July 10, 2005

11:26 p.m.

The Sublime to the What?

Saturday was a dream gig. We played at a wonderful yoga / chiropractic center run by exceptional people. Not only were we treated to a superb vegan pot luck, but we had an audience who came in believing we could do no wrong. Carol had been rather sick all week with bronchitis, but she had enough voice to sing a long set and man, we cooked. We were articulate and witty and profound and we sounded like a choir of angels. Then we drove back to the band's house, got in around 1:30 and went to bed around 2:00.

I pretty much slept until the workmen came at 9:00 to resume putting in the screen porch. After they began there wasn't much point in pretending to sleep, so I got up and made myself some breakfast. After a bit there was a loud knock on the back kitchen door, which was about four feet from where I was sitting.

I answered and a startled carpenter apologized for not seeing me, but said they needed to get the water to the outside spigot turned off. So I went and woke Chris up (it took a few knocks; he was SOUND asleep & had no idea the guys were even there) and he went down and turned the water off. Once up, there was no point in going back to bed; we had to get ourselves organized for the afternoon's show. I in particular wanted to get there early to help set up the auction.

So he started making breakfast and, a short time later, Carol came into the kitchen with just about no voice at all. She'd shot her wad on Saturday and could barely croak.

Oh, dear.

So we started coming up with songs that we could render without her voice. First we eliminated all of HER songs (we usually trade back and forth). Then I made a list of my songs that wouldn't suffer unduly if only Chris and I sang them. That eliminated a few more, but we came up with sort of a list. You see, we specialize in intricate, interweaving harmonies. So we came up with a slightly lame set (which we called, "The Bornearly Show") and ran a few things to see how they'd do. Then Chris had a great idea, so we called two other, local singer songwriters we know to see if they wanted to come up and do a couple of songs each, and bring their CDs to sell. They both said yes, so we knew we had a nice variety of music to offer.

This has happened before. A couple of years ago, we had a cushy weekend-long gig in Virginia Beach and I lost my voice completely for a number of days. It's very hard, when you've worked four years integrating yourself into a trio, to suddenly have to reassert your solo identity. But what do you do? The best you can, and you try to find some humor in it. So that's what we did today.

Well... we didn't find a lot of humor in it, especially when I had a minor train wreck in the middle of one song because I got all distracted by the silence to my left. Probably some people didn't notice, or just felt a passing unease that they wrote off as a little gas. But no, it was me, blowing several chord changes and keeping a perfect poker face about it.

A 9-year-old kid who is a bit of a piano whiz opened for us with three songs. He's an amazing (if slightly precocious) kid, who happens to have a probably fatal brain tumor. I don't think the general public knew this, but he's the kid of a friend of a friend of Rose's, so I got the inside story. Anyway, with all the extra musicians, I felt the whole show went on a little long, even though we did a very short 2nd set. I'm exhausted. Mainly mentally. I wish it had "gone" better, that we'd been sharper, done what we can really do. But the day seemed to be a financial success for the Ghana Health Mission; they raised what they'd hoped for and people seemed happy.

And I'm way too tired to write any more, and besides must go and convince myself that I'm not getting a tinge of a sore throat. Back, dastardly germs. Yer name's NOT on the guest list.