Fiddling and dancing in her seat with the Irish rover

The Irish rover himself your man Pat Egan concludes his latest residency at John D. McGurk's tomorrow night. I caught him earlier in this run and sketched his bandmates for the session: Devin, a young fiddler from Chicago, and Kelly, a ridiculously pretty accoridionist who literally dances in her seat as she plays. I hope they (in particular, she) are on the gig tonight when I see Pat for the last time, this time around.

Pat would be the last to say so, but he is perhaps first among guitarist/songsters on the international Irish trad. scene. Of all the players I have met - and, thanks to Pat and Michael Cooney, I have met many of the best - most would take Pat first (or his mate Ged Foley) on the guitar when assembling their All Irish dream band.

All that, and he's nice as they come. On Monday he even let me eat his barley soup while he was on the bandstand. Speaking of the bandstand, the new sound system at McGurk's must be heard to be believed. For starters, you actually can hear it - even when the room is full of drinkers and talkers and Morris dancers.