AS THE RING ROLLS
THE CONTINUING SAGA OF CLADDAGH RING
Updated October 1997
Left to right: Shannon Wright, Bob Flaherty,
Devery Corteville, Sharla Hulsey
IN THE BEGINNING...
The date was July 21, 1991. Shannon Wright and Devery Corteville (who had
only met a couple of times and didn't really know each other yet -- can
you believe it?) and Bob Flaherty found themselves in the same place at
the same time. Devery and Bob had discussed getting a vocal jam session
together a few months before, and Devery took this opportunity to bring
it up. It was decided that "tonight's the night," and they started inviting
everyone else present who could sing. Ever vigilant, Robert Wood (our "beloved"
manager, whom we will call Robert in this history to distinguish him from
Bob Flaherty) overheard and volunteered Shannon -- asking her to sing a
bit of a song to prove she could sing.
Only Bob, Shannon, Devery, and one other person from that gathering
attended (we're sorry, but, in the ensuing excitement, we have forgotten
who she was). Bob also made some phone calls to other people who had expressed
an interest, and only one of those people made it -- Sharla Hulsey (Welch).
There, in Bob Flaherty's basement, Claddagh Ring was born, though we didn't
know it at the time. We were just jammin' -- and automatically branched
out into full harmony.
August 3, 1991, the Wichita Irish Cultural Association was having a
fall kick-off picnic at Watson Park. We decided to practice on three songs
together, plus bring in some solos, to get people interested in joining
Claddagh Ring. The infamous first three songs? "Somebody," "Four Green
Fields," and "Dunn Song."
We got many compliments, even one from a real Irish former-pub-singer-turned-engineer
who was on loan to Learjet (thanks for the encouragement, Dennis). Mason
Wolfe, then president of the W.I.C.A., told us that if we could get three
hours worth of music together, Pat Audley at the Artichoke would probably
hire us. So we discussed it -- get paid for having fun? get real! -- and
decided to close the group and keep it just Bob and Devery and Shannon
and Sharla.
THE FIRST GIG
Our first paying gig was in October 1991 at St. Patrick's Church. We played
a half hour for $20. The priest informed us that a couple of Irishmen had
been through a few weeks before, singing some of the same songs -- and
that he liked our versions better. Afterwards, Shannon opened up the Old
Mill Tasty Shop and served us all ice cream -- so that's where the ice-cream-after-a-performance
tradition started!
CR ROLLERCOASTER
The first people to really experience the Claddagh Ring rollercoaster (one
fast song, one slow song, one fast song...ad nauseam) were those who attended
W.I.C.A.'s Irish Stew in November 1991. Only a few hardy souls survived
the three- to four-hour concert, but we did prove that we had, in only
three short months, built up enough of a repertoire to do a whole evening
at the Artichoke. Now all we had to do was get Pat Audley to hear us. Fortunately,
there was an open mic night that very month, and we signed up...and signed
up. We ended up doing two or three half-hour sets, and Devery did a short
solo set (no, we weren't hogging the stage -- there weren't enough acts
to fill out the evening, so we filled in.)
THE SYSTEM
In January 1992, we acquired our first mixer, and recorded a demo tape.
The next night, we turned it on to showoff our new toy to some friends,
and it blew up (well...sort of). It would be many, many months before we'd
get it back.
OUR FIRST BIG BREAK
Well, the open mic must have worked, because we finally got hired for our
first Artichoke gig -- February 15, 1992. With our system in the shop,
we rented one for the evening. We got it all set up, taped down, arranged
just so -- then it didn't work! We couldn't contact the people we got it
from, so we frantically searched for another one. Fortunately, the Green
Bog Boys weren't playing that night, so Kelly Werts came to our rescue
and brought his system down. We managed to get it set up in time -- barely.
And a good thing, too. A lot of people would have been disappointed. And
we mean a lot. Remember, we were a brand new band, in an unusual genre.
Still, by 7:00 pm, there were no seats left. At 7:30, they started turning
people away at the door. And we weren't starting to play until 8:30! Some
people waited at the door or outside the drive-up window until they could
get in, and some left and came back -- we know of one couple who couldn't
get in until our third set (10:30)! Now, we figured that most of the crowd
would be our friends from various organizations we were in and, of course,
our families. But when we discussed it later, the band members only knew
about one third of the people who came to see us that night!
About a week before that concert, Pat Audley, not knowing how well we'd
draw a crowd (hey, we had no idea, either), decided to give us our second
big break and let us play for the St. Patrick's Day celebration. So, we
played to another packed house on March 15, 1992. That was also the occasion
for our first t-shirt. Boy, those are collector's items now (and we'd like
to burn them all). Pat also got us jackets (that we now want to burn with
the t-shirts). Hey, Lisa didn't do the artwork, okay.
CHANGES
At the end of March, due to some personal conflicts, Sharla left the group.
Bob, Shannon, and Devery kept going; the three performed at the Kansas
Newman Renaissance Faire...and at Ted and Lisa's wedding there. In June,
Ted and Lisa joined Claddagh Ring.
History, Page 2
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