My apologies to all who came to the 2nd Semi-annual Detroit River whistle In on not reporting the this great weekend sooner; but I lost a filling on Sunday night and spent Monday trying to get in to see a dentist. Tuesday it was 75 degress here in Windsor, so I went kayaking on the river all day with a friend!
The Cast: Thurlowe, SteveK, Paul Reid, Eubiedubie and myself were all the ones that came to Windsor.
I was late for my own gathering! When I got to the Nisbet Inn, Thurlowe, Paul and Steve were just starting to go at it!
It didn’t take us long to start, Thurlowe was in amazing form and led us on a merry run of tunes all night long. Eubiedubie joined us around eight o’clock and we picked up speed, playing tune after tune after tune, going around the room.
It was good, there was just the five us in the front room of this quaint inn and the Guinness was flowing! Thurlowe sang and stepped danced to, I sang a song from the East Coast, Paul played some beautiful airs on his pipes, then around the room we went again until almost one in the morning.
Flutes, whistles were passed around so everybody tried everyone one and comparisons were made on the likes and dislikes.
We got applause from the guests in the inn that where there for dinner and questions on how long have we been playing together and are we playing anywhere in Windsor on a regular basis.
And…And … we could have gotten a gig out of it! Some people had come from somewhere and were having drinks, when the bartender came and asked me to speak to these people. One woman who said she was the music co-ordinator for the public school system wanted to know if we were interested in playing in the schools and introducing folk music to the students and it was a paying job. Unfortunately I explained to her that we weren’t all from Windsor and that we just meet twice a year or so. She was disappointed and so was I.
Sunday. I walked back to the Nisbet where I found Thurlowe and SteveK in the back room working on tunes! We left there and went to the Kildare House where we were joined by Paul and Eubiedubie and another three hours of great music, songs, step dancing went on.
We were a small group this time but oh a mighty group and the music was just unbelievable between us.
I would at this time, like to thank Al Gore for inventing the Internet and Dale and Rich for exploiting it to it’s fullest potential, without them this weekend wouldn’t have happened.
I would also like to thank Thurlowe, Paul Reid, SteveK, and Eubiedubie for making the journey to Windsor to make this a weekend that none of us will forget!
Great friends and great music… Thank you all.
MarkB
