Musical Hound joins his dad’s band on stage for a good howl
Bluegrass photographer and musician Brennan Gilmore remembers his dog Jack with mixed feelings. The rescued hound was diagnosed with cancer in 2018 but lived well beyond his prognosis for 6 months and passed away peacefully in the fall of 2020.
During their time together, Gilmore and Jack traveled the world, learning about life and developing a shared love for bluegrass music. Gilmore, Reddit’s MrJackDog manager, recently shared a video of Jack jamming with his band, Walker’s Run, to subReddit, r/aww.
As you may have guessed, r / aww is the domain for those who want to escape the harsh reality of the world. It has exclusive cute content like photos and videos of Puppies, rabbits and babies make you say “Aww!”
The title to Gilmore’s video reads: “My dog slept backstage and roamed the show to sing with the band. In it, Jack howls to the perfect tune as his dad and Walker’s Run rock buddies hit the pitch. The post has received so much love from fellow Redditors that Gilmore was forced to share more. about the sociable hound.
Gilmore adopted his beloved Jack from the pound in Rockbridge County, Virginia. Despite being of hound blood, Jack never “barked, howled or whispered” during their first year together.
According to Gilmore, Jack was likely abused and dumped by his previous family. Sadly, this is common practice with hunting dogs in the area. It will take a long time for Gilmore to gain Jack’s trust.
Just a few months after Jack was adopted, the couple cleaned up and moved to the Central African Republic for two years. Here, man and dog bonded together, and Jack finally found his voice.
Gilmore wrote: “I was playing guitar one night, and when I was holding a slide and playing a run, Jack made a sound. “He heard the howling sound of glass on steel strings and simulated it, almost musically. I was nervous, and the sessions became a nightly affair. From then on, from Africa to Washington, eventually home to Blue Ridge, whenever we played music, Jack joined in. He became not only my best friend but also my current music partner.”
In 2016, Walker’s Run premiered at a theater in Little Washington, Virginia. With no one to track Jack down, Gilmore took him with him. The puppy rested comfortably in the green room, but someone forgot to close the door when the band was called back on stage to sing encore.
“We started the tune (Hangman’s Reel) and after about a minute I noticed everyone in the stands pulled out their phones to take pictures,” Gilmore said. “Then we looked over and saw that Jack had found his way onto the stage. He looked at us, looked at the audience, and then let her tear.”
The result is this lovely video!
Apparently, Reddit users loved Jack’s performance as much as the original audience. In less than a week, the post garnered more than 108,000 upvotes.
Although Jack has passed away, Gilmore says his spirit lives on in his heart and in his music.
“I have a guitar with him engraved on the headband and some of his ashes inside so he always sings when we play.”
Featured images via Instagram