Bill St. Amand’s Open Mic Session at The Raven’s Roost – Kimberley Golf Club, July 26, 2013 6-9pm

I don’t play golf. If the truth be known it was the reason I had to leave Australia. I neither played golf or drank enough beer. Both considered crimes against humanity or at least a distinct show of poor taste and bad manners. I chose Canada. After all it was the land of ice and snow and a non-golfer only had to fake it for half of the year. The rest of the time could be spent skiing. It is not that I dislike golf, after all I am married to a Scot,  it is just that I have an addictive personality and I have seen what it has done to some of my friends; despondency when the game is not going well; unhappy wives coping with absent husbands, children left fatherless for inordinate lengths of time – but, perhaps, I exaggerate. By choosing not to play I have avoided the undesirable side effects of the game. Bill St. Amand  on the other hand is an avid golfer and has managed to live a well adjusted life. He is what I call, “a high functioning golfer” that is he can play the game and live a normal life. To prove the point he has organized a series of open mic sessions at the Ravens Roost at the Kimberley Golf course. Bill assured me that golfers were not monsters and, by inviting me along it was at least, for me an opportunity to indulge my addiction to music in very pleasant surroundings. And that is has proven to be. This was the third of a very successful series of musical evenings. Some musicians who were there to dispense music to soothe the savage beasts included Bill St. Amand (of course), myself (Rod Wilson), Sam Hornberger and new faces Garry Jacklin and Jim Marshall. Bill’s chord melody approach to a number of well known melodies and songs is enjoyably familiar. I, myself, Rod Wilson introduced some original 12-string guitar music on an unsuspecting audience and later in the evening some Celtic songs and tunes on the Irish Cittern. Garry did the karoake thing as well as a solo set that had a couple of dancers up doing their thing. Jim Marshall is a master guitar player who has been wintering in Kamloops for the last few years and he is now back in Kimberley on a more permanent basis. I have played percussion with Jim on rare occasions in the past and his guitar playing and my percussion just seem to mesh when we get together. It was a real pleasure to once again play with Jim. So there we were on the deck of the Kimberly Golf course, kicking back, enjoying the food, refreshments, sunshine, shade, music and the great scenery. Yes, it is our little slice of paradise.

Every thing is getting a little fuzzy; either I have had to much sun, too much beer or to much golf………. or maybe Bill lied and this is what happens in paradise.

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