Richboro resident Bill Monaghan was voted the best musician in Bucks County last year by the digital magazine Bucks Happening, and while that title is obviously impossible to substantiate, there’s another superlative describing Monaghan that might not be up for debate:
Most versatile musician in Bucks County.
On the recent night I saw him perform, he and his longtime backing group Some Assembly Required were playing in the semifinals of the WMGK House Band Competition at Big Heads bar in Richboro, delivering a dynamic, harmony-filled set of classic rock covers by Billy Joel, the Beatles, David Bowie, the Rolling Stones and Styx — complete with unexpected segues (“Chopsticks” into Joel’s “Angry Young Man,” “Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band” into Bowie’s “Space Oddity”), costume changes and even a trumpet-playing drummer. (Full disclosure: I was one of the judges and didn’t vote them my favorite, although I gladly would have watched a night’s worth of music from them.)
Other nights, you might find Monaghan performing Irish music with his group Celtic Pride, or playing American standards on piano at nursing homes and retirement communities, or appearing as guest music minister at area churches.
On Thursday evening, he’ll deliver a set of psalms, patriotic music and original material from his 2006 CD “9/11 In Memoriam” during a half-hour “Songs of Hope and Healing” concert at Hartsville Fire Co. in Warminster, followed immediately by his yearly participation in the station’s annual Sept. 11 memorial service.
“They keep calling me, and I’m happy to do it,” he says by telephone Friday morning after completing some session work and trumpet recordings with his drummer/engineer Mike Sicalides.
Vocalist/guitarist/keyboardist Monaghan, a young-looking 44, formed Some Assembly Required with his brother Jim in the late 1980s, and the band has existed in various incarnations ever since, sometimes expanding to include horns and female backing singers while performing a mix of covers and Monaghan originals. The group, which includes some combination of the Monaghan brothers, Sicalides, guitarists Carl Lichtner and Brian DiBiagio and bassist Anthony DiFulvio, also does specific tributes to the Beatles, Joel, Elvis Presley (with Jim as Elvis) and the Blues Brothers. The same members also make up Celtic Pride.
But it is religious music that keeps Monaghan most occupied, at least from a writing standpoint. He estimates that 60 percent of the music he writes is religious, and he has sold sheet music for worship services to online customers as far away as Mexico, South Africa, New Zealand and the Netherlands (one sale, anyway).
“I would say they feed off each other,” Monaghan, a 1988 Archbishop Wood High School graduate, says of his secular and religious songwriting. “When I’m doing rock ‘n’ roll, I don’t like to get into the dark world of the music. I like the songs to be a positive, upbeat force. The church stuff is always in the back of my mind. Sure, everyone stumbles once in a while, but I believe we should have music out there about hope, love and goodness.
“I’d love to write more pop, but I get hired to do more religious services. I’ve been working with youth ministries since 1994, and people are always calling me for that kind of stuff.”
Monaghan, who has written a rock opera about Jesus, “The Word: A Gospel Opera,” that incorporates elements of reggae, country, Motown and other influences, says he wanted to be an archaeologist as a kid but was definitely smitten by rock ‘n’ roll.
“Every kid who plays an instrument has visions of fans screaming their name,” he says. “But once I got into writing at 19 or 20, I knew I definitely wanted to be a writer. I do like being a rock star — although I don’t know how much of the ‘star’ part is applicable — but it’s the writing that fuels me.”
One thing Monaghan doesn’t like, at least not as much as he used to, is playing bars. When I saw Some Assembly Required at Big Heads in Richboro, I commented that the group didn’t seem like the typical bar band, based on its song selection, harmonies and stage persona.
Turns out, it’s not — the band hardly plays bars anymore.
“I did that. It wears you down,” says Monaghan, who is married with three stepchildren. “It’s hard on the voice. I get some really good jobs during the day — yesterday, I did a retreat for Archbishop Ryan — and I have to be ready to go. Plus, you’re playing the same old songs.
“I know there are people who love it. A lot of bands, that’s their outlet. They’re coming from their day jobs and they have a blast. But I don’t enjoy drinking between sets. And I can’t stay up late — I’m pretty much working every morning.”
Instead, Monaghan, who graduated from the University of Scranton with a degree in English and minors in math and music, focuses on what he calls specialty gigs. Upcoming scheduled events include Celtic Pride at the St. John Bosco Fall Festival in Hatboro Sept. 21, Bill Monaghan & Friends at the Sellersville Theater Dec. 12 and a Billy Joel tribute show March 28 in a benefit at Our Lady of Good Counsel in Southampton.
He’s also hoping to resurrect the Michael Shamus Monaghan Memorial Scholarship Concert, an event that was held at Archbishop Wood every year from 1998 to 2010 in memory of Monaghan’s brother, who died in a helicopter training accident in California in 1998 while serving in the Navy. He was 21. The annual concert raised scholarship money for two Wood freshmen and one Wood senior each year.
A highlight of those shows was a themed 30- or 40-minute section of the performance in which Monaghan and the band would play extended medleys. One year, he performed the history of rock ‘n’ roll — 30 songs in 30 minutes. Another year, the theme of the medley was the Beatles vs. Elvis, and another year, he did a Disney tribute.
“We have an almost unlimited amount of time, so we try to have as much fun as we can,” he says. “The band hates me for it, sometimes.”
Regardless of the venue or the genre, whether with Some Assembly Required, Celtic Pride or some other combination, the vocals will always be the emphasis of a Monaghan live show.
“We all sing,” he says of his band mates. “I love having guys who can play electric guitar riffs, but I’ll take the harmony over the music any day. Well, maybe every other day.”