Last night, I decided I have a new career path to pursue: backup singer. Why, you might ask, would someone who so clearly loves a spotlight want to give focus to someone else? Why would I want to hang in the background, adding one of many colors to a soundscape being provided for some other singer? I can give you two reasons: 1) There's very little pressure put on a backup singer. After all, I'm just background noise (albeit BEAUTIFUL background noise), and if I get a little lost or hit a wrong note, chances are good that no one in the audience will know something is off (and if they do, chances are good they won't know WHO is off). And 2) It's so much fun!!
I was asked by
David Duvall (who is the best thing to happen to my career in Seattle since, well, since I came here) if I would sing backup for a one night event, "Singin' and Swingin' with Bobby D". It was a tribute concert showcasing the work of Bobby Darin, performed by the fabulous Seattle actor and singer,
Bob De Dea (that's 2 Bobby D's for the price of one). I had the pleasure of sharing a stage with Bob last December in "Pinocchio", though in truth, our characters never interacted. In fact, this is the only photo I could find with both of us in it:
I'm the blue one, and Bob is standing just behind me wearing the big blonde wig. (He might be in the background in this pic, but in reality, Bob was pretty much the focal point when he was onstage, with his larger-than-life costumes and larger-than-life Gepetta.) And so when David invited me into this project, I was thrilled to have a chance to actually work with Bob. And it was nothing less than thrilling! I knew little about Bobby Darin going into this. I could have named one song, "Beyond the Sea", and I knew that there was a Kevin Spacey biopic some years ago, which I never saw. Bobby Darin wrote dozens of songs (his first hit was "Splish Splash", which he wrote in 12 minutes) and made the works of other writers his own. He sang in a variety of styles, had pop hits and country hits and folk hits and R&B hits (he did a whole album of Ray Charles covers which helped bring Mr Charles into the consciousness of white America in 1962). And last night, we got to sing them all! Well, Bob sang 40 songs, and we backed up about half of them (we being myself,
Kim Maguire, and
Cheryl Massey-Peters, two top-notch singers that I was humbled to share a rickety little platform with). David played keys and did all the arrangements for a 9-piece band, and man oh man, did he put together a show! The spotlight, of course, was on Bobby D, and the crowd adored him, as they should have. All in all, it was a fabulous evening of music, and I can only hope that we get to do it again.
If you'd like a little taste of the event, here's Bob and David performing "Mack the Knife" (I haven't figured out how to add a clickable link to this blog, so you'll actually have to cut-and-paste the following address, then click PLAY on the video--technology is so wonderful, when I know how to use it):
http://www.king5.com/new-day-northwest/Bob--159725155.html
And while I had a great time being in the background last night, I am incredibly excited to be in the spotlight again for
a one night concert event on September 8: little ol' me singing Patsy Cline!! I have David to thank for this (thank you!!), and we're calling it "Foolin' Around with Patsy Cline". We'll have a 4- or 5-piece country band, and I don't expect to have any backup singers (or "angels" as I like to refer to them, having seen Leonard Cohen in concert where he referred to his backups as such). That spotlight will be white hot, and it will feel just like home.
I'm the blue one, and Bob is standing just behind me wearing the big blonde wig. (He might be in the background in this pic, but in reality, Bob was pretty much the focal point when he was onstage, with his larger-than-life costumes and larger-than-life Gepetta.) And so when David invited me into this project, I was thrilled to have a chance to actually work with Bob. And it was nothing less than thrilling! I knew little about Bobby Darin going into this. I could have named one song, "Beyond the Sea", and I knew that there was a Kevin Spacey biopic some years ago, which I never saw. Bobby Darin wrote dozens of songs (his first hit was "Splish Splash", which he wrote in 12 minutes) and made the works of other writers his own. He sang in a variety of styles, had pop hits and country hits and folk hits and R&B hits (he did a whole album of Ray Charles covers which helped bring Mr Charles into the consciousness of white America in 1962). And last night, we got to sing them all! Well, Bob sang 40 songs, and we backed up about half of them (we being myself, Kim Maguire, and Cheryl Massey-Peters, two top-notch singers that I was humbled to share a rickety little platform with). David played keys and did all the arrangements for a 9-piece band, and man oh man, did he put together a show! The spotlight, of course, was on Bobby D, and the crowd adored him, as they should have. All in all, it was a fabulous evening of music, and I can only hope that we get to do it again.
If you'd like a little taste of the event, here's Bob and David performing "Mack the Knife" (I haven't figured out how to add a clickable link to this blog, so you'll actually have to cut-and-paste the following address, then click PLAY on the video--technology is so wonderful, when I know how to use it):
http://www.king5.com/new-day-northwest/Bob--159725155.html
And while I had a great time being in the background last night, I am incredibly excited to be in the spotlight again for a one night concert event on September 8: little ol' me singing Patsy Cline!! I have David to thank for this (thank you!!), and we're calling it "Foolin' Around with Patsy Cline". We'll have a 4- or 5-piece country band, and I don't expect to have any backup singers (or "angels" as I like to refer to them, having seen Leonard Cohen in concert where he referred to his backups as such). That spotlight will be white hot, and it will feel just like home.
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