Rob Fitzpatrick a past Scoil Treasa (Firhouse) pupil and his band Thrifty Malone have released their first original song. The Irish / Country band are based in Gibraltar and the song is gaining momentum on stations across the USA, Canada, UK, Ireland, Spain, Gibraltar and Germany. The song has also featured on Total Country FM based in Inchicore. Our single is – Six Hours Down The Road and the video can be viewed on https://youtu.be/62M3GfNowrU.
Rob is the Mandolin player in the group and he commented about writing the song Six Hours Down The Road; “I met a Gulf War Veteran in West Virginia, back in 2007 and he told me about a friend of his who had fallen on hard times since leaving the Army and was struggling with PTSD and basically having a hard time trying to re-integrate to civilian life. He took a job working for a haulage company and spent a lot of time driving backwards and forwards through Mexico. He said being on the road meant he didn’t have to interact with people too much. He also used to carry what I think was an old Johnson automatic service rifle in his cab for protection, hence the reference to 30-06 (thirty aught six). He kept it above his head in the cab. I can’t be 100% sure about the weapon, so went with a 30-06 calibre. He was forever getting into fights and eventually picked a fight in the wrong bar, somewhere down near Juarez. He hit an off duty federale and was taken to jail. In jail he fell in with some bad company and was coerced into driving “goods” on his regular return journeys back to the US. The reference to Sinaloa isn’t necessarily about a specific gang just the wrong type of people to work with. The money was good and he just kept doing it, the more he did the more he earned. During this time he also met and fell in love with a dancer he met at one of the bars he frequented in Mexico, and she was trying to get him to stop and turn his life around. Not sure how it all ended but I like to think he settled with her in Guadalupe and has at last found peace”.
