As I was preparing some interview questions for your band, I naturally went to your kick-ass site to read about you.
C.S. - Can you explain to me what a blaggard is, and why you chose it as your name?

Patrick Devlin - In Ireland, the older people would call the kids - blaggards when they were misbehaving. Instead of calling them scumbags or deviants, they would say Blaggard instead of using the real curse word.

C.S. - You're from Ireland and currently living in Houston, TX, yet, the other members are from Minnesota, New York, and Boston. How did you come together as a band being so spread out as you were?

P. Devlin - I was playing every Wednesday night at a club in Houston and Chad found me there. I was performing Irish standards that I spiced up a bit so I could stomach doing them. Chad liked what he heard and we hooked up. Then Turi found me via the Internet and she brought Brian on board.

C.S. - I noticed you have a Standards CD already out. You seem to all be songwriters. Do you have some new stuff that you are working on?

P. Devlin - Yeah, everybody brings something completely different to the group. We are all working on an album at the time. Whiskey in the Jar is probably the most popular song that we do and will be on this new album. The majority of this new album is going to be original.

C.S. - Do you think it was fate that you ended up in a part of Texas that was starving for just the music that you had been playing? Or is that where you saw the need and stepped in to provide it?

P. Devlin - I was slow to pick up on the fact that Houston didn't have this venue of music offered in the area. As soon as I noticed that Irish music was missing, I stepped in and did a solo gig at a local pub in Houston. Chad came to listen and heard the "metal" and it was just me and an acoustic guitar. The Dole was my first group. I got a group together and we had a great night and then I fired everyone after the show. It was a great experience but it gave me an idea of how to do this stuff and keep people's attention.

C.S. - So you fired everyone after the first show! Now that's a story and a half right there! Did you just blindside them with that decision?

P. Devlin - Well, it would've blindsided them if they had been sober. Probably today - if they sobered up, they wouldn't even remember they were in the band. I called these people up out of the blue and sent them tapes of the songs that we wanted to do and we learned the songs in my house in a circle and then once we got on stage - it was my first time to ever play on a stage with a band, and I had my back to them. Nobody knew the keys of the songs, nobody bothered to learn the songs, and they were completely lost when we did the show.

C.S. - So from that point on - there were no auditions for the current group Blaggards. Everyone just gravitated to you and it formed around you.

P. Devlin - Exactly.

Chad - I do websites, newsletters, print publication.

C.S. - I noticed that you had a rockin' mullet at one time. How long ago did you have your mullet and what happened to it? I'll admit it - I actually had a mullet in the 80's for a brief time. ;-)

Chad - Yeah - everybody that I knew had a hairstyle like that, but you know, I don't remember anyone ever referring to that style as mullets.

C.S. - I don't know when that term started being used for that hairstyle. I actually had to do some research to see what the term Mullet meant. I actually had a mullet at one time because I went on a hair-cutting frenzy and ended up getting it too short on top.

C.S. - Your personal website is full of all sorts of artistic interests? Does talent run in your family?

Chad - Well, thanks. Yeah - actually I do. (Devlin interjects - HUGE amounts of talent) Actually there are very few people in my family that have taken art seriously, or studied it as a career. Both of my parents are very creative and exposed me to a lot of good music when I was a youngster. Actually, the music thing, I just kind of stumbled into that.

C.S. - I noticed that you taught yourself the guitar? Is that right?

Chad - Yeah, well, I had a few lessons.

C.S. - On your site you mentioned that "Turi fell from the sky" - So it was a chance meeting?

Chad - Well, she actually found Patrick's website for the Patrick Devlin band - She had just recently moved into town from Madison, Wisconsin where she was going to school. There she was good friends with a band called the Kissers - We played a show with them here in Houston. Turi was looking for something like this type of music and when she did a search on the Internet - she found Patrick.

C.S. - So when you all came together - did you have similar backgrounds or did you have to learn all new music?

Chad -Yeah, I didn't know anything really about Irish music before this band. Yeah, I thought I knew a thing or two about the Pogues, but realized I didn't. But I just thought it was really fun stuff. It was more than that - Patrick is just a great guy to work with. We just hit it off very quickly and I realized it would be very nice to be in this band and I'm quite picky.

C.S. - You guys have such a tight sound and when I realized you had only been together for a couple of years, I was very impressed. What attracted you to Irish Rock. Was it once you heard Devlin?

Chad - I really wouldn't have done it had it not been for Patrick Devlin prior to meeting him. This is what I tell people that have just heard about it; that don't know anything about this type of music. People generally think - ah, it must be some of that world music kind of thing. But it's not really. It's great party music.

C.S. - Well, you have developed a loyal fan base. I noticed there are folks that just follow you around and can't seem to get enough of ya!

Chad - I can't tell you how much that means to us.

C.S. - Do you have time for a romantic relationship?

Chad and Devlin - (laughing)

Chad - No, I really don't have time for that. I don't have a relationship.

C.S. - So you being a songwriter, how much of the material is generated by you and how much by the others?

Chad - Actually, we all contribute pretty equally. Patrick of course, provided the core, him being from Ireland and all.

C.S. - Quite frankly - I see everyone in this band come as strong players with strong convictions about what they do. Is it the art of the songs or the cheer of the crowd, or pure desire that drives you to your best for this group?

Chad - It's all of those things. If we weren't doing it - we would be insane.

C.S. - Do you have any big tours coming up?

Devlin steps in - Yeah, we are just about to go back to New York. We've been up to Phillie, Boston and New York for St. Paddy's Day celebrations. Houston is not a great scene musically - so we end up going to play gigs in Corpus Christi, Austin, Dallas, San Antonio - so we play out a lot.

Patrick Devlin - We are playing in Dallas - The Dubliner on Greenville Ave. on Labor Day weekend on September the 3rd.

C.S. - Great! I hope to be able to make that trip and see you guys. So are Turi and Brian romantically involved?

Patrick - Yeah, Turi is very involved with uhm, (asks Chad - he is a guy?) (laughter) Yeah, Turi is heavily involved with a guy. And Brian is heavily involved in looking. He's on the prowl.

C.S. - Well, maybe after the interview is posted, he'll turn a few of the heads he might be interested in.

Patrick - Yeah, he'd like that. If you say he's tall and bullet proof, he'd like that too.