Yeah sure ...I got a Hot Red Hair Green Eyed Irish Lassie here too.....two small gigs down so far today & in two hours is the big Irish Club Dinner & Dance!!!



[This message has been edited by Dnj (edited 03-17-2009).]

I'm getting set up at my afternoon gig today and the president of the club I'm playing for tells me he is Italian and so is the treasurer ... I said I would play a couple of Italian songs in honor of St. Joseph's day on Thursday ...
So when the staff is passing out the soup, I see it is 'Italian Wedding Soup' - chicken escarole with little meatballs for the non-converted - I tell the audience I have to play an Italian song to go along with the soup ... did the same thing when they served the macaroni - 'pasta' to the non-converted - ... OF COURSE I played only Irish songs while they were eating the corned beef and cabbage - BTW, some mix of foods, eh ??? ...

Ended up playing about 12 Irish tunes among the usual standards...

Bill in NJ, here's my full list:

Danny Boy ...... It's a great day for the Irish ...... When Irish Eyes are Smiling (It's because they married an ITALIAN!!! ......Kerry Dance .... I'll Take You Home Again Kathleen .... McNamara's Band .... Peg O' My Heart .... Peggy O'Neill ... Rosie O'Grady ...Daughter of Rosie O'Grady (quite a family )... Same Old Shillelagh.... Toora Loora Loora ... My Wild Irish Rose .... Rose of Tralee ...Wearing of the Green .... and OF COURSE... The Irish Jig, The Irish Washerwoman (JIG) and Stack o' Barley...

And they are now all retired until NEXT year [img]http://www.synthzone.com/ubbs/biggrin.gif[/img] ....

Godere la festa di San Giuseppe a tutti -
Enjoy the feast of St. Joseph everyone (for the non-converted [img]http://www.synthzone.com/ubbs/biggrin.gif[/img] ...

t. [img]http://www.synthzone.com/ubbs/cool.gif[/img]

Finally its over!....
so how was your St.Patty's Day gigs?
I had a ball at my three yesterday, plenty of dancing, corned beef & cabbage, soda bread, green beer & happy times!!

10:00am - Gig #1- real nice Assisted Living: Started off with McNamara's Band, did my usual mix of standards/big band/country/oldies/latin. Also played Danny Boy, My Wild Irish Rose and When Irish Eyes Are Smiling by the time I finished.

Of note during this performance I saw the longest single piece of carpeting I've ever seen. They were laying the carpet in a new wing they just added on. About 20 minutes into my thing, I see about 15 guys carrying a long...long piece of carpet. IT WENT ON FOREVER...it was the full length of the hall. It must've weighed a ton! As the last section actually was carried into the hall I hollered, "Hey guys, wrong hall---sorry!" and got a big laugh...

2:15pm - Gig #2 - Nursing Home - big crowd, not much dancing but everybody had a great time. It was the first time I'd played here with the Bose L1 and the Activity staff was blown away...

5:30pm - Gig #3 - Assisted Living - Was supposed to play after dinner, which would've been great for this Family Night event, but the staff decided they wanted me to play during dinner. They were concerned everybody would just leave after dinner. (I suspect actually, the staff didn't want to stay any longer than they really needed to, lol) I wasn't overly happy about the change but I did my thing and everybody seemed just dandy.

I was home in time to watch the Penguins pummel the Thrashers and have a relaxing evening.

All in all, a nice day...

------------------
Bill in Dayton

[This message has been edited by Bill in Dayton (edited 03-18-2009).]

Nice to hear you all had a good day. Fran, I like your plan for St. Pats the best! You playing in Wildwood this weekend 3/20-21? We'll be in Cape May. love to meet you.

My last minute restaurant gig (I played in the small cozy bar area) went well. Surprized myself on how many Irish songs I actually had put in my homemade fakebook. After about an 1/2 hour and some polite appaluse from the bar crowd my first request came in. "You play great, how about no more Irish songs" HA! Loved it!
Spent the rest of the night mixing it up.
I don't do a lot of bar/restatrant gigs anymore but my one dream is to play one where there in NO TV!!
The manager sat at the bar transfixed with Anerican Idol with the sound off and subtext on. Even thought there was a small crowd I didn't ask him if he wanted me to go overtime. I knew he was dying to turn the sound up.
Thanked me, paid me cash, so like I said a gigs a gig.

Bill NJ

Bill, bad timing....I will be back in Wildwood, atarting April 3rd, at Alfe's..

Fran
Too bad. We'll be back the weekend of 3/17-18. Hopefully you'll be there then.

Bill NJ