Week of December 7th

Pulling Kentucky as the next state to celebrate conjured up thoughts of horse racing, large flowery hats, Bluegrass music and good old Kentucky bourbon. When I left for college (many years ago) my Father gave me one piece of valuable advice; “Stay away from the fruity drinks and keep your bourbon neat”. Now my Father’s a doctor so, of course, I followed his advice. Hence, Jim Beam, Wild Turkey, and Jim Crow are old buddies.

Back to the horse racing. Our original plan was to go to the horse races. We do have a track on the other side of the “River” but it is December and the track is closed for the season. They do offer simulcasts in the lounge for you viewing and betting pleasure, but this idea fell a little flat.

Plan B – Bluegrass music. I grew up listening to Bluegrass music and remember going to many a festival in New Jersey (believe it or not) and wondering if David Bromberg would show up complete with his bandit bandana. Well, David Bromberg, Bill Monroe, nor Ricky Skaggs were playing in St. Louis this week so the search began. We have a friend that plays in a great “bluegrass” band but Raven Moon wasn’t playing anywhere in town this week either. Thanks to Google, I found a band named Pic N’ Lic ‘N that was playing in a popular bar/restaurant named Filoni’s. Now this is a place you expect to hear a Frank Sinatra or Dean Martin impersonator but Pic ‘N Lic ‘N was conveniently on the bill for Saturday night. Pic ‘N Lic ‘N is a group of 12 musicians who take turns, in numerous combinations of 3 or 4 musicians, playing gigs around work and family schedules.

So Saturday night, armed with our Kentucky snow globe and pear bag full of state names, we ventured down to “Dogtown” to hear Bluegrass music and drink Kentucky bourbon.

It didn’t take long to feel at home in this cozy bar (especially after befriending the waitress and barkeep, a Mother-Daughter team). So we sat back and hoisted our glasses of amber gold in salute to the fine state of Kentucky.

The music was great and after a couple of rounds of liquid courage my husband decided to fill the band into our little adventure and see what they had in the way of Kentucky songs. We can only guess whether it was in the telling or the translation but suddenly this author was a homesick girl longing for some tunes from her home state of Kentucky (a real joke for this Jersey girl). Never the less, our evening minstrels broke out into a medley of songs about Kentucky, some of which I’m sure were improvised on the spot.

As the band was getting ready to wind down their last set, we brought out our “hat” to see where we would travel to next.

Color in the “Bluegrass” state and “Go West young man” to the “Equality” State – Wyoming. Eight down - 44 to go.

(Not wanting to let the band off so easy, my husband then requested a song about Wyoming. This thoroughly confused the group but wanting to play along with a paying customer, they wrote one on the spot. Kudos and thanks to Pic ‘N Lic ‘N for their talent as well as their good nature.)