Auditionning new songs

[Tom]

2 or 3 times a year the Delta Strummers hold an open mic' session where individuals or groups introduce new songs to the Delta Strummers Band. A number of my prior open mic' offerings have shown up in our concert playlists 

This time around, I have/am involved with a couple of offerings:

• I joined the Band In The Bay, Delta Strummers who live in our Discovery Bay community. We have a couple of songs that we want to audition at our next open mic' session (March 27). We've been practicing at members' homes.
• I personally have a couple of songs that I'll audition as an individual.

[8Muddypaws]

Doing any of mine?   LOL

[Tom]

Thanks for the reminder Russ. It's been a while since I looked through them & tried to play any.

FWIW the Band In The Bay had already chosen and were practicing their two offerings before I joined the group; So I was playing catchup. My personal open mic' offerings usually come from songs that are buzzing around in my head at the time. So far, I've only firmed one up (a ballad) for the upcoming open mic' and need to find another. Off to look at your "library". BTW the mp3 files help a lot for the songs I hadn't heard before.

[8Muddypaws]

I knew those would come in handy some day.

[Tom]

Our open mic' session on Tuesday was extremely entertaining. The decision was made to have all 16 offerings performed that evening, rather than spread over a couple of weeks. I was on first with my solo of Please Release Me, made famous by Englebert Humperklunk. I preceded the solo with some background on how he got his stage name.

Unfortunately, I've had a hard time singing the last 8 weeks. My visit to my primary physician met with a prescription for antibiotics and "you'll be fine for your March concert". I wasn't, and have got worse since. I had to sing an octave down to get through the song on Tuesday.

The other 15 songs were wonderful, and we have some good fodder for future songs in our portfolio. I participated in two group songs by The Band In The Bay; We sang Leaving On A Jet Plane, albeit in a different (IMHO incorrect) key from the original. We also sang The Thing, a "novelty song" with a visual prop by another band member.