Clueless, they all shrUgged their shoulders. Ronnie gave us his best grown (Where the f...?), but Barney remained missing. After a goodish (Irish) half-an-hour, a cheerful Barney appeared on the scene. He explained that he had been on the search for a big glass of cold milk, to no avail.
Barney continued to give me a lecture for a full hour - about the various merits of cold milk, for the joints and bones, the voice, the texture of the fingernails, and what not.
That was my first encounter with you.
A few years later, I guess it was 1993, we all took the train from Wiener
Neustadt to Ljubljana for a gig. Right after departure, Barney invited me to
join him in the buffet car to have a beer.
We didn't leave there until we arrived at our destination and I honestly can't
remember how many beers we had. But I remember vividly to this day, that for six
hours, I laughed non-stop about Barney's stories, anecdotes and jokes.
That was my most beautiful encounter with you.
In each and every Dubs gig I ever attended – and I surely have seen them well over 300 times – Barney included "Mason's Apron" within his Banjo solos for me. When I was going to Munich or Hamburg, there wasn’t the chance to talk to him personally every time. Often, our contact was limited to a quick “Hello”, but nevertheless, Barney never forget about my tune (Peter is here, I gotta play "Mason's Apron").
"Mason's Apron" always was my personal highlight in a Dubliners gig.
Please click the link below to listen to Barney announjcon "Mason's Apron" for Peter Heinz – with the added tease that he only will do it if he can remember it…
Barney 6. September 2006 Vienna
Thank you, Barney, for "Mason's Apron".
Thank you Barney, that I was allowed to be your friend.
Barney & Peter Heinz in friendly talk
(14. September 2007, Vienna)
