weeki wachee mermaids in the living room

So, last night I think I found the coolest music venue in Edinburgh.  A place so intimate that you'll probably only hear about it through word of mouth.  Where the music is good and the atmosphere laid-back and friendly.  Where anything goes - kids, dogs, bare feet...  I needn’t have worried that bringing my little girl along might see us turned away.  Instead we were welcomed with open arms.  By the end of the show she was up dancing on stage with the band.   

The venue is the home and studio of an Edinburgh photographer called Douglas, who for six years now has been hosting informal house concerts in his living room once or twice a month.  It inspires me when I come across people who evince such open generosity and trust in opening their home to strangers through no commercial benefit to themselves.  The set up reminded me of my friend Jim Haynes in Paris, who has been holding weekly Sunday dinners in his atelier for over 25 years, open to anyone and everyone who might like to come along.  (Even you - yes, if you’ll be in Paris, be sure to go for dinner with Jim!)  What Jim and Douglas share as hosts is an evident joy in being around others and meeting new folk; their easy warmth loosens up everyone in the vicinity.  It makes me glad that there are people like this in the world. 

‘I agree,’ smiled the sweet Norwegian girl who opened up last night’s show, ‘this is really a nice place.’  The bands who come to play at Douglas’s house hail from all over the globe.  Some are locals, others journey from far afield.  Last night’s main act was Truckstop Honeymoon, a husband and wife duo from the plains of Kansas via New Orleans.  They were travelling together with a double bass, a banjo, a steel string guitar, a nanny, and four tumbling, beautiful children (see above for their littlest travelling companion).  As someone who has regularly turned up to readings and literary festivals with a small child in attendance, it makes me feel less anomalous to encounter others who likewise don’t leave the kids at home.

Truckstop Honeymoon charmed the crowd.  Their music has been described by one critic as ‘a barnstorming punk rock take on vaudeville banjo and bluegrass’.  What I loved was how they twisted an old-time traditional sound and paired it with brilliantly quirky and original lyrics - ‘We write all our own songs,’ Mike West, the bare foot husband of the duo pointed out, ‘mostly because we’re too stupid to learn anyone else’s.’ 

Each song felt like we were being told a story.  We encountered tales of childhood ambition to grow up to one day be a Weeki Wachee mermaid swimming in a Florida theme park; accounts of Mardi Gras parades Kansas style (long johns beneath the tutus and nary a drag queen in sight); childhood memories of being expelled from Vacation Bible School and getting Mamma high on your secret marijuana stash till she’s wearing your Sony Walkman and jumping on the trampoline.  With perfectly timed deadpan humour, the pair gave entertainingly sprawling intros that filled in the background stories behind the songs, such as the time they went to do a few shows in Florida and on the way back learnt from an issue of the New York Times that their New Orleans home had been totally submerged by the floods of Hurricane Katrina - the newspaper’s cover photo showed their neighbourhood street sign poking up just inches above the water. 

Music has always been a big influence on my writing.  What Truckstop Honeymoon play isn’t the kind of stuff I’d listen to while I write as mostly I need music where the lyrics take backstage, but it’s the kind of music that takes me to another place and sets my mind spinning away with stories I’d maybe like to write one day.  I’ll be blogging more about music and writing at a later date.  I’ll even try to make some mix tapes to post up here. 

For now, Truckstop Honeymoon will be playing next in London, this coming Wednesday 11th of May, and at various venues around the country this month.  There’s even a London house concert coming up, but if you want the details I guess you’ll have to write to the band.  Tell them I said hi. 

p.s. if you're wondering what a Weeki Wachee mermaid is, it's a Florida thing.  Totally weird.  I'd never heard of them before.  The mermaids are an underwater attraction at the Weeki Wachee Springs created in 1947 by an ex-Navy frogman.  You can check them out here.