Many years ago, in a former life I played honky-tonks in Montana. One weekend we were in eureka, and there were a lot of drunken Canadians who would come across the border due to the cheapness of the potables and the more liberal drinking hours. A couple of times during the course of the evening on of the drunken frostbacks would stagger up to the edge of the stage and blearily request, "Play the RODEO SONG." Not ever having heard the song I would inquire "How does it go?" At which point they would drunkenly chant something along the lines of "..I don't give a fuck and I get in my truck, and I'm off to the rodeo...". finally despairing of getting anything close to a melody out of any of them I proceeded to give them THE CASTRATION OF THE STRAWBERRY ROAN. After that they never came up to the stage to make any request for the rest of the evening.

I haven't played a honky-tonk in 25 years. I decided that I wanted to play for an audience that knew why they were there. It's not that I have against anything against bars(I was usually right up against them in those days), I just realized that playing music in that kind milieu didn't suit what I wanted to do. It was good practice, but the pay usually was less than I wanted, and I had to play more sets than I thought I should have to for that kind of money. the going wage back then was 50 bucks a night, plus you had to haul too much equipment, and put up with too many bar owners who had no idea what kind of music you played when they hired you.

Mark Ross

---

Link added by anonymod. -JoeO-