No Time For Work; More Music!

My Thanksgiving weekend has been an absolute blur. Friday night was spent in a number of different pubs around town, gigging with a few friends and singing Karaoke. This week's karaoke experience was similar to the previous weeks'; I got a lot of compliments and admiration from the drunks. I went a little out of my element for song selection, as I do not like singing the same songs week after week, so I tried three numbers that I have never done before. I warmed up with CCR's Proud Mary, which I totally nailed. For some reason I thought the vocals were much higher (in pitch) than what it was.

For my second song, I decided I would try one of my favorites: April Wine's Tonite is a Wonderful Time -- which I did very well, except for the last verse. There is a nasty key change, and the vocals go way up there. Sure, it's easy for a female to sing, but a male has got to squeeze those cajones really tight to hit those notes. I managed the best I could, but my voice broke a few times. The karaoke DJ said that she'd drop the song down a key the next time I sing the song. That should help considerably.

I decided to be daring for that last song, and I decided to not give a damn about what anybody else thought of me, so I got up and sang the Eagles' I Can't Tell You Why. This is a particularity challenging song, as the vocals are so high, and much of the song is sung in falsetto. There were a few bad notes, but for the most part I was happy with my performance.

When I had finished the song, the whole bar fell asleep. I guess they wanted to hear something upbeat. I know that some of the songs I have chosen got good responses regardless of how well I sung them. Trooper's Raise A Little Hell comes to mind. I sung the bridge of that song horribly, but the patrons could have cared a less. The entire bar were banging their heads, fists clenched in the air (think Beavis and Butthead), singing along.

We did not stay for me to sing any more numbers, I was expected to make an appearance at another pub that evening. But I may have to return to that karaoke bar in the near future; it appears that I am developing a bit of a fan base there. Too bad I am too old for Canadian Idol. Not like I would ever audition for that show anyway. I will have to provide my reasons in some other post. But if you would like some insight as to why, please view my previous post here.

I managed to stuff myself full of turkey with the family on Sunday, and spent much of the evening trying to install important software on my brand new iMac. There is still a lot of software that I will need to transfer, but since my laptop is completely non-functional, I will have to solicit a computer technician to rip my laptop apart and retrieve the information stored on the hard drive. Sadly, the laptop did not have a CD burner, so there was no way I could back up some 30 gigabytes of data.

My Monday wasn't so much of a holiday, as I spent much of the day in the recording studio. A musical acquaintance of mine is writing an album for submission to the big five record labels: BMG, Sony, Universal, EMI and Warner. This happens to be the bass player I helped play a gig with the past weekend. He sent me some demos of the songs on email, and I was pleasantly surprised at the songwriting. The general sound is reminiscent of Default or Nickelback, but there are differences. I felt the songs were quite marketable, so I told him that I'd help him out and cut the drum tracks for him. Monday afternoon I managed to cut three drum tracks. There are apparently many more to do. At the least, I could get performance credit on a CD that might make it in the hands of some very important people.

Last night I was at Grease rehearsal when the unexpected happened. I have now been cast in the play as Johnny Casino. Now I have lines to learn in addition to my hefty musical responsibilities. Looks like I will have to shave my beard off and cut my hair for the part. Important information regardning Grease tickets have been posted below.

Oh, by the way, I have already been asked to play drums for the next musical theatre production: Anne of Green Gables. I have given them a preliminary "yes".