January and February 1983 were busy months for the Squirrels. Hot on the heels of the New Year’s gigs, we were playing McPatrick’s again, playing a couple of Tuesday night shows, one that did quite well, perhaps because I had plastered Cape Fear Tech with posters and got a bunch of my classmates to go, but the other was not well attended. A Saturday McPatrick’s gig did well and featured Peter D’s reggae version of “Happy Birthday”, sung to Theresa Fowler. A few extra cover tunes were added to pad the set list out a bit but most were only played once or twice before being dropped. New venues included the Patio and the No Name Saloon (behind Annabelle’s). Unfortunately, shortly after the end of February, McPatrick’s closed their doors.

During this time, a few more originals were added to the set, including “Come Dancing”, “A Different Kind of Sleep” and an instrumental I wrote (pre-Squirrels) called “Straits”. Peter took a very different approach to the song than I did-where I was thinking Pink Floyd, he was hearing African rhythms. In any event, it was my first (and only) song performed on-stage by the Squirrels.

Gig Dates w/links to posters:

• Jan 12 McPatrick’s
• Jan 15 McPatrick’s
• Feb 1 McPatrick’s
• Feb 11-12 The No Name Saloon
• Feb 19 The Patio
• Feb 26 McPatrick’s