My hometown has had a few Main Street bars come and go in its day. Changes in ownership, name, and clientele have given us a healthy tasting of watering holes over the years. However, I have always gone to the same place, even if the name has changed. Today, the establishment goes by the simple name, "Greens." It's written in black over a red and gold backdrop. Go figure.
An Irish pub by definition, but a rowdy hall by trade, Greens has seen the best and worst of men in its tenure. Currently operated by a man known simply as Benny, Greens has become a headquarters for the weird and a safe-haven for the extreme. It's a place that demands you be yourself, and nothing else. If you want to take your shirt off on a mid-summers night, by all means let it out. Maybe you just want to swing in, say hello, catch the ball game scores. Feel free. Maybe it's been a tough day, and you just want to throw some Dan Hartman on the juke and get nuts. Nobody will stop you. It's a place for all walks to come in and be, just check your insecurities and judgements at the open door.
This alone does not make a bar special. This makes it somewhat common in the grand scheme of things. And though Greens is cleaner and classier than a dive bar, it retains that easy, inexpensive, common-man feel. That's thanks to the patrons and the place. But what makes this bar unique is in fact the people. The regulars. The meat of it. I won't bore you with all the details today, but I'll tell you that its a special group of people that makes up the Greens Family. And they are a family. People come and go, and some family members are closer to the nucleus, others extended, but a family it is, and everyone is treated as such. And oh yea, there's also music.
Most of the nuclear family is involved in what I consider to be the Greens Family Band. There's a good dozen or so guys who are some of the best musicians I've ever seen or heard. No lie, no exaggeration. Anyone who knows me, knows that I've seen a lifetimes worth of professional and local players. Nobody's won over my heart and ears like these guys. Over the years, they've gone by many different names, from the Jon Burns All-stars to the Frank Stalloners. Most recently, after the impermanent departure of their long time guitarist, bassist, and drummer, the band has opened its doors to more members of that Greens family and started a new incarnation of the band first under the name The Union, and now under the name Duck Hunt. I'm unclear as to weather that name will stick, but it's really not important. The players have changed, but the game is still the same.
Greens Irish Pub gave a motley crew of largely self-trained musicians, a stage to bare their wares and souls. A couple years ago, they even started a Tuesday Night Jam (TNJ), opening its doors and mics to any cat off the street with a desire to get wild. This is when the music and the musicians really started taking off. The house band plays the first set, and will play the full four hours if nobody comes up to take a hand. They play because they love it. They play because they need it. I don't know what these guys would be without music. I wouldn't even know how to explain them. Music is the guiding force in everything they do. Sure, most of them work jobs like the rest of us, but their hearts are in the music. They've gigged all over Long Island, NYC, the Tri-State, Pennsylvania, and even an epic weekend in Maryland. They've honed their skills for years now. Their chops are grade A.
They've become far more than a local bar band, that much is for sure. Come to think of it, they were always more than that because they always played more than just the local bar. They play an eclectic variety of music, usually harboring around blues, funk and R&B. But these guys are good enough to pick up anything and run with it. Michael Jackson, Toto, Steely Dan, Albert, Freddie, and BB King, Eric Clapton, Delaney and Bonnie, The Meters, Dr. John, Joe Cocker, Donny Hathaway, The Allman Brothers Band (Lots of Allman Brothers), Little Feat, Warren Zevon, Sly, Van Morrison, Stevie Wonder-ful, Elton John, EWF, Stuff, James Brown...please, tell me when to stop. The list goes on and on. They write and play original music too, and this is not you're average rearrangement of existing songs and styles to create "original" work. It's fresh, and its flagrantly in your face. Sometimes, it's downright beautiful. And no matter what incarnation of the band is up there, they always walk a fine line between completely out-of-control and professionally wild. I mean that in attitude though, the music never suffers.
You see these guys are great musicians, and the music comes first. The level of skill is undebatable. But the reason that they're so gripping is because there's also a unique personality and tenacity to the group. You can't take your eyes off them. Once they start, you feel like you're part of the show, bouncing off the walls and rolling on the floor with them. And it's no act. Talk to these guys when the amps are off, and they're just the same. Fun loving, free falling, wild-men. The entire Greens Family (musicians or not) are cut of this cloth. The authenticity is staggering. The love is genuine. These guys are as close a group as you can get. Sure there's arguments and fights, but they usually start and end with a smack in the head and a glass of beer. It's an amazing thing to get wrapped up in. They're good people at the end of the day. They're kind, open, and especially inviting to all. If you piss them off, you're fucked, but most people don't. It's hard to get under the skin of people like this. They're having too much fun to worry about the assholes or trivialities.
I know I've gone on for far longer than you wanted or I intended, but I am a rambling man (quite different than Dickey Betts version though). Once I get started, I can't stop. So keeping that in mind, I'll be updating weekly (maybe bi-) on our Greens Family. Anytime something new "pops up." Speaking of which, they'll be playing an hour long set this friday (tomorrow). Details are as follows:
Duck Hunt @ The Bitter End
Friday 4/27 11pm - Midnight
Hope to see you there. In the meantime, checkout the Junkyards first Frank Stalloners homevideo. From one of the funkiest festivals in name and nature, it's the Frank Stalloners at Equifunk playing "Tell The Truth"
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