Wilcom’s Inn
Posted by Caitlin
so today i woke up several times between the hours of 6 am and 10 am in the agony of female such-n-such. i’ll go into no further detail on the subject. the point is that through out the day as i did my work from home, i felt lousy. by evening, i felt rather like i’d been hit by a train. i phoned zach on my way home from a family function to see if he might like to meet me for a drink at Wilcom’s Inn.
now for those of you who are not native to Monrovia and may not know of Wilcom’s Inn, it’s a tiny tavern on the corner of 75 and 80 where the drag strip used to be. “oooh, that place!” that place you’ve always glanced at as you drove by that stuck your curiosity, but that you never were emboldened enough to visit. Wilcom’s Inn is made of white brick i think, though it is plastered with Miller Light posters and other advertisements. the windows, of which there are several, are thick with grime and the shutters are closed, as well as there is plywood covering them from the inside. why? one can only imagine to add to the atmosphere inside. there is always an assortment of dusty and battered automobiles (mostly pick up trucks) out front, and a small table with an umbrella covered in more beer advertisements sits just to the right of the door.
since before i could even legally visit a watering hole, i have dreamed of checking out Wilcom’s Inn. i can’t explain why, but i know everyone else who passes must have shared the same secret ambition. about a month ago after we played a show at the Music Cafe in Damascus, we were feeling especially jovial, having played a pretty fair set for a lot of friends. so zach and emily (former keyboardist, “web master” and best friend of mine) and i decided the nite was still young. i suggested Wilcom’s Inn, not expecting either of them to go along with it. but to my surprise and delight, they both obliged! so with both excitement and trepidation, we started off.
we walked in to a small bar area, littered with ashtrays and empty bottles–a typical bar scene. only it was full of COWBOYS. how excellent. emily was immediately hit on by an inebriated cow wrangler, which was even more excellent. for some reason, we were greeted like kings. i think the people in there were such regulars that seeing us walk in released pleasure endorphins. around the corner was another small room–to the left end was a pool table; video game machines lining the walls. to the right were some tables and a karaoke bar set up. a small divider ideal for resting ashtrays and drinks divided the room. naturally, we sang karaoke. that is to say, zach and i sang karaoke while emily watched and laughed and tried to remain inconspicuous. i sang LeeAnn Rimes songs, and zach sang U2 songs of course, and we sang a Shania Twain/Bryan White duet, which was awesome. it was a really great nite.
but as always, i digress…i am writing about today. 7/29/07. zach and i met at Wilcom’s Inn. I got there first. i decided to be a tough girl and go in by myself, get myself a drink and sit at the bar like a big girl. but halfway to the door, i chickened out. there was a cowboy sitting outside with a cowboy hat, a gray goatee with a white streak, boots with silver buckles…and honestly, i just didn’t want to deal with it. so i stood behind a van on the corner of 75 and 80 and talked to zach on the phone till he got there. we went inside, and it was like a green house–all of the heat and humidity from outside was worse inside. no AC. did i mention it was hot? we sat down, and a moment later, the cowboy came and sat at the bar right in front of us. about 2 minutes later, he turned around and said to me, “i saw you standin’ out there and i hoped you wernt in truble. i sed to my girlfriend on the cell phone, “thar’s a little girl standin’ out here and i hope she’s okay.” and my girl says, “she a little thing with dark hair and boots?” and i sed, “yep!” my girlfriend works at the bar here. you okay?” and i told him i was. then he said, “y’all like to hear some slide guitar?” zach and i exchanged surprised looks and said that we would. for the next two hours, Dale impressed us with his mad skillz, and even let us play. i now want a slide guitar so badly. i think i have a knack for it. not that it’s very hard to slide a piece of metal over the neck of a guitar that is tuned to an open G Major chord. we swapped stories about the guitars we played, Dale talked a lot about managing his horse farm, and all the bad-ass accidents he’s had working different cowboy jobs like tarring roofs and horse stuff, and we talked about God too.
i had a good time talking to dale about all of that stuff. tomorrow, zach and i will spend the better part of the day working on music. i sure hope we get something done, because we’ve gotten very little accomplished this summer other than writing. don’t get me wrong, that’s huge. but i was hoping for some recordings. time is a commodity that we don’t seem to have enough of.
my head is still splitting, so i guess i’ll take another stab at sleep.
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hello friends,
we are currently recording things. i say ‘recording things’ and not ‘in the studio,’ because actually, we are ‘in the basement.’ we are recording things from zach’s basement. but really, this just makes everything sound more quaint and in your face. and we are learning loads more about recording through doing this.
i hope we have many new cool songs for you soon!! our friend emily potthast (formerly our keyboardist) is doing this website for us and she is incredibly talented. soon, we will have sections for pictures and songs and all kinds of neat things.
looking forward to see you guys soon! we are playing a show in NYC later in july, and some other places along the east coast in august. and of course, there is always our once a month date in frederick at the mudd puddle.
see you soon <3
-caitlin
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