Songwriter Contest – Jack Craig
Jack Craig
Jack Craig and Matt Whoriskey lived 2 doors away from each other for 20 years in Derry. They were great friends. They were also part of a golden generation of musical talent in Derry which also included John Deery and Ryan O’Dochertaigh who were both in Matt’s class in school.
Matt moved to Moville and then on to Manchester so they fell out of touch. The Songwriters’ Contest put them back in touch again. The two old buddies fought it out at the top of the Songwriters Contest Final in Rosatos Bar in Moville on Saturday night.
Great Contest
It was a great contest Matt had with Jack Craig. Jack’s songs Won’t Let You Down and On the Right Track scored 32 each and Pleasure and Pain scored 31. Matt’s song Siren won it with 33 points. Two other songs got 31 and another 30.
Matt’s 4 songs got an average of 31.25 whereas Jack’s 3 songs got an average of 31.67. So you could say that Jack shaded Matt for the Songwriter of the Night whereas Matt shaded Jack for the Best Song (although if you took out Matt’s weakest song Matt would have averaged 31.67 – exactly the same as Jack).
They fought each other to a standstill all night long, although, as it was individual songs being judged it was Matt who walked off with the prize. However, there wasn’t a waver between them.
Huge impression
Nevertheless Jack made a huge impression on the audience and made a lot of friends over the heats, semis and finals. He has a lot more fans now and it wouldn’t surprise me to see him getting gigs in Moville in the future.
The good thing was that at the end of it they had their picture taken together and posted it on their Facebook pages. One feels that they won’t fallout of touch again. Maybe they might even play a gig together some time when Matt is back in Moville. That would be something.