Ah friend, just in case I’ve given you the idea that the Fergus sessions are perfect in all ways, I should maybe modify that impression a bit. Of course folks are very kind to let me thump along most of the night, and kinder still to put up with what falls out of my mouth from time to time. I think by and large they’ve begun to get some of what makes me tick, which helps them to understand what’s behind some of my comments. So when someone starts whacking at themselves for minor errors after a lovely run through a song, they get that I’m bringing several decades of perspective when I say, ‘A couple of things to fix, yeah, but gosh what was there was really beautiful!’ Seems to help them focus on what was good. Way more useful than fixating on what’s bad.
On the other hand there are also moments when they really don’t get me at all. Which is also fine, just different. For example? Well, the other night I played a song which I guess is one I’ve worked around a fair bit so now it’s got my fingerprints all over it. From years of comments I’ve come to understand that people will often assume a song with such a personal interpretation must be my own composition. So It didn’t surprise me when I finished singing and one of our younger regulars asked me if that was my own piece. Instead of answering the question directly I smiled and said that I really envied her because she was in for a serious treat, that at some point she was going to get to hear the Beatles’ album Revolver for the first time, and I bet she’d really dig it. Now she and the rest of the room seemed to think that I was finding an amusing way of saying she was young and didn’t know anything. Everyone laughed, she blushed and made like I’d been teasing her. I had to stop everybody, ‘No, really. You have some things still ahead of you that are old hat for someone like me. And I think that’s so very cool. I envy you that’. I’m reasonably sure she didn’t believe me. And I’m fairly certain a lot of the rest of the room still thought I was making funny. So I let it go, no big deal. All you can do is drop the seed, whether it grows is in someone else’s hands.
So there are definitely times when I assert my ‘not from around here’ heritage, make like the martian that I am and puzzle the entire room. However folks continue to be gracious in putting up with me. And it is still one of the finest sessions I’ve ever had the pleasure of being part of. Puzzles and all.