Gang,

There’s a fellow at the Vineyard Gazette doing a piece about a club I used to play there, the Mooncusser. I’ve been slow in getting back to him because I honestly couldn’t remember anything worthy of much ink. Then this morning it came to me! My reply was this:

“I actually don’t know if I can contribute much. My recollections of the Mooncusser mainly center around the bar next door, the Lamp Post, which is to say they are a bit hazy. One that is etched on my remaining synapses, however, involves Liam Clancy of the Clancy Brothers. I’d gone to their show at the MC and afterward Liam and I went to the ‘Post to discuss important matters of state, which, as near as I can remember, centered around speculations on the bra size of the waitress. (I, of course, wanted to talk about economic destabilization in the Balkans, but Liam was such a chauvinist!)

“At the witching hour Liam missed the ‘Last Call!’ call and was outraged when the bartender wouldn’t accommodate his entreaties for “just the tiniest wee little bit of a dram.” He rose to his feet and, while backing toward the exit, began to curse the bartender with the truly breathtaking eloquence that is reserved for the Irish. He went on for fully five minutes without repeating himself once (though he did dwell on the genital warts suffered, apparently, by the poor man’s mother). The bartender was unresponsive, I suspect because he had by now been transformed into a pillar of margarita salt, and Liam stood in the doorway as he delivered the coup-de-grace before slamming the door behind him. ‘May your overhead exceed your gross profit! That’s all you bastards can understand!'”

I don’t remember much, but that has stuck with me.

I’m on my way to the Midwest for 3 shows: the Cedar Center in Minneapolis (tonight, Thursday), SPACE in Evanston, IL (tomorrow, Friday) and the Fur Peace Ranch in Pomeroy, OH (Saturday, but it’s sold out). Come by if you can, or send a friend.

Some housekeeping:

The supply problems around the DVD/CD package of the “Celebrates 50 Years” concert have been resolved and the web store awaits your orders. iTunes is taking pre-orders (Available August 12th) for digital downloads of the Symphony Hall Show CD.

The same fellows who produced that video and CD are working on a video-documentary on yours truly and want to know if anybody out there has any photos of me at the Paradise club in Boston in the late ’70’s. If so, let me know.

They are also working on getting their documentary on the Club 47 (“For the Love of the Music”) bumped over to the DVD format and are trying to raise funds for the licensing fees via a campaign on Pledge Music. This is something you would like to have (as would I), so if the spirit moves you click here and make a pledge. If they don’t reach the goal nothing will be charged to you.

That’s it – thanks for reading!

All the best,

Tom Rush

Quote of the month:

As seen on a sign outside a church:

“Ladies, don’t forget the rummage sale. It’s a chance to get rid of those things not worth keeping around the house. Bring your husbands.”