> It never ceases to amaze me how many people, filled with liquid courage, can absolutely massacre "Barrett's Privateers" and still have the crowd with them, cheering as if it were himself from beyond.

YEAH REALLY! I guess a crowd feels better when one of their own gets to fearlessly murdelatin' a song. Sometimes we'll put them in for a bit of comic relief, and people like to be made stars so we occasionally do that shtick. But we pack up the PA system so fast after our last set that it nearly disappears off the stage instantaneously. Just to avoid the postscript of _really_ drunken patrons playing "MY-15-minutes-of-fame-courtesy-the-band". Usually we designate our guests beforehand and we're often lucky enough at our home pub for several talented local musicians to appear at our shows, so they like the exposure during our breaks and the yodeling is kept to a minimum.

We also figured out that by barricading ourselves with really big monitors, the people who insist on trying to make requests WHILE I AM PLAYING AND SINGING!!!!!!!! will keep that to a minimum. The first time we did that, we had the satisfaction of watching our most annoying drunken heckler fall face-first on top of the stage left monitor, and after that embarrassment he never got obnoxious with us again.

People will actually **poke** me, while I'm **flatpicking** in the middle of a song, to make a request. Even when I was just a patron, I always wrote it on a napkin folded in with five bucks. I think it has something to do with the unspoken belief shared by many locals that being a musician isn't a real job, even though I come out of it exhausted and sore.

Oh well. I still love doing it, more than anything else!

alliekatt