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The Cujo Family

So we asked each band that was part of the awards to give us a few words on what music means to them, how they got together and any other words of wisdom they might have! Today is the wonderful Cujo Family who will be playing at 5pm on Saturday.

The Cujo Family

We got together about six years ago. Will and Gav had played together in various outfits for years and started playing tunes together again with Barnes, a fella who had played drums in a previous band of theirs, ''Bum Lazy''. Barnes was now playing Mandolin and Mandolla, in fact he was quite the virtuoso. Anyways, since Barnes wasn't playing drums they brought on myself, and although I was grossly inexperienced, I couldn't really play, what I lacked in talent I made up for with enthusiasm and sheer gumption. 

We played together for a bit when Barnes brought along a friend, Hook, to play bass and that was that really, the rest was history, as they say. Unfortunately Barnes left shortly after we recorded our first album, other members have come and gone but the four of us have always been the core of the band. Having said that, we're really happy with our latest edition, one Mr. Terry Meakin, a virtuoso and Wicklow legend in his own right and are more than happy to call him ‘’Family’’. We have quite an eclectic range of influences, we all like and listen to different  music, although some of our tastes do overlap. There are obviously some mutual stone cold classics though, Bob Dylan, The Band, The Pogues, the Felice Brothers and so on. 

I think the fact that we listen to such a varied spectrum of music is a good thing, we're all bringing something different to what we do, we make ‘’Hard Folk’’ but there is a lot of our individual styles in there, nuances of the stuff we like. It means a great deal to me to play music with these lads, I have a huge amount of respect for all of them and really feel honored to play with them. This is something I got into quite late in life, but I always wanted to play music, be in a band. I used to listen to music and when it made me feel something, ye know, really deep down inside, I would think to myself, I want to make something that makes someone else feel like that, evokes an emotion, so hopefully that's what we do! I think music is surely one the most important things we as humans have, it really is the language of the soul. I recently had a baby, he's thirteen months now and he hears music and he dances, out of instinct or whatever, isn't that a trip! It appeals, and speaks to him on some sort of primordial level. If someone told me they didn't like music I would think there was something wrong with them.