The Saw Doctors recently released "That Takes the Biscuit," a collection of rarities, live tracks and oddities from the band's long recording history. Typically, these albums of studio scraps are half-baked ideas that should have stayed in the oven.

But by and large, this "biscuit" is hot and satisfying throughout.

"Over the years, we've spent countless hours in studios ranging from Tuam to Nashville to Boston, trying to make sonic progress," explains founding member Leo Moran in the album's liner notes.

"We've run up against brick walls of non-creativity or stumbling upon little lights of inspiration, moments of fortune in human cooperation with much success and some failure. In some cases, it's quite obvious why a track didn't make the final selection for an album. In others, I just don't know why they didn't."

More often than not, the listener will go through That Takes the Biscuit wondering why these gems haven't seen the light of day until now.

"I Think it Might Be You" stands out as one of the best songs these lads have ever written. Over a Cajun two step beat, Davy Carlton proposes to a girl in characteristic "aw shucks" style that is in the DNA of a Tuam farmer.

"I need someone to tell me what to wear, to tell me how to cut my hair/I need someone to tell me what's best/to tell me I shouldn't wear that vest/I need someone that knows all that stuff/someone who can tell me she thinks I've had enough," Carlton sings before lamenting, "You're probably right, I must be for the birds."

Some songs were taken from recordings that the band did in Nashville in the last decade, which probably explains the southern fried feel of some of the melodies.

"Davy and I started writing songs together in the mid to late eighties," explains Moran. "Up to that point we loved punky stuff, and I was interested in Springsteen.

"Around that time Steve Earle released 'Guitar Town' and Dwight Yoakam came out with 'Guitars, Cadillacs...' and Randy Travis was producing some really great songs too. Country music was a bad term for us up to that point because when we were kids you only heard pub bands and wedding bands doing heartless cover versions of good and bad songs.

"The Waterboys were singing a few Hank Williams classics like 'I'm So Lonesome I Could Cry' and 'Lost Highway.' All this awakened our interest in quality country music and we've loved it ever since. While it's not the backbone of our catalogue, we're happy that it's an interesting peripheral element."

The humor of Galway people, like in all Saw Doctors albums, bleeds through the grooves of this disc. When their writing is at its best, as if often is, the Saw Doctors are keen reporters of rural Irish life who just happen to have guitars in their hands.

Of course, the Internet has even reached the far outpost of Tuam, and the band responds with the rollicking countrified "Bebo," the homage to the Irish version of Myspace. "I'm never gonna go on Bebo again/I check my page and she wants to be my friend/to the depths of the bunny boiling this could descend," sings Carlton ruefully.

"Popular music has always kept up to date with technology - 78s, LPs, cassettes, radio, MTV, CDs, mp3s, iPods, downloads - it's been important since the invention of the electric guitar, and even long before," reasons Moran when asked to reflect on whether Internet music delivery helps or hurts a band like the Saw Doctors.

"I welcome any means by which a songwriter can have their material heard. When Davy was in Blaze X in 1980, only people in Tuam and Galway got to hear them, and then maybe a few people around Ireland.

"Now you can start a band, record a song and have it available across the globe. It's fantastic and something we're very much interested in."

There's a great live rendition of "Chips" on Biscuit. "Fast food late at night/vinegar tears/salt in my wounds/ketchup like the blood in my bleeding heart," sings Moran on the track before breaking out into a hilarious mid-song monologue.

"My only companions on the way home were the chips until I ran into my two friends Danny and Anthony. We are gonna create the post-disco, post-Supermacs, walking home lonesome feeling," he says before a trumpet hushes and ushers in a blue feeling of loneliness whose depths can only be felt in a dark bog.

For fans of the band, there are delicious biscuits to savor. "Dreamgirl" is a punk rock ditty with a deadpan spoken word delivery that calls to mind Velvet Underground. With the muck-thick accent, Moran could never be mistaken for poets like Lou Reed or Leonard Cohen, but the track is great fun nonetheless.

"Merry Christmas Tuam" is an ultra-rare track that was hastily arranged as If This Is Rock and Roll, I Want My Old Job Back was spinning out singles left and right during their heyday.

"We put this down in a session toward the end of recording in Wales in a rather relaxed mood," Moran explains. "We thought we'd bring something home to our fans back home, and we made 1,000 copies of this on cassette and the St. Vincent De Paul society sold them in Tuam."

While it isn't the holiday classic that the Pogues' "Fairytale in New York" is, with lyrics like "the uncle was so drunk he lit a fag at midnight Mass" and "don't forget the starving millions when you sit down to your feed," it could become a new Irish classic with a little breathing room.

Sure, there are some musical moments that are forgettable. The remix of "Villains" with its echoes and urban beats is pretty pointless; the lyrics about drug abuse in the streets of Galway sound infinitely more foreboding on the original version. And I'm not sure we need two versions of "She's Got It."

"Yaygour Guitaygar" is a reworking of "Your Guitar" with what Moran describes as "bog Latin." Carlton cracks himself up throughout the song, and while this must have made for a hilarious recording session, the joke doesn't translate well into the finished product.

Those are the only three things among the 23 songs on this disc. Everything else on That Takes the Biscuit is piping hot!

The Saw Doctors have been celebrating their two decades in the music business with high profile gigs in Galway this month during the race season, which has renewed interest in the band.

They will film and record the two Salthill concerts on July 26 and 27 for a 20th anniversary concert DVD and live album, which Shamtown Records will release in December. The event features special guests that include former band members who have played over the past 20 years.

The band also collected a sweet Meteor Lifetime Achievement Award earlier this year in Dublin, as well as top billing in many of the larger summer festivals in Ireland. Friends of mine who attended the Oxegen Festival at Punchestown Racecourse a couple of weeks back reported that the 10,000 capacity green room tent was "full to the gills" when the Tuam lads played.

New drummer Eimhin Cradock on drums seems to be fitting right in, and we will be able to judge for ourselves as they set off on a three week U.S. tour that includes an outdoor concert on Governor's Island, just off the southern tip of Manhattan, on August 23. Moran promises to serve some "biscuits" up at the show, including "Fortunately" and "The Winter Is Long."

In the face of a weak dollar against the euro, many Irish bands are choosing to sit it out this summer, but not the Saw Doctors! "We have a good loyal fan base in so many cities that should keep making it worthwhile for us to return regularly, despite your weak dollar," Moran reasons.

"As long as there's enough people wanting to come and see us we'll be crossing the Atlantic, though we might have to find some alternative fuel for the tour bus!"

That Takes the Biscuit is available at the band's gigs on Shamtown Records or through the band's website. Here are some other August dates; for a complete listing, log onto sawdoctors.com.

August 7, Lowell, Massachusetts Summer Music Series; 9, Shirley, Long Island Balloon and Music Fest; 10, Troy, New York Revolution Hall.