"Johnny We Hardly Knew Ye"

A dear friend of the family and musical performer at each of the nine Fests to date, Stryker, composed especially for this year's JW Kickball and Kegger Family Fest a song about and dedicated to John -- "Johnny We Hardly Knew Ye."  It was composed a few weeks before the Fest and Stryker regaled everybody with the backstory.  According to Stryker, the music and lyrics just flowed to him as if through inspiration and at the very end of the composition session, the "G" (or middle) string on his guitar broke (an unusual occurrence for that particular string).  Stryker took this as one more indication of John's presence and inspiration.  The proof of this inspiration can be seen in the below photo (click on photos to see enlarged version).

At the fest, the song was performed by Gobbler's Knob with Stryker on lead vocals and guitar, John's little brother Mike on bass, and long-time friend of the family Dish on drums.  Prior to performing the debut of this song at the Fest, Stryker gave John's parents a framed presentation of the original composition notes along with the printed lyrics and a photo of his inspiration during the composition session.

The actual lyrics can be seen here.

And last but not least, a practice version of the song featuring Stryker and Mike can be heard here or below (depending upon viewing device).