Let The Vocalist Own the Song

In my view, a song writer has to let the singer own the song.   I don't mean that the singer literally owns the song and gets all the royalties.  What I mean is that as a song writer you have to let the singer take your song and sing it like they own it.  Everyone that does a song will put their own personality into the song and will put in their own feelings to the song.  It may or may not reflect how you initially intended the song to sound, but as far as I'm concerned, doing it differently doesn't mean its not right.  Who says you were right anyway.  Let the singer be right.   If the singer does it how you intended it to be, then you were probably right - at least that's how I satisfy my ego. 

This video is from a performance by Irene Kirk at the Magpies Extravaganza on May 24th at the Expressionz Cafe.   The song is called Two Roses.  Its a song I wrote in my car on the way home from a song writing workshop about 3 months ago.  I've been after Irene to do the song for about 2 months.  We got together at Wayne and Irene's house the night before the extravaganza and worked it out that evening.  She ask me 'how do you want it to be sung".   I told her I wanted her to take the song and make it her own.  We had to work on emphasis to fit with the music and in the end Irene actually does the song the way I intended it to be sung.   I've never really be comfortable singing it myself and to get someone else to sing it, it is a great feeling.    

The performance in the video is the first time the song has been played in public.   It is the first time that Irene sang it in public.   We did it again a the Java Express Open Mike a night later.  I think Irene was a bit nervous about doing the song, but each time she does it, it becomes more and more "her" song. 

Anyway, watch the video.  Hope you like the song.   Thanks to Larysa for taking the video and sharing it with us.  In a few months I'll try to get another video of Irene doing the song, and we'll how it sounds then.  

Magpies Extravaganza

Playing a Jimmy Rogers tune

with Louanne, Tom, Don, & Brian

Performing "Road to Nowhere"

We had been thinking of doing something where we could invite a few people we sometimes play music with, so they could all showcase what they do.   So, we rented Expressionz Cafe for the evening.  Expressionz is this great place in Edmonton where musicians and artist can showcase their talents.  We've been going there since last year, so it seemed to be the perfect place.  

I can't begin to tell you how much fun I had.  I think everyone there who came to play got the opportunity.   We ran it much like an open stage, but we encouraged everyone to ask others to come up and play.  It made for a very interesting evening that included standard country tunes with great guitar & fiddle playing, some folk and country folk tunes with everything from bouzouki, mandolin, fiddle, keyboard, bass, and accordion, and sometimes all at the same time.  It was great to hear some of our standard songs played with a whole new sound.   

We had some blues tunes played and a few more rockin' tunes too.  

I figured that I would only get up and play on a few songs, but ended up playing most of the night.   I invited a lot of good friends, some who I haven't seen for a while, and my biggest disappointment is that I didn't get to visit with them much.  

My biggest thrills for the evening is getting to play 3 new song for the first time in public.  Our friend Irene did a great job on vocals for "Two Roses". (we are going to do it again tonight in Stoney Plain).  We also played "Valley Green Monsters" for the first time.  This is a song that Brian, Don and I wrote.    We also did "Road To Nowhere" but differently that the version in my video (see a past post).  With Brian on Bouzouki and Don on Keyboard, this song has taken on a whole new and much more interesting life. 

We asked everyone to take lots of photos and videos.  We had a couple of family members take photos and videos of the entire evening, and we recorded it off the soundboard.  Once we gather up all the photos, videos, and 'soundtrack' we'll try to put it all together into a kind of documentary on the evening.  

In the end, we had to put out a bit of our own $ to cover the expenses, but it was a really cheap way to have fun with Friends and family.   Now, to plan the next Extravaganza