Live and Local - Neil and Shannon Trio
My favorite probably-not-true Civil War story is a young private from a PA regiment, up on Culps Hill after the first day of the Battle of Gettysburg. He’s digging and moving rocks in the dark, and the confederates are camped at the bottom of the hill, not a stones throw away. While he’s digging - after 6 hours of marching and then getting shot at relentlessly the day before - he hears a reedy, small voice below him start singing a song. He recognizes it, it’s called “Lorena”, a song his sister used to sing while she mended clothes back home. After a couple minutes, he stops digging, takes out his flute and starts playing along with the singer.
Soon, the regimental band starts collecting their instruments and plays. Then, their counterparts down in the rebel camp do the same, and there are now a dozen people on both sides playing Lorena…
When the song is over, there’s a few moments of quiet, then he picks up his shovel and the rest of the civil war resumes. It’s too good to be true, of course. But the sheer humanity and the hope of it, just raises your belief that we’re all the same. Everything else is just…situational. Comes and goes.
Neil and Shannon make me feel that way.
If you don’t know, they’re local troubadours who sometimes have a bass player with them, giving them the logically challenging name of “Neil and Shannon Trio”. They play classic rock leaning toward folk and country, and they play so well together that Shannon is a lefty so their guitars even fit together neatly when they sit next to each other.
When Gary, the bassist, is with them, he sits a little behind and to the side, filling out their sound and laying down the tempo in the spirit of the great Gettysburg bassists (we have better bass playing in this town than we deserve, to be sure). In some of their more regular gigs, like last Friday upstairs at the Garryowen, Gary’s not with them…possibly scheduling, but could just be because the space is too small for the three of them.
I’m a casual Stones fan (not some crazy fan… I mean, it’s not as if I have a Stones mouth tattooed on my arm or anything), and since they found that out, they fit in a tune for me whenever they see me; something they do for a lot of their regulars…and they have a lot of regulars.
First time I heard them do “Wild Horses”, I was amazed at the effortless mastery Neil shows with the embellishments and runs he puts into a well known song, like he’s telling a story…in all the times I have seen them, he managed to amaze me every time. And Shannon can sing like an angel or like an old time blues queen, on demand. I had to comment that I I hardly recognized “Wild Horses” when the singer actually stays on key through the whole song… I love Mick, but he takes the key of a song as more of a suggestion.
I catch Neil and Shannon whenever I can, but I especially look forward to their last-Friday-of-the-month set at the GO. It’s a highlight, when I’m having a crappy month, to go up there, get a pint, and hear them roll through their set. They are a local treasure, and who knows, if I keep trying, I might even get them to put a Harry Chapin tune in their set.
Look, I know the story of the kid on Culps Hill is probably crap. Most likely, if some kid started singing that close to the line, the most likely outcome would be a sharpshooter picking him off. But I tell the story whenever I can, and will keep doing it. It’s a close-your-eyes, uncomplicated pleasure… and so is the Neil and Shannon Trio.