He plays a song that pierces the crowd like an arrow, and it must be a cover of something famous and beloved, because everyone in the bar instantly sings along by heart. The hair on my arms stands on end as I listen to the crowd’s voices — male, female, old, young — support Finlay like an endearingly rough and sentimental choir.
It’s a song wrought with nostalgia, a melodic love letter to Scotland. It feels like everything I’ve ever felt, every conflicting emotion about my new home, about my shy love for this old country, about the cynicism it insists on wearing like a cape, about the beauty it offers openly and in abundance. Against my wishes, it reminds me of the thick, untouched layer of dust that’s settled on my homelife across the pond.
This song… it’s a punch to the gut. Finlay’s music had been sweet, enchanting. But this is a hint of his natural evolution, of what Finlay wants to become: the kind of musician whose magical, heart-wrung melodies leave the listener with tears in their eyes.
I clutch Rory’s arm tightly, wondering if I’ve drunk too much. But no. It’s on the candlelit faces of everyone here. They’re equally captivated and struck by this bittersweet potion of love and loss.
“Thank you,” Finlay says quietly into the microphone when he finishes. Wild cheers and wolf whistles explode around the bar. The noise in the room is deafening. I stand up with Danny, cheering and applauding like a maniac, and I grin as Danny subtly wipes tears from the corners of his eyes. “Thank you,” he says again, as though he hadn’t really expected this reaction. “Stay safe oot there, everyone.”
When the high from the bar descends, loud and eager conversation breaking out, Luke’s shaking his head with a kind of stunned amusement. “God, he’s a talented little prick,” he mutters, and then tosses the remainder of his water down the back of his throat, as though hoping for it to sear like alcohol.
I beam with pride, because yes, Finlayisa talented little prick. And with a quiet nod of assent from Rory, I spend the rest of the night worshiping it.