Buck entertained with his hat and then again as the Magician’s Comic Foil, so now I suppose we’ll highlight Ronnie and his traveling bards.
Ronnie plays the guitar (or gee-tar for some of you). In reality, he is very, very good. During his earlier days here in Chengdu he teamed up with some other ex-pat American Idol wannabes and they formed their own little band of misfit musicians. They played primarily folksy, bluesy, 60’s/70’s acoustic stuff at the Shamrock or at the Bookworm, though in Ronnie’s case, he’ll pretty much play wherever, whenever there is somebody willing to listen. I recall one night back in 2008, we had dinner in some restaurant (The Parrot) who had a solo acoustic guy playing and Ronnie struck up a short conversation with the guy and the next thing I know, Ronnie is playing that guy’s guitar and singing “Bad, bad Leroy Brown. Baddest man in the Chengdu town …” The Chinese locals all went nuts cheering him. Too bad for the actual hired hand who had to follow that act.
But now after a three year hiatus, Ronnie is back with us. And he has gathered his cronies and they started playing again on weekends and nights.
Lowell and I sat and listened to them practice one Sunday afternoon at the Shamrock. They just sort of say “hey, do you remember …” and then they play. One guy calls out a chord key and Ronnie indicates who takes a little solo and they just sort of wing it until it sounds good. That’s a gene I was NOT born with, believe me.
The “band” is a guy on electric guitar, and some kid on Bass. Ronnie plays acoustic and mostly is lead singer, Gordon on banjo (a 60 something hippie from England who builds his own banjos), and Dick on keyboard (Dick is 8 feet tall, 250 lbs, actual job is body guard, looks stoned out of his gourd every time I have seen him, and with a cigarette balanced in his mouth while playing looks just like Tom Waits). They are an odd mix of guys.
They played last week at the Shamrock and pretty much wowed everyone in attendance. I think they taught each other one song right on the spot. It was really very entertaining and once they got in the groove, they just sang the night away and played their hearts out.
It’s those evenings that really end up being the relaxing ones where we can recharge our batteries.
So if you find yourself in Chengdu and need a little folksy entertainment to raise your spirits, Ronnie can hook you up. In fact, Ronnie tells me they play this Saturday Night at the Bookworm, so I guess I already know where I’m having dinner that night.
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