Two tales... one good, one not so..

The Not So: Playing at a Scottish Fest in MD, having played at Colonial Williamsburg the night before (who knew it was that long of a drive). This was a few years back when "The Promisekeepers" had their convention thingy in Wash. DC, and every hotel was booked full for 100 miles around. (Promisekeepers was some sort of huge religious group in the 90s). I get to the festival, meet the man in charge, he tells me " We have you booked at the Red Apple (or some such name) for the night, it was the only place availabe so BOYYYyyyy were you lucky. His friend goes " Um.. do you know about the Red Apple?" "What...". They didn't bother to tell me it was the local House Of Ill Fame for truckers. A bar with a few rooms behind, no office ( that was the bar) no desk, no clerk. It was one room with a bare light bulb hanging on a string... something resembling a bed that had the rare ability to take off the cover by itself ( it just sort of slithered off all on its own). The topper was the bathroom, that had a hole punched in the tile wall clean through to the NEXT bathroom so you could pass the soap back and forth I guess. Err.. soap.. right.... My wife tried to call the place in the morning to make sure I was up in time, but .. there was no phone listing. Didn't matter.. I had slept in the truck.

The Good: Neatest little festival I ever was at... West Martinsburg NY. This anestheiologist likes Irish music so he holds a festival in his back yard ( I think I told this story before, so I won't rehash).I am doing my historical thing in the 1840s chursch, while the 'stage' is host to Brian Conway, Jerry O'Sullivan and Tony Cuffe. It was an amazing day. So.. everyone gets to stay with a local for the night. I am to go off with the town realtor, but first we have to stop by the family graduation party. So there I am, knowing no one, at a huge BBQ in someone's back yard chatting with all the relatives and enjoying a terrific little feast. Time to go... we head off to his big old rambling house. Turns out one of the kids is sick, so we can't keep you here.. you might get ill. So we go to his mother's house, and she puts me up in the basement apartment in her place. Evidently while her hubby was still alive they rented it out.. but since his passing she has been by herself. In the morning she cooked this enormous breakfast, had some tea.. it was just amazing all around. I have never encountered such open and generous people again.. it was one of the best weekends I had in my whole long playing life.

Robert