A couple weeks ago, I sat in an acoustic session with a couple of my friends at my favorite Irish Pub in Joliet, IL; Chicago Street Pub. We were jamming some decent country rock and bluegrass tunes so i started to record a couple of the sets we did that night.

I play an instrument that is fairly rare today, its called the Bodhran or Irish Drum. Its a single drum that's played on your knee, one-handed. Your off hand is inside the drum head itself and i use my palm and fingers to change the pitch and tone of the drum as I'm playing it. So this one drum can produce a near octave of sounds and i can play it really really fast. About 150 tempo in a standard 4/4 3/6 or 3/4 timing signature.

I'm posting this song to primarily give my listeners an idea of the range of my tiny little drum. I use a smaller then standard Bodhran since my arms are small then standard as well. Normally you can find these with a 18" Diameter. However, my baby is a smaller 14 incher. When I do play the normal sizes, the tone is a bit deeper then what you'll hear here.

The song we are performing in this set is named "Gone" originally written by John Hiatt. Its a fun little country tune with a rock base. The two players with me and the ones actually signing are Brent James and Kevin Wright. They are the front men of a local Joliet group called "The Righteous Hillbillies". If you goggle their name you'll find some of their videos and things on Youtube and other places. Good friends and great artists to play with. I am not in their band, they just let me sit in on their acoustic performances as the Bodhran is not as over-whelming as a drum kit.

The Lyrics for Gone is the following, if you care to sing along:

Gone like my last paycheck gone gone away
Gone like the car I wrecked gone gone away
Gone like a fifth of gin gone gone away
Gone like the shape I'm in gone gone away
My baby's gone away

Gone like a Nixon file gone gone away
Gone like my landlord's smile gone gone away
Gone like the furniture gone gone away
Gone like the rest of her gone gone away
My baby's gone away

Gone like the silhouette there by
the bed where she undressed
Gone like the candlelight where we
made love so sweet and bright
Gone like the one last turn she took before Atlanta burned
Gone like everything I earned gone gone away

Gone like my last paycheck gone gone away
Gone like the car I wrecked gone gone away
Gone like a fifth of gin gone gone away
Gone like the shape I'm in gone gone away
My baby's gone away