First Gig in Gulu!

Friday, June 19, 2009

Thursday night at quiz night, Abbie asked Derek, the owner of Bamboo from the UK, if he ever had live music at the pub. He said, yeah, and pointed to Mick at the end of the bar. Mick is a big, bald Irish man who likes to taunt the Americans on quiz night because he is smarter than us. We have become good friends through the quizzes. I may have mentioned him before, but I’m not sure. He is in Uganda working with an organization that de-mines the landmines. But apparently he is also a country singer. Amazing. So, Abbie mentioned to Mick and Derek that I sing (she’s my agent in Gulu) and Mick said well let’s play tomorrow night (Friday).
I was really excited. And everyone else was as well. All of my group came and group two came as well. They are a good family to me. Very encouraging. Also, Tom’s sons Obi and Apollo were there. Mick sang first. He blew me away. It is so funny to me that his accent completely disappeared as soon as he started singing. He sang a lot of American country covers. Then, he passed the guitar to me and I played about three songs and passed it back and then he passed it back, etc. It was awesome! We even sang together on a few…like “Me and Bobby McGee”. I love how surprised people get when I sing because they wouldn’t normally realize that something so loud could come out of me. There were apparently some neighbors next to Bamboo that liked it too, I heard the (ay-i-i-i-ii!!!) Good times. Mick sang a few Irish songs as well. The accent came back for those. He sang “Danny Boy” and “The Town I Once Loved”. Beautiful. People started phasing out after a few hours, but we just kept playing. I hope that we get to do that again because it was just what I needed. I just adore music and I was so grateful to get to share it with so many great people.
One of the guys from group two is from St. Louis and he said that he wants to book me at a local restaurant that features musicians. He said that they will pay my way there and that all the profits raised will be split between me and Invisible Children. I think it’s a great idea. I’m always up for a road trip!Anyway, it was a great night. Hope it happens again.