bats come out

This weekend, Sam and I went to see one of the greatest bluegrass performers ever, Del McCoury. He played with the father of bluegrass, Bill Monroe, back in the 1960s and has been going ever since. But there didn't seem to be any signs of arthitis in his 71-year-old guitar playing hands, and he had to use a cheat sheet just for the two brand new songs he played.

The entire concert was great. Del's sons played a mean mandolin and sweet banjo, the fiddler was awesome, and the bassist had a surprisingly good voice. The best part of the concert, though, might have been when a bat swooped down out of the curtains and did a flew loops around the opera house before disappearing again in the middle of a song. The audience made some noise, of course, and after the song ended, the bassist whispered what happened in Del's ear.

Del said, "Well, it seems like we've got another entertainer in the building! My bass player says there was a bird flying around in here." Someone in the audience yelled, "No, a bat!"

To which Del responded, "Really? Well, we've got a song about that," and started up his song, "It's Just the Night" which includes the line "Bats come out." He started cracking up as he sang the line, and had to start the verse over.