What better way to spend a Music Monday with the characters in my writing world then spending Saint Patrick’s Day with the Scotney couple?

Frost, the giant Scot, and Malta the 4’10 Cockney, the sassy couple that mirror the main character’s love story. These two are met in the second chapter, the only participants in a drinking contest in what is an empty bar at the time. They are very busy drinking each other under the table, and a bonus fact is that Malta gives our FMC her name based off a yellow shirt and big blue “mincers”. Mincers is short for minced pies which means eyes, so the particular combination brings to mind Tweety bird, and that’s how some names stick in this bar world.

So, today I share the playlist the Scotney couple would have on the jukebox in the bar or pub, in their true celebration style. In case you wanted to spend the holiday with them, or trying to out drink them.

Frost has already confiscated the tricks for the jukebox, and set up his own version of marketing, though he did promise not to fight to make friends, at least for a few hours. What would he have on to give you a glimpse of a night run by him? What drifts out the doors whenever they swing that you would hear walking by that might sway you to spend the time here?

The Rumjacks half and half kind of song, An Irish Pub Song. Gives you that Irish Saint Patty’s sound you expect to hear, but with an edge that says the place isn’t corny. It’s decorated for the holiday without being cheesy because they are actually celebrating a prideful day.

Of course, someone would check your ID and stamp you after a small wait. Long enough to say how busy this bar is, but not so long you’d get tired of waiting. You might even miss your first warning about drinking from random flasks, given by the bouncer. At least two people would greet you. The first one is a red headed waitress dressed in sexy shades of green with a flirtatious smile who again warns you kindly about drinking from random flasks unless you’d like to miss a week (not just a weekend) on the way to your seat in the drinking contest. The second is the same height, and could pass for a sister or a cousin of the first one. The only difference is this one, with her red curls and choice of dress makes you think about that pair from youth, Raggedy Ann pops to mind. Until she speaks, very differently from the first one, calling you Gov’na and seems excited about your joining the contest.

It’s easy to slip into this crowded space and join in, welcomed to the family like you never left, even if you don’t know anyone here. They draw you in. Malta dances around the tables, the other red head everyone keeps calling Tweety reappears with drinks for you and those around you, offering idol chit chat that can be left at pleasantries or turned into conversation. Frost presides over the head of the table, back to the dance floor where others dance for fun. The next song Frost picks is for them, but also a wee warning about his little lasses. There were more of them than the two red heads, but the way he treats the single word “lass” when confronting those two suggested he knew them and the way they thought before they even spoke. His booted foot thumping to the beat gave the table a way to enjoy the music while downing drinks and trying to keep pace.

The warning about the wee lasses others call Double Trouble? Green Eyes, Red Hair from Gaelic Storm. (Totally not a commentary on himself at all, no matter what the ladies themselves say…)

What would Frost play to explain himself? He’s not the type to talk about himself, more protector than prattler. You’re lucky if he speaks of more than the wee lasses on a given night. Yet somehow he’s still scary fun to be around. So, if he had to summarize himself, it’d be quick, and most likely something like Dropkick Murphys song Blood and Whiskey.

If you listen to this next one, and it triggers something like Dick Van Dyke, or makes you think about the movie My Fair Lady, you are picking up the ways of Malta now. When Malta gets tipsy and wants to get knees up on the dance floor, or tease the poor blokes thinking she’s an easy mark because of her height, she belts something like this out.

Today it’s Gus Elen with ‘alf a Pint of Ale (Half a Pint of Ale) from 1905.

What does Frost listen to? The over 6 foot, long red haired man, always in a kilt and combat boots? Yeah, except for that one time the wee lasses instigated him, Frost doesn’t dance. He’s a mosh pit man, but he’s also been around bar life longer than anyone else, and so he picks stuff he likes, but that won’t alienate people if the bar is fuller.

So, Frost would totally throw on House of Pain to get people on the dance floor, to Jump Around.

To end the night, it’s a sing-a-long to something easy… Harry Chapman’s Boiled Beef and Carrots, from about 1910.

That’s the list for today. If you passed out along the way in the Soulful bar world? The staff would have you covered, one way or another. Bouncers run taxi lines, other staff get you a room, and if you’re too bad off? You sleep where you landed, with blankets and at least one watcher affectionately nicknamed Batman. Both for the bar’s safety and yours… There’s already a surprising amount of people that wake up in handcuffs that have nothing to do with the cops, so we do try to keep the non-consented numbers down on that.

Until the next time you pop by my little story world…