Last night--or, rather, early this morning at one in the a.m.--a small assemblage of troubadours, vagabonds, tipplers, orphans, brawlers, bawlers, and n'er-do-wells gathered near and 'round the old upright on the stage of the pavillion of the Neshoba County Fair for the A. J. Yates' Memorial Late Night Sing, led by co-chairperson Dr. Joe Jordan (my dentist and little-league baseball coach) and pianist/co-chairperson Laura Bryan (my fourth-grade teacher and elementary-school librarian). Each year, Dr. Jordan puts a cardboard box full of collections of stapled-together lyric sheets--containing (at last count) the words to eighty-five songs--on the piano, and somehow the sheets are all grabbed and passed around (though there are rarely enough copies, as all seem to share, many looking over the shoulder of a stranger). Ms. Bryan then begins playing and singing at her discretion, following the order listed on the sheets while skipping over a song or two here and there. Sometimes she'll announce the next song, but just as often she'll just begin playing the next tune, expecting at least a few of the throng to recognize the melody and begin to warble the correct words (and they invariably do). Bryan never pauses more than a few seconds between songs, and the duration for the hootenanny entire lasts approximately half an hour. 
All the songs date back to bygone eras. Most of the tunes are turn-of-the-century vintage, while others range from the early Tin Pan Alley days to the weeks just before America entered World War II (and the oldest hails from the pre-Civil War era). A small smattering of genres are represented, including pop, country, ragtime, folk, and show tunes. The first page of the lyric sheets includes "My Wild Irish Rose," "In the Good Ole Summer Time," "Moonlight Bay," "Oh, You Beautiful Doll," "Wait Till the Sun Shines Nellie," "You Are My Sunshine," "When You Were a Tulip," "Put on Your Old Gray Bonnet," and "School Days" (not the Chuck Berry version, either). Somewhere near the back of the collection lies the folk song "Goodnight Irene," first popularized and often attributed to Lead Belly (he recorded the song in 1936, but the tune is older than that--and probably older than him). "Goodnight Irene" has since been recorded by many a musician, with acts as diverse as Johnny Cash, Dr. John, Bryan Ferry, Jimmy Buffet, PJ Harvey, and Van Morrison (who sang it during his very first performance) covering the song; moreover, The Weavers, Frank Sinatra, and Ernest Tubb & Red Foley all hit #1 on the Billboard charts with their respective versions.Tom Waits's rendition is perhaps my favorite. Included on his immaculate 2006 triple-album Orphans: Brawlers, Bawlers, and Bastards (the best collection of rarities and B-sides I've ever heard), Waits's take is the most all-inclusive recording of the song ever put to tape (or mp3 or vinyl or shellac). Singing the lead vocal in his gruff, razzled, melancholic voice (and this distinction is important here, for Waits uses more than one "voice" throughout his canon), Waits sings the lead as if in a state of slightly inebriated reverie--and he backtracks himself singing both in varying pitches and in varying tones, a warbling and caterwauling* drunken chorus of hangers-on and drinkin' buddies, all drowning merrily in the storyteller's sorrow. The simple arrangement of piano and accordion, along with the echo-hall production, support the rambling vocals, all of which seem to invite the audience to sing along. It doesn't matter if you can't sing in tune or on key, and it doesn't matter if you don't know the words. Just chime in during the chorus--or peer over the shoulder of the guy who's got the lyrics in his hands--and be careful not to spill your beer on his shirt.
*Notes - Waits pushes the highest-pitched backing vocal to the fore, and that particular voice sends my wife and son into fits of pain and laughter. They hate this song.
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