Wild Boys at the Jam

     I don’t have a recent photo of our jam in the Train Station Lobby, so you will have to live with this older one that I have shown you before.  When this story I am about to tell you took place, we were in the same place, but there were about an audience of 10 sitting at the far end, and not all of our normal players were present.

    This happened two weeks ago:   Our jam was playing as normal, with about a half an hour left to play when two young guys, probably under twenty years old, came in to watch and listen.  They were not our usual type of clientele, but they were very enthusiastic and sat down on the floor.   Monika our fiddler, usually brings along some small percussion instruments, and in between the songs, she handed a couple rhythm instruments to the two guys.

    During the next songs, the two “wild boys” really got into the music, and were really putting their whole hearts into playing along.  Their enthusiasm and energy was infectious and it soon spread to all of us players, driving us, and causing us to put much more vigor into our playing and singing.

    We always just go around to circle and let everyone choose a song.  The choice soon came to one of the wild boys and I was really surprised at what song he choose.  Being so young, I figured he would choose some rock-oriented song, but he chose Woody Guthrie’s “Hobo’s Lullaby.”  I was amazed that it was a song he even knew.  It is a slow song about a hobo riding a boxcar thinking about whether there would be any policemen in heaven.

    After the jam, Ace, one of the boys came up to me, all happy about discovering our jam playing.  I asked him where he was from and he said they had just come in on a boxcar (the Train Station is right beside the railroad tracks of course.)  I wasn’t totally sure that was the truth, but he sure looked and acted like it might be.

    Anyway, everyone at the jam was sure effected by the enthusiasm those two wild boys brought to the evening, and everyone left, still buzzing with the infectious energy they had transmitted.  It was a very fun and memorable jam.

    Last week at our jam, two of McBride’s uniformed ambulance responders who were on standby, came in to listen.  They sat in chairs just inside the door.  As we were playing, I noticed two guys look through the window in the door, but they didn’t come in.  I wondered if they were the wild boys again.  I also wondered if, when they saw the two uniformed first aid attendants, they thought they might be police, and so they didn’t want to come inside.  I don’t know if that was the case or not, but if it was the two wild boys, I was sorry they didn’t come in to share their infectious enthusiasm and energy again.

View my paintings at:  davidmarchant2.ca