Meg had a crazy day yesterday, with several speaking engagements for her union, and then our little song-fest as part of the monthly Workers’ Cabaret held at the The End.
Didn’t get to see all of Meg’s talks, but I was around for some, playing the political wife role – look pretty, be charming, make small talk and generally adore her. Really, not a bad role. In fact, I quite enjoy it, as the circles she travels in are circles that I am conversant with and can engage with myself. Ends up being more fun for me, probably, than for her – I just have to eat, drink beer, talk work and weather and news and whatever else, and bask in her glory. No, not a bad role at all!
We were talking about this yesterday – the whole political wife thing. And in particular how that can be a dreadful place to be when one is really out of one’s element, or has to live that position all day every day. In our case, however, we share the role, alternating between my events and hers, taking turns being the introduced and the introducer, the supporter and the supported. And that’s good all around, cause as much as it would suck to always be the tag-along, it sucks equally to always be performing. Shared background, shared spotlight. It’s working for us.
Shared spotlight. That’s where the evening ends, as we wander into The End with guitar, violin and song-sheets to get up on our first stage together. Now, Meg’s done alot of this public performance thing, and for crowds a whole lots bigger than this one. Me, I mostly play and sing at home alone or with one or two friends. So while we’re both nervous, Meg at least has some sense of what to expect, and how to handle those nerves on the stage. Me not so much. What’s more, I’ve never sung into a microphone before, and have no idea what is the appropriate distance to place myself from the mic. So I just guess. Wrong.
Really, it was OK. We played pretty well, we got through all our stuff, we were more or less in tune and actually did some quite nice harmonizing in places. But my performance aspect needs some work – gottta get closer to the mic, as my voice was not consistently well-enough projected. And I need to get used to the stage thing, and get comfortable there. Afraid I’d just be making moony-eyes at Megan, I didn’t look at her at all, instead just standing, looking above the audience and trying my best to block everyone out. The result? Those nerves of mine were well on-display for all to see. So, comfort needs some work. But that, I understand, is something that can only come with time.
So, I sing kinda quiet and need to get to know the microphone. I feel nervous and look nervous, and need some strategies to deal with that. We need to swtich spots on the stage so we are better-positioned to see and hear one another, interact a bit up there and show people that we’re having fun. But other than those, which seem to me to be all completely-manageable weaknesses, and ones that are bound to get better with subsequent shows, it was a good first outing, and we’re planning to be back next month with some new songs.
Our set-list and song details for anyone interested:
Behind the Barricades by David Rovics – Meg singing a capella. Gorgeously, I might add; I fucking love listening to her do this song.
Little Buffalo by Fred Eaglesmith – me on guitar and vocals, Megan on violin. I am told I was a bit fast on the tempo with this, so we’ll watch that in the future.
Oregon Landslide by Jim Page – me on guitar, Meg on vocals. A nice piece, and one that’s hard to get evenly-paced, but Meg pulled it off.
Between the Wars by Billy Bragg – me on guitar and vocals, Meg on violin. Can be a great one when we are on, but I think my unfamiliarity with the microphone really was noticeable on this.
Folsom Prison Blues by Johnny Cash – me on guitar, both singing alternating verses. This is so much fun to do together – just need to show that energy to the audience.
I Ain’t Got No Home by Woody Guthrie – me on guitar, singing together and harmonizing a bit. We do this quite nicely, and I think it worked fairly well for us.
Steve’s Hammer by Steve Earle – me on guitar, singing together and harmonizing a bit. A great song, and one that really deserves to be a labour standard. Went OK, aside from a brief screw-up on my guitar chords toward the end. We’ll keep this one in the mix, doing our bit to get it out and known as it should be.
A good set, actually. A mix of fast and slow, explicit and implicit politics, old and new. Great songs, all of them, and we manage to bring in enough variation in the hows of our performance to keep it all interesting.
I’m already excited about July’s show, and can’t wait to sit down and put together set-list number two.
Leave a comment