New Ways to be a Singer

I think the old way is about turning music into a discreet commodity that you can trade. So you separate one singer from all the other singers and put her on a stage. A story about quality enters; good singers get on stage; OK singers join a choir; everyone else is Not a Singer so sits in the audience and listens. You can charge these people for a ticket to hear the singers sing.

This Singers/Non Singers divide is in contrast to the times when Everyone's a Singer. Like, the pub at St Issey on Mayday Eve, when I walked in and everyone in that packed out pub was singing 'Let the Light from the Lighthouse shine on me" and the sound went through my bone marrow, the joy lifting up my spine and bursing out through my cheeks.  Or, new years eve and Auld Lang Zine. Or, when everyone's drunk and sings Bon Jovi or Robbie Williams at top voice.

In the old way, you record The Singer and sell the CDs to the people who play the professional musician on the stereo rather than making music themselves.

And in the old way, you have Songs which people Wrote or Covered and own some kinds of Rights to, so again, other people then pay to use them.

Commercial music in other words.

Which is probably necessary for people who are actually full time musicians and need to make some money out of it. But then there's the whole music industry which I think probably fucks a lot of people up. Like, why are Amy Winehouse and Britney Spears so messed up? Dunno. That's for another time.

So the new way. I'm exploring and I'm starting to find some things.

So I have three 'gigs' booked.

1. Leading the singing at Radford Mill's Apple Wassail
2. Getting everyone singing a funny 'baby is coming' kind of song at my friend's baby shower, and
3. Singing two songs for my uncle Henry, who is ill, and when I go to visit him he asks for music, so then I go away and prepare what he's asked for, and when it's ready I arrange another visit, and then he listens and says he likes it and then asks for something else. Today he asked for I wish I knew how it would feel to be free by Nina Simone, and he asked me to sing it at his funeral too. My aunt Kate's not sure about that. We'll see. It's a good song for a man with Motor Neurone Disease. He's something of a star now, Henry. On Friday night there was a documentary about him on Channel 4 , made, strangely enough, by my old housemate Chris.

I haven't seen it yet.

So I like these gigs. Weaving song back into community, and community back into song. And actually doing it, rather than just thinking and talking about it. I like that. Let's see how it goes.

I'll peak in my late sixties

Saw my friend Sam Lee last night, who taught us some great Wassail songs.

Sam's a great folk singer.

"Singers peak in their late sixties," he said. "Something about the muscles. And the attitude."

Great!

I've got a couple of small performances coming up this week. I'm performing Opportunity on Thursday night, and I'm singing for my uncle on Sunday. He's very ill and he's talking straight, wasting no time. He thinks I'm crazy for not devoting my life to singing, he tells me. I mentