JigTime

Or as Samuel Beckett may have written “Waiting for Rodot” On the last two live video-casts I tried to make an impromptu call to the banjo master himself. Paul can be tricky to get hold of at certain times of the day, mainly when the sun is out. He really is a night person.

Many years ago in Liverpool I was staying with him and Nelly in their very cozy basement flat. The kitchen led into a cavernous room under the street that was originally the coal bunker for the main big house. The coal men would dump the coal for the week down the manhole in the street and then the staff would use it to feed the fireplaces all over the house.

It was empty now with just the echoes of a time long gone and the occasional thud of people walking on the street above. So late at night, invariably after a good dinner and some nice wine, maybe Paul and I would play a few tunes to practice for a day’s busking down Bold Street. Then Paul would take his beer or even just a big mug of tea and go out into the cold coal bunker with the banjo. There he would sit and practice a particularly difficult banjo lick he had heard from the bands we were listening to at the time: Country Gazette, Newgrass Revival, Country Cookin’ or one of the legends like Earl Scruggs.

The cold bricks of the bunker reverberated with a strangely rich and warm sound. I fell asleep many times to the sound of the same three notes being plucked over and over until they were perfect. Is it any wonder that today he can sit in the company of any of the great musicians in Irish or Bluegrass music?

I spent a lot of my life in Paul’s company. He is very much the brother I never had. I learned to play guitar because he was learning banjo and needed someone to strum along. We have played music together, recorded with some cool people, drank way too much, travelled all of Europe, cried a few times, and fought too many times as well. But when I look back on it we laughed a lot more than we cried. And still we laugh and play after more than 30 years. On March 28th we will take to the stage together again and feel about as grown up as we did back in Liverpool in the late 70s.

Here is today’s web-cast with a lot of good music. Enjoy!