Rehearsal on Sept. 17th.
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"I, want to get inside your head you oughta know, it's time to grow.

We gotta try, try to justify this sacred testament, you ought to know.

Can't you see that life's not jaded, never been so elevated,

underneath the willow tree that is where I want to be."

"Shape that love communion in my mind...."

I woke up this morning with the lyrics to the last song running through my head. 8 days to go - I can't wait to get Mother Felker on stage.

MB

Wow! I had an awesome rehearsal with my guitarist for the acoustic set. Mr. Eric Branner. All I can say is that working with a professional musician is worth any amount of money you have to pay or  the dozens of cookies you have to bake!

In 60 minutes we worked through 3-4 songs, reworked some arrangements and even had Eric singing background vocals. This is how its supposed to be! Eric and I did our homework (Eric more than me) and we were able to work things out very quickly.

If you need anything guitar, I would strongly encourage you to contact Eric. If you love good music, Erics style is one I have personally tagged as clear country. It is pure, good music.

Now off to review a song or two before bed......10am. full band rehearsal tomorrow morning. Woohoo!

OKay, this morning I woke up with runny eyes and a croaky voice. I've got to figure out what is in my bedroom that is making me stuffed up at night. This is NOT good for my voice. Normally I can wake up and vocalize minimally to be on track, but today it is taking awhile. Not good! It's time to go into training mode and make sure I am getting enough sleep, washing my hands and avoiding getting sick.

Overall, I've been really pleased with how my voice has held up in rehearsal. The vocal rehearsals have went really ...<< MORE >>

Whewy - after SUnday's rehearsal I was a little nervous about the ending song, "It's love" - the band still needed to work it out and it just wasn't sitting right in my voice or in the set. The last 4 songs of the set are still bugging me a bit.

However, one of my clients came in for a lesson this evening and brought an awesome song. I listened to it and am making it the final song of the night. It ROCKS!  "Love Communion" by Glenn Hughes. I've been playing it non-stop and it keeps playing in my ...<< MORE >>

Whewy - after SUnday's rehearsal I was a little nervous about the ending song, "It's love" - the band still needed to work it out and it just wasn't sitting right in my voice or in the set. The last 4 songs of the set are still bugging me a bit.

However, one of my clients came in for a lesson this evening and brought an awesome song. I listened to it and am making it the final song of the night. It ROCKS!  "Love Communion" by Glenn Hughes. I've been playing it non-stop and it keeps playing in my ...<< MORE >>

OY! My apologies for not making many entries lately.....there is so much going on! Mostly, I've been spending the majority of my time trying to organize all of the band and get enough rehearsals in. Friday will be our first FULL band rehearsal, so I'm getting a little nervous. However, we had a partial band rehearsal on Sunday and that went very well. I have to say that Davee C (Drums) absolutely rocks and he is a gem to work with. The man walked into rehearsal ready to go and with a smile on his face. What a Pro! He even managed to convince Gerald Turner to come back on board playing bass, which is super exciting. Add to the rhythm section, Darrius Willrich, Eric Branner and Thaddeus Turner and I've got a rhythm section that won't quit. Many kudos to bassist Gary Smith for being willing to cram in the music on short notice too.

Can I mention how much I love, adore, admire and appreciate Jared Douglas and Shawna Locey on BGV? They make me look good, sound good and keep me on track. My biggest challenge now is working out the brain-farts in a couple of lyrics and remembering exactly who is doing what and where.

I'm still a little leery of the vocal improv on Rochelle Ferrell's "Why you wanna mess it all up?"...but am fairly certain that Thad will be able to give me something to sing off of.

12 days to go......gotta go teach right now, but more later, I promise.

Wheweee - what  a day. Actually, what a day and night. Today was my day to sit down and dissect all the charts, review parts. look up performances on you tube, memorize lyrics, work on stage plots and plan the flow - where to talk, where to stand, what to say etc.  So what happened? All of that AND I ended up changing the set list around. Darrius is going to KILL me when he returns from Australia. LOL.

The end result, other than me being really, really tired? An awesome concert list.......Jared even gave his "Amen" to it! It's such a great list that I'm actually getting a little nervous realizing that this gig is going to happen and I have to stand up and lead the whole thing. Yes, that is what's supposed to happen but as I just told my friend Sam, "It's less scary when it's all hypothetical....." Now, it's not only really, it's becoming up close and personal! My last job tonight is to try and come up with an awesome Press Release that encapsulates who and what Mother Felker is and then sell it to the press.

Tomorrow is a full day of rehearsals with Jared and Shawna.....they may revolt when I suggest that we should do the electric slide during  "All I want to do" - LOL. I'm going to try and video tape their expressions and post it!

Okay - off to create the story line for Mother Felker....

Nearly 3 hours of vocal rehearsals today......whew. It was Shawna's first rehearsal. (it was also her birthday, so I shared my birthday crown with her.)

The rehearsal went really well and Jared and Shawna sound awesome. If I can figure out how to post the rehearsal tracks, I will. They pick up things SO quickly - it's easy to forget how lucky I am to have such talented vocalists singing with me.  I'm also realizing how much work I still have to do on memorizing words, finishing up arrangements, staging the performance, getting the flow right etc. To top it all off, I ...<< MORE >>

Wow! What a night last night. I hosted (The Voice Project's ) our first Live! Peformance night in Seattle. Not only was it my birthday, but I promised my clients that I would sing a couple of songs from the upcoming Mother Felker concert. I tried to get out of it by plying them with the cupcakes that Erin brought, but they didn't relent.
(Between you and me, it was a test for me to get on stage and sing in front of all of them. Talk about singing for your toughest critics!)

So, I sang....
and it worked! Yay! Back on stage and I didn't freeze. In fact it was fun. Two of my clients agreed to play 'Some kind of Wonderful' on the fly - they grabbed a guitar and a bass and hopped on stage and went for it. Very fun.

I sang 2 other two songs as well. It's amazing all that goes through your head as you perform. I was noticing the stage mix, the monitors, blanked out on words and at times was afraid to take my eyes off the lyric sheet. (Note to self, don't take lyrics on stage next time...) So, this tells me I need to get more stage time before Sept. 28th.

So, here are a couple of pictures from the night. Can't wait for more.....