in the hands of a couple of members
of St. James' Gate, a Texas group that has competed and won competitions
in Ireland and travels all over the U.S. (Hey, one of them actually bought
a CD because he figured the other member would keep the "freebie"!)
KANSAS ARTS COMMISSION
We became official! We got word near the end of 1994 that Claddagh
Ring had been accepted into the Kansas Touring Arts program. For
three years starting July 1995, any non-profit or government organization
or municiaplity in Kansas more than 50 miles from Wichita can apply to
have 40% of our fee reimbursed by state arts funds. Now it will be
financially feasible for us to travel throughout the state -- maybe closer
to where you live.
MARCHING TO TEXAS
We skip now to the first weekend in March, 1995, and our trip to the 13th
North Texas Irish Festival. Due to numerous mix-ups (there's Murphy again),
we were not hired, but we were given permission to play in the lanes. Lisa
(of course...we had no doubts) won the poster competition; the posters
sold out BEFORE the festival began, so we were allowed to put our Circle
of Friends posters for sale as a substitute. We also put some tapes and
CDs with the performers merchandise to sell (which they did quite well
considering we weren't on stage). On Sunday, the warmest and driest of
the days, we gathered several crowds with our playing. In fact, they asked
us to stop playing so they could clear the street for a parade. Obviously,
we were making an impression, as we did at the jams in the evenings ("Why
aren't you here performing officially?" was asked of us repeatedly). So,
Sunday afternoon, Betsy Cummings, in charge of hiring local/regional bands,
told us that we were definitely hired for 1996!
BIG BRUTUS FESTIVAL
May 19-20, 1995. The biggest backdrop we've ever had. The stage
was under this HUGE electric shovel near the town of Mineral, Kansas.
Sadly, part of the festival was rained out, but we heard some great music
and had a great view from high within the body of the shovel. One
thing we will all remember is the nest of screech owls somewhere in the
shovel, which kept us up part of the that night. You know, this may
be a trend -- unusual backdrops. Now, where is that big ball
of twine?
1ST CLADDAGH RING BOWLING INVITATIONAL
It was a dark & stormy night...okay, okay. So it was daylight
and not stormy, but it was raining. We were at Lake Cheney
for the Second Annual North Fork Folk & Bluegrass Festival. We
were between sets and decided to drive to Cheney for some dry space and
warm food. Since we were eating in a bowling alley (hey, they've
got good pizza, all right?), we decided to pass time by bowling a few games.
Funny how I can't quite recall the outcome (none of us but Lloyd had bowled
recently), but we had a great time, anyway. And, afterwards, we invented
Whipped Baseball (can you tell we were bored?).
ENTER THE ELECTRONIC AGE
By November of 1995, Claddagh Ring had this home page up and
running. Sometimes it gets a bit slow being updated, but, hey, we've
seen sites not updated for years. And, hopefully, as time
goes by, you can depend upon the homepage to give you the most recent information
-- stuff that happens between newsletters (the homepage doesn't cost as
much to put up as the newsletter does to put out).
BORDERS BOOKS & MUSIC
Friday, November 17, 1995, marked the beginning of our relationship with
Borders Books as we played for the grand opening of the store in Wichita.
With a network of stores across the country, we've been able to take advantage
of our relationship with the local store to help us break in to new markets.
(Plus, each store we play in stocks our CDs!)
NORTH TEXAS IRISH FESTIVAL 1996
An intrepid crew of 29 left Wichita at 10:30 a.m. Friday on the Winfield
Charter Company bus with our brave driver, Blair Denny. We arrived
in Dallas (during rush hour, of course) and were able to check into the
hotel, change, and reach the festival site in time for our 7 p.m. performance.
We brought 280 Claddagh Ring buttons, which we handed out freely to festival
goers. The troup of friends and fans who travelled with us were nothing
short of fantastic. It was like having a huge team of PR people wearing
Claddagh Ring t-shirts and telling anyone who would listen just how great
this band is! Our concerts were well attended and our product sales
were excellent. We seemed to surprize and delight the festival organizers
by bringing this busload of rabid Celtic music fans. We played the
main stage at 7 p.m. Friday night and at noon on Saturday, and we played
the pub stage at 5 p.m. Saturday. One of the best stories from this
festival, besides everyone getting in early and walking right through the
outer gates without having to show a ticket (everyone carried something,
and were considered part of the band!) was Lloyd's encounter with the Lorient
Interceltique Festival Ensemble. The members of this group are from
Brittany, in France, and speak little or no English. When one of
the members of the L.I.F.E. learned enough English to ask Lloyd for one
of our road trip t-shirts, he literally took the shirt off his back so
they could take it home with them. It was really a treat to be in
the hospitality rooms with the other musicians, some of whom we've listened
to for years, and be considered their peers. And the staff treated
us like royalty.
FAREWELL CONCERT (#1)
Between March of 1996 and March of 1997, a lot happened, including Ted
and Lisa Hager having a baby. On top of that life-changing event,
their careers both hit higher gears, and something had to give. So,
March 22, 1997, we held a Farewell Concert to say goodbye to them, as well
as our manager, Bob Wood, who decided that the time was right for him to
step down and let us go on without him. Unfortunately, Lloyd decided
to take an unexpected "vacation" (in the hospital), and was unable to attend.
Everyone was so disappointed that, though the concert went on, we decided
to hold a second concert once Lloyd recovered and we could all five be
together. (As of November 1997, this second concert had been scheduled
and rescheduled a couple of times, and we're still not sure when it will
occur, only that we really do intend to have it!)
History, Page 4
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