TheBanyanTree: Last night at Bentley's

[Monique Colver]

Awesome story!

On Thu, Dec 16, 2010 at 6:29 PM, Mike Pingleton <pingleto at gmail.com> wrote:

> Wednesday night is trad Irish music night at Bentley's, and after
> supper I went down there to hear the music, sip a stout or two and
> support my friend Tracey.  I can remember when Tracey picked up a
> mandolin at a garage sale 7-8 years ago, and he's come a long way on
> the instrument since then, along with the guitar and the tenor banjo.
>
> The musicians sit in a circle on one side of the bar, and there was a
> full complement last night - three fiddles, three mandolins, an
> accordion, two concertinas, a guitar, a snare drum, a bodhran, a tin
> whistle, a wood whistle, and a retired New York City policeman with
> two drumsticks.  The retired policeman was visiting family in the
> area, and had played drums for many years in NYC Irish bands.  He sat
> at my table and played snare patterns on a beer coaster, to great
> effect.  Around the circle, each player picked a tune to play in turn.
>  I recognized a handful of the reels, jigs, slip-jigs and hornpipes -
> Star of the County Down, Old Hag Ye Have Killed Me, and so forth, but
> most of the tunes were beyond my limited knowledge.
>
> A drunk guy at the bar kept shouting out at the players.  "Wild
> Rover!"  After a while the accordion player said "Okay, Wild Rover it
> is!  We'll play it, friend, and you'll sing it!"
>
> "I can't remember the words!" said the drunk guy.
>
> I don't know the words to many Irish songs, but I knew that one, so I
> sang Wild Rover.  The wooden whistle player sang with me.
>
>  I've been a wild rover for many a year
>  and I've spent all my money on whiskey and beer
>  now I'm returning with gold in great store
>  but I never will play the wild rover no more....
>
> I've no great voice but I'm loud and willing, which is all you need
> for a pub song like Wild Rover, and it allowed me to shift from
> audience to participant.
>
> The circle broke up around ten thirty.  I bade the band good night,
> and one of the squeeze-box players said "come back and sing for us
> again some time."  I'm their man, if it's Wild Rover they want!
>



-- 
Monique Colver