So I keep forgetting and then keep getting reminded of my passion....Music. Can you believe I'd forget I have it? There are stretches of time I WON'T listen to music on my own - it takes up time I don't have....I get sucked into it - want it - forget the world because of it. And then I go for a stretch of gulping it down like a glass of cold water on a hot day! Can't get enough....
I've been so fortunate these last two weeks to get a couple of glass fulls! Discovery of new artists and reminiscing with the old! My friend had a house party with a friend coming over to play a gig...he does country - he was the banjo player in Walk the Line (even though he really plays guitar, not the banjo). He brought 2 other musician friends. YEA! Oh who is he? Larry Bagby - you can find him easily on google. K. I'll stay focused on him for a minute. Yeah - so I listened to Country. I gotta say! I think I love pretty much any and all live music! It stirs the blood. So Justine Bennett sang with him - really really liked how well she blended in with him. I got hooked, though, when they told their story of how they met. She jumped up on stage and sang with him, uninvited, at a concert of his, and they let her stay because she was so good. Can I tell you I have fantasized about doing that to someone someday?!? So I was fascinated by her bravery and questioned her like crazy how she got up the guts to do it. Awesome!!!
And the other friend - new discovery for me, and now I'm a huge fan! I'm really kicking myself because I allowed myself to get way too busy to sit down and listen while he was playing! Cary Judd "opened the show"...showing up at the right time, while Larry was an hour and a half late. Cary does more folk music, than country. Definitely my style!!! And a hugely talented guy! Played all his own stuff - recorded tracks and such along with his guitar and harmonica. But a good portion of my reason for being a fan is his lyrics - really creative, yet understandable and clear lyrics. Yeah, he writes 'em. So I got his CD - and of course his autograph! - then googled and found he had another album on itunes, which I had to buy too. Been listening to that over and over. That ice cold glass of water I was talking about. And I wasn't paying close enough attention when he was live here! That's when I say to myself "I suck!"
And THEN!!!! I was so flipping excited to see an ad that The Nylons were coming here to little tiny St G!!!! "Who the heck are they?" you ask. One of those odd groups that Lyric introduced me to that I fell in love with back in the day. I listened to their album over and over and over again. Danced and dreamed dreams to this album - fell in love with the constellation Orion because of their song, "The Stars are Ours". I have never gotten tired of looking at Orion over the years. Probably becuase he's the only constellation I can find besides the Big Dipper! But anyway! They came and I got to see them last night!!! They've been described as "Rock Apella" - a capella rock, even though itunes calls them Easy Listening. I was in heaven singing all of those songs with them last night. Probably a very obnoxious and annoying person to sit next to. The older gentleman next to me didn't complain, though - luckily! Their opening group was T Minus 5 - a UT group of guys that do rock apella. Very enjoyable. I did get their CD too.
And so I sigh. I think half the reason why I like my hip-hop gym class (which, I AM a big dork in, but I like it too much to care!!) is the music. I usually don't find the stuff on my own.... Like he played a song that was a hip version of Sting's Legal Alien. Had to go ask who it was - Black Eyed Peas. Then Gwen Stefani's number where she does the yodeling song from The Sound of Music! How awesome is that??? To get the Lonely Goatherder on mainstream radio?!! Yodeling? I love it!!!!
I promised myself that I will be in a performing group someday! I like doing solo, but it's 'cause I'm lazy. Too much drama and work to get others involved and you have to coordinate schedules and personalities. But I gotta tell ya, I get a greater high when I get to perform with others. It is the biggest high when all of you are going full out and you're just in synch with each other. It's incredible!!!! I don't think I've ever experienced a greater high than being in All-State Choir! Kids from all over the State intensely focused on the conductor - all with a desire to be there. And to know you're just a tiny part of the whole - but the whole in which you're a part of is like a live entity in itself. Weaving, ebbing and flowing, moving according to the conductor's hands - discovery, beauty, glory!
As to what kind of music? I have a passion for Baroque and I love the madrigals.... And I really really like folk music. And I like this rock apella stuff. And And And.
I don't know! Just whatever I can!!!! I would love to take lessons on how to sing Jazz, Celtic, Rock, ummm..... I'd like to learn how to yodel. I'd even like to learn how to do the country twang - but I like the vocal twists like the Cranberries have. Umm....I oughtta go ahead and learn how to belt while I'm at it - that's Broadway style. And here again I sigh. I'm just getting older and older. By the time I get to do all this stuff, I'm just gonna be a grey haired granny. A little past my prime they'd say in my "reviews". That's the crappy part. But then I really don't care. I don't care to get famous at all. It's just the "Doing It" that gets me pumped up! And so you've gotta be good enough that people want you enough so that you can have a reason to keep doing it. That's the performer's bug. So I don't know. I just wanna learn. Can I tell you how much I would love to be the female version of Josh Groban? I'd just LOVE to sing with him!!!!! Wouldn't that be CRAZY????? I think that's one of the reasons why I like his stuff so much! I've got that big operatic voice, too - it's just what kind of stuff do you do with that?!!! Josh Groban stuff! But I gotta tell ya! It's so dang hard to sing a Tenor's song in female range! Too high or too low - the switch between the ranges isn't so hot in the female range. Sara Brightman's the only one I know who can comfortably carry that off! Man! I idolize that woman's talent!!! Pop, opera, and Broadway (even though I'm not the hugest Broadway lover...gasp!!! I know shocking! Broadway just doesn't grip me as much as rock and opera. Odd, I know. I'd just rather be up on stage for Broadway than to sit and listen to it.)
K. So I really oughtta go to bed - those after work naps are a killer at bedtime... and then you pay for it during the day. So lucky you! You get another update without 3 months going by since the last one!
So I'm gonna dream while I work and slave and run run run.... One of these days! I will - I will do something one of these days....
