Special Post - A Night To Remember

There are now two things that I can check off of my bucket list – I have finally made it to Ireland, and I borrowed a guitar and performed a song in front of an audience at an Irish Pub.

In the last 30 year’s Tigh DeBarra’s Folk Club in the beautiful sea-side town of Clonakilty has earned a musical reputation that has traveled far beyond the confines of its West Cork location.

De Barra’s pub is the musical pub par excellent, not only because it often has live music, but also because its walls are decorated with musical instruments of every ilk – traditional bodhrans, as well as fiddles, flutes, pipes and saxophones. The instruments are not just decorations – they have a history, and the pub’s staff are happy to tell guests about it.

We followed our host, Tom to DeBarra’s last night, and he made space for Tom and me to sit around the table with the regular performers. Tom has a wonderful deep hearty voice, and plays banjo and guitar. There was a fiddle player, an Irish banjo player, an accordionist, a man who plays the bodhran and bones, and several singers.

Once they sang and played a number of songs, and got the audience warmed up they asked if anyone in the audience would like to sing. There were a pair of sisters who harmonized beautifully, a young man from Canada who actually had his travel guitar with him, and two young girls from Germany who volunteered.

I got my courage up, picked up Tom’s guitar, and sang one of my favorite songs – River, written by Bill Staines. Several of the regular performers knew the song and joined in. It was magical, and that moment will stay with me forever.