We continue our side quest of asking other folks about drinking songs—which is nice because it is less homework for your humble (and busy) booze bards! This time we were pleased to welcome the Minstrel Rav'n  —pirate / 80s glam rocker extraordinaire. We had some drinks and told some jokes and most of all got to hear a few songs from the Minstrel! It was a blast and we are sure you will have fun joining in on the conversation. 

For the start of season 2 we go on a side quest to find out about other drinking songs. Our first interview is with Dug McCormack, musician, artist, cat dude, and all around fantastic human. Greg learns a bunch of new drinking songs! Greg and Kris collectively wonder if they can really learn the lyrics to drinking songs before a gig we have coming up. Cheers!

So the vagaries of jobs, semi-home schooling, and the languor of covid year delayed this episode by almost six months. Sorry! But here we are with our 10th episode that we actually recorded (mostly) in Feb. It is the most obscure song we have yet done, but a real banger about having a heck of a hangover. Check out this song by Austin punk-grass band The Meat Purveyors about the single life... And then we review the quest so far and solicit your input!

Kris and Greg jump on the viral sea shanties trend and learn about the Wellerman. Kris then sings it while Greg tries to learn how to harmonize.

The Booze Bards mine the pagan history of Christmas as a raucous party more akin to Mardi Gras to find a song where rowdy revelers demanded food and drink from fancy people of privilege. Yes, it's just We Wish You a Merry Christmas. But we do! Merry Christmas! 

In this episode we get rather tongue-tied on the classic cumulative drinking song about measures of alcohol. This is a British Isles song–possibly hundreds of years old–sung as an ode to the barley harvest, measures of alcohol, and the wonderful people who sell us booze. Greg is temporarily sober, but don't worry, Kris makes up for it. 

Last episode we borrowed a song from our neighbors to the north. This episode is a song of American origin but about a boozey visit to our southern neighbors. We learn about American country singer Jim Reeves and the origin of the word bimbo. We also drink some tequila and yell "hooo wee!" but definitey NOT suey!

Dive into the story of Stan Roger's classic drinking song Barrett's Privateers, and hopefully learn to sing it!

Hey ya'll! In this episode, Kris and Greg invite their spouses along for a drinking sing along and hilarity ensues. We could not find a plague-themed drinking song, so Greg wrote one instead. As the four of us had all been cooped up in the house for weeks, we had trouble staying on point but we sure had a lot of fun. We recorded over Zoom and things did not go exactly as planned recording wise, but hey, you can still hear how much fun we had. 

The Booze Bards finally explore a song worthy of being considered a proper drinking song. We explore the naval history of the drink called grog and how it gave rise to a fun not-really-sea-shanty that proved a delight to sing whilst drunk. We drank rum. It was good. 

In our second episode Kris and Greg get something out of the way and explore the shameful history of the children's counting song that many Americans think of as a drinking song ... for inscrutable reasons. We also maybe overshoot our drinking a little and may have been unable to order a pizza after we were done recording this episode. Show notes and what we were drinking at www.boozebards.com

In the inaugural episode of Booze Bards, we roll back the clock to the 18th century and discover that the U.S. national anthem is actually a drinking song in disguise! Our beloved Star Spangled Banner started its life as the "Anacreontic Song" or "To Anacreon in Heaven." We discuss the society of drinkers and singers that wrote it as well as the Greek poet it was in homage to. We discover it is even harder to sing with the original words. We also get a little tipsy!