Nov 14, 2022

Why do cats knock stuff off tables? I think I figured out the answer. I share it with my story and song about the Mingulay Cat Song.

It’s Pub Songs & Stories #260.

Marc Gunn "There Are No Pubs in Kirkintilloch" from Scottish Songs of Drinking & Rebellion

WELCOME TO PUB SONGS & STORIES

I am Marc Gunn. This is the audio liner notes for the songs I record and play.

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Thanks to my newest Gunn Runners on Patreon: Zak H, Kain T

0:56 - UPCOMING SHOWS

• NOV 19: Three Taverns Brewery, Decatur, GA @ 12:00-1:30 PM
• NOV 19: Ironshield Brewing, Lawrenceville, GA @ 7:00-10:00 PM
• DEC 2: The Lost Druid, Avondale Estates, GA @ 6:30-9:30 PM
• JUN 3-10, 2023: Celtic Invasion of County Mayo and Pirate Queen, Ireland

1:34 - CLOSING UP SHOP

I’m doing something different this year. I’m not doing any Black Friday discounts or sales, like all of the marketers encourage musicians to do. I know I’ve done them in the past. But I’ve never been comfortable doing that as you might’ve heard in a past podcast I did about the Ethics of Black Friday.

What it boils down to is that I prefer celebrating the day after Thanksgiving as Buy Nothing Day. A day to fight back against consumerism.

So for that reason, I’m closing down all physical sales on Friday, November 18. If you go to my store on Bandcamp. You will not be able to buy any CDs, shirts, album pins, songbooks or whatever else I have there. You can still buy digital downloads, but everything else will be gone.

I will reopen the story on December 1. But only for a few days. I’ve been considering my environmental impact. Someone suggested that if you only ship products in a shorter time span, it’s better for the environment, which makes sense to me.

2:46 - “Nancy Whiskey” from St Patrick’s Day

4:47 - FAVORITE BEERS FROM THE LOST DRUID

Come join me on Friday, Dec 2 at The Lost Druid Brewery.

10:30 - "There's a Bug in Cabin Six" from As Long as I'm Flyin'

12:43 - WHAT’S NEW?

It’s been eleven since I last posted an episode of the Cat Lovers Podcast. Seems like only yesterday. That’s not true at all. It feels like 11 years. I thought about rebooting it. But I decided instead to do this special feature on Cats and Celtic music.

That’s because I released a new album this year. It’s called Selcouth. Which means when everything is strange and different yet you find it marvelous anyway. It’s also the reason I released a new song on the album which I’ll talk about in a bit.

But first, I want to thank a few of my Celtic Cat Fans on Patreon. I sent out a call and these amazing folks responded.

Don Rice is from Moorhead, MN. He writes: “Definitely a cat lover, as we have owned many. Two currently- Chessie and Napoleon, both Grey striped tabbies. I'm a member of Poitin Band and a sci-fi lover as well.”

You can find them on the Irish & Celtic Music Podcast.

Kelly Melville said: "My 11 year old daughter Lorraine Melville (from Hampton, GA) is the biggest cat and cat song fan in our family. We all are, but she’s the one who has a bunch of your cat songs memorized and sings them to our cat. It would be a super fun surprise to hear her name in the podcast.

She recently lost her first cat that she named White Tickle Ninja when she was 4 because as a kitten he would hide around corners and jump out to attack our toes with his tickly little paws. He loved people, and would run meowing up to everyone he saw, even complete strangers, in the hopes of food or pets. I think he thought he was a dog. He would wag his little stub of a tail when we played with him, pant, and even play fetch with balled socks. Ninja was the boss of the house, but our other cat Sherlock is the sneaky one who figured out how to open doors and one day set off our burglar alarm and brought the cops out to the house."

Marie from Centennial, Colorado said, “My kitty is Annie. She will be 18 in July. I rescued her in August 2020, at age 16 and just under 7 pounds. She is the sweetest little thing and has a voracious appetite! They told me that they didn't think she was hungry but rather just liked to eat. (Really??!!) Well, I took her to a vet for a wellness check, naturally, and she had hypothyroidism pretty badly. We put her on medicine and she has been getting better.

She runs to greet me when I get home from work and sleeps beside me every night. When I'm home doing paperwork or watching TV, she sits in my chair beside me and sprawls out with her front legs over my one leg. See you at DragonCon then Kentucky!”

Finally, Carol Baril keeps the Irish Drinking Songs for Cat Lovers group on Facebook going strong by sharing cat memes. She’s out of Acworth, GA in the Atlanta area. She has a favorite cat video guy on YouTube she watches. “He is my go to guy for all things CATS!”

She shared a video from Jackson Galaxy on playing with your cat!

Check out these Kitties from Annie:

If you want to join these amazing Gunn Runners, join the Club.

16:12 - “Lord of the Pounce” from Irish Drinking Songs for Cat Lovers

20:31 - WHAT’S NEW WITH MY CATS?

