Road Trip

Yes myself and my friend Tom, the great bear, driver and protector, rolled along in the Ford Taurus from Nashville all the way to Colombus Ohio. We passed through many strange places along the way, including Minneapolis! We landed in Columbus on a snowy night and rocked that town that night in the BELLA CAFÉ, and the following night in the Peggy McConnell Arts Centre, where I played to 130 people and though I say so myself WENT DOWN A BOMB! Thanks to Parker and Betsy MacDonald for their hospitality, and Parker did an excellent support slot there, including his own lovely song GOING HOME TO OHIO. One of the exciting things about the Ohio nights was meeting Tom Ruegger, the great animator, who made PINKY AND THE BRAIN, and ANIMANIACS among other great cartoons. Tom is talking about making an animation of one of my songs – BEAUTIFUL BALLINCOLLIG. Watch this space! All will be revealed! From Colombus Ohio then to Colombia Maryland for a house concert in the home of the Panzers, lovely people who opened their home to us! A grand night altogether, then on the road again and all the way to Hampton Virginia, to Kelly Murphy’s house in the woods, surrounded by deer in the woodlands and turkeys in the trees. That was a great evening of food, talk, and music; I really hit that Hampton crowd hard, I took no prisoners in that place, but destroyed them completely! Food was particularly brilliant like I have to say out of Kelly Murphy’s kitchen! Anyway up in the morning early and out the door like a shot, on the road again, driving, driving, driving on south, south, snowbirds to the left of us, snowbirds to the right of us, and all the way to Sumter, South Carolina. We had delicious Hushpuppies in a funky diner along the way, with the porkchops, like. Well in Sumter I has a gig in the sumptuous Sumter Opera House, a lovely hall from the grand old days. I played there to 120 punters and THEY GOT ME!  Thanks to the wonderful Linda, who plastered the town with posters and promoted the gig. Thanks to Elijah on sound and the team at that lovely old Opera House. THEN! From Sumter South Carolina we drove to Monroe, Louisiana to Enoch’s Bar, for the GIG OF THE TOUR! Doyle and Yvette, the people of the house, had seen me a few times before in Ireland and were already well on board. That joint was really jumping as I hammered them against the back wall of the venue. There was nothing they could do to stop me! Then there was a lovely moment when this FREIGHT TRAIN rolled by, piping it’s whistle and I tore into one of my favorite American songs – Freight Train, by Elizabeth Cotton, the black maid in the kitchen of the Seeger household, who was overheard, discovered and went on the road as an old woman, and who wrote that classic TRAIN SONG!  That favorite Irish Louisiana song THE LAKES OF PONCHURTRAIN went down a bomb there as well. I was interested to hear that there is only ONE big lake of Ponchurtrain like, no lakes! Yes Louisiana was a blast. Also, although it wasn’t the biggest gig of the tour, they bought the most cds by far like! THEN! We rolled out of town  and all the way to Texas for the last leg, in Austin TEXAS, the County Cork of the U.S.  I had two great gigs there, first in the house of Tom and Vicki Belinowski. It was Vicki, along with Tom Pigott, who put this whole trip together, like, and THANKS A MILLION VICKI for all the hard work you put into bringing me to America. The House Concert was just lovely and then the following day I done a gig in a CHURCH in the afternoon to polish off the tour, like, and that was a ten out of ten gig as well, EVEN THOUGH I SAY SO MYSELF LIKE! Wow what a buzz! Well my myself and Tom we talked for Ireland all the way along the road,Tom drove for Ireland, we sang for Ireland, we told stories for Ireland; – FOR IRELAND AND FOR GLORY AND FOR HOME!
John Spillane, Passage West, Co. Cork, March 2010!