Sing

not the best ever. It was a smaller crowd than usual, due to various Christmas functions & football games. Pus, snow was in the forecast & we don’t drive on snow down here.

Me & Bobby McGee went great ‘til I had to belt out that high E in my full voice. Hubby says & the recording confirms that I did hit the note, but pinched it instead of letting it resonate the way it needed to. I thought I did an AWFUL job, but people howled afterwards. One couple was SO excited about it & told me I NAILED it. So ap

Three gigs this week, the last of which is tonight… Last night was up in Nashville as part of (another) showcase. It went well, so hopefully tonight will, too – and then I’m giving my voice some well-deserved rest.

My vocal coach has had me working at improving my tone in the upper part of my register for awhile now. We were both frustrated because no matter what she tried, I seemed to get it for a split second, then lost it. Suddenly, this week, something clicked and I think I actually have it. When I sang at the showcase this week, she came up to me & asked, “You got it. Do you know how you got it, like what you were doing to get it?” I rattled off a long list & she looked so proud that I had to laugh.

“My little songbird is learning to make her way in the big scary world that is Nashville,” she said. It was a moment…

Would appreciate constructive feedback, as always.

I guess this is as good as I get…

I recorded the vocals last night. I like them & hopefully some other people will, too. They should be ready for MySpace this week & then we’re taking it to Nashville for our meeting.

Me & Bobby McGee was incredible. Tooting my own horn a bit, but I surprised myself with how powerful it was. Something happens when I’m singing in front of a crowd. I get way into it & just wail…

Our newest original song, Mean Girl, went over well. It was kind of cool that the girl that QB terrorized (& I refused to terrorize) showed up for the song’s debut since I wrote it because of her. She was laughing & grinning from ear to ear, and I couldn’t help breaking out into laughter halfway through the second chorus. Pure joy. So thanks to Jane & Double N who suggested that I write a song about all the stuff QB put us through.

Don’t Fear the Reaper & Lola were huge hits. Hubby just ROCKED on Lola!

After the gig, another writer asked if I’d consider recording a funny song that he wrote called, Gay Country, the story of a girl who sees Britney & Madonna kissing on tv & decides to leave her husband. Told him I’d love to do it. Sounds like fun. He seemed a little surprised – “Really?”

:)

It was a writer’s night at The Rusty Nail, a nice stage, great sound & a friendly crowd. We played three of our new songs & they ate them up. I was getting hugs from some of the other writers, people whooped & hollered. The booker asked back & then asked if we wanted to play a couple of other venues around town. It blew my mind because the other writers were really good, which I suppose means we’re pretty good too. Go figure.

My vocal coach came out to support us & by the end of the evening, they’d offered her a showcase night at a nice club for writers. They asked her to bring in 3-4 of her students who have original material, and of course, she’d get to do a half hour set of her own. She asked hubby to play guitar for her set, which means that we also get to do a few of our songs. That’ll be a great time because she’s so awesome. We have a totally platonic love fest going on right now. Hubby & I are both crazy about her & it seems to be mutual.

saw that we have a gig in Nashville tomorrow so she asked if we wanted to come by her studio & run through a quick rehearsal. Gratis. And she’s coming to the gig, too. Should be fun.

Apparently, it’s pretty easy to keep saying, “Let’s run through it again,” when you’re not the one who’s having to belt E5 in your full voice…

The last time I played the writers’ coffeehouse, I told a story about how I had done a blues jam in a little bar in Luckenbach, TX. When I was finished, one of the old-timers told everybody that I reminded him of “a little girl named Janice Joplin who used to stop in here.” It was a great compliment, until I got home & started thinking maybe it was my long, wild hair & tie dye top that reminded him of her… Hmmm…

When I told the story at the coffeehouse, everybody laughed & one of the men in back yelled out a request for Me & Bobby McGee. I laughed it off, but after the show, he told me he’d really like to hear me do That song because he thought I had the right voice for it. I thanked him, but thought to myself “Yeah, right. Like I would ever try to cover Janice…”

Tonight, in the middle of rehearsal for our next coffeehouse performance with a friend of ours, hubby just handed me a sheet of lyrics & started playing the song. It was the first time I’d ever tried to sing it & I was pretty sure I didn’t have a “Janice” bone in my body.

But I was wrong. I can’t say I nailed it 100% – but it was really good.

“See?” hubby said to the bass player, “She always does that – says she can’t do something & then just does it.”

So weird. Good weird, though…

Another songwriter is having a showcase in early November & asked us to split it with him, so it would be 30 minutes of just him with his original material, 30 minutes of us with our original material, and an hour of covers.

He REAALLLY wanted to sing The Picture by Sheryl Crow & Kid Rock. I don’t really care much for the song, but it’s going to be great practice for extending my range up into my head voice.

Oh, and we’re doing a cover of Don’t Fear the Reaper.

I get to play the COWBELL! :) :) :)