Since last I podcasted, my oldest daughter is 12 and my youngest is now 7. Sadly, all four of our cats we had when my wife and I first met have passed away. Rainey was the last one, just last year. Two years ago, we adopted two kittens that a friend found in their apartment parking lot in Birmingham.

Pompeii is an ash-colored tabby boy who’s grown quite enormous. He likes to meow at us at about 4 AM every morning when we don’t lock him up. Though he’s an indoor cat, he loves to run out the back door when he can to take in the sights and smells.

Emmie is his sister. She looks a lot like him except she’s smaller by a third and has brown fur. But their markings are very similar. Emmie loves playing fetch. And if you ever hear me podcasting and a cat starts begging for attention, it’s usually Emmie. She loves to play, but she does not love it when I pick her up. She’s fine when Kenzie picks her up, but not me.

We have two new kittens in our house. A different friend from Birmingham had a cat that just gave birth. Gwen volunteered to help get them adopted. So he brought them over at the end of April. All but one are spoken for. Soooo we decided to keep him.

Thorne Murder Cat Gunn is a black kitten with a little white dot on her chest. She’s a bit more shy than some of the other cats. I’m gonna say that’s because she’s an introvert like the rest of our family.

Emo is an all black boy. He was loving early on. Now he’s a boy cat.

23:37 - Marc Gunn "A Lil Bit O'Love" from The Bridge (Celtic and Folk Music)

28:00 - STORY OF MINGULAY CAT SONG

“Mingulay Cat Song” is by far my favorite cat song to sing. Certainly, I love the original song “Mingulay Boat Song” by Sir Hugh S. Roberton. You can hear the story behind that song in episode #243. Follow the link in the show notes. Unlike many of my cat parody songs, this one stands out in that I love to sing both versions and they are their own unique sound.

I wrote “Mingulay Cat Song” when my oldest daughter, Kenzie, was probably 3 or 4 years old. I think she was in daycare. Every weekday morning, I would feed Kenzie before I took her to school. Then I’d race back home and work as much as I could before I head to pick her up again 4 hours later.

One morning, I remember her sitting in her high chair eating cheerios or some other hand food off the table. She had a sippy cup that she usually drank, first thing. But the morning in question, she only had a tiny bit of the cup before I realized I was gonna miss her drop off time. I quickly gathered her up. Threw her in my arms. Grabbed some shoes. We raced out the door.

I got back 30 minutes later. I took off my shoes, ran up the steps into the living room. I walked into the kitchen to clean up the food she had finished. Squish. My sock was soaked.

And not just soaked. It was sticky soaked. The juice was all over the floor next to the cup. A moment later, Jenga rubbed against my leg and I knew.

If you’ve ever had a cat, you’ve probably experienced something similar. Cats like to knock things over. Plain and simple. Jenga was our knocky-over cat. She was an overweight tuxedo cat. If ever we had an open drink sitting out for more than three minutes, she was not far away.

She passed away several years ago when we moved to Atlanta. We don’t have other cats that actively try to knock over drinks. And yet, we still prefer to use water bottles in our house. That was one of the bizarre consequences of her actions. No open liquid containers left unattended.

I actually get a little neurotic when people take the cap off their water bottles and leave it off. It drives me crazy.

The first two verses of “Mingulay Cat Song” were fairly easy to write. Just use actual experiences, like Kenzie’s juice bottle moment. How many times did we run to the bathroom with a show running and come back to find whatever drink we were drinking now all over the coffee table and floor.

The third verse, however, took a little bit more imagination. My wife likes cold icy water at bedtime. But fortunately, Jenga never knocked over icy water by the bed… But every time, I saw that icy water sitting there and Jenga jumped up on the bed, I just saw it happening in my mind.

But I have seen her try to stick her head in the water so much that I really love adding the “tongue can’t reach it” during the live shows to add a bit more comedy to this serious song.

The final verse attempts to answer WHY cats knock water over. I think most cat fans like to say that their cats are just jerks… which, ye know, has it merits. But I love that add a scientific approach. They are conducting a physics experiment.

And of course the last lines:

“Tap the glass cats, watch it jiggle

If it doesn't tip over, then knock it again”

In mind, are just beautiful comedy.

33:07 - “Mingulay Cat Song” from Selcouth

You can download this song as an MP3 when you join my Gunn Runners on Patreon.

What are you doing while listening to Pub Stories? I’d love your thoughts and feedback. So take a picture of yourself or where you are or what one of these stories reminds you of. Post it on social media. Use the hashtag #pubstories so I can find it and share your story.

Thanks for listening to Pub Songs & Stories. The show was produced by Marc Gunn, edited by Mitchell Petersen with graphics by Miranda Nelson Designs. You can subscribe and listen to the regular show wherever you find podcasts. You can also subscribe to my mailing list. You will get regular updates of new music, podcasts, special offers, and you'll get more stories behind several of my most-popular songs.

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