Πάλι Μεθυσμένος Είμαι

I am slightly hungover this morning after our rehearsal last night with Mike the drummer and P the fiddler. P hosted us at his place—he doesn’t live too far from us. Joe brought a bottle of wine, but I brought a bottle of Barbayannis ouzo.

The Barbayannis family has been making ouzo on Lesbos since Efstathios Barbayannis arrived from the Black Sea port of Odessa, Ukraine in 1860. Their distillery is located in Plomari, which has historically been the center of ouzo production on the island. They even operate an ouzo museum! Plomari isn’t far from the hill town of Agiassos, where my maternal grandfather was born and raised.

P was very happy—he’s an ouzo drinker like me, which is cool. Needless to say that by the end of the night, I was wasted. I was still able to play though. P knows many of the same songs we know from Lesbos along with a repertoire of music from Crete and the Dodecanese Islands, more of which I’d love to learn. P will be joining us tonight at Café Apollonia in Roslindale.

A couple of P’s Greek neighbors heard us playing and stopped over, including N who has a lovely singing voice that is reminiscent of Kostas Nouros, who I’ll be featuring in my next Rembetiko of the Month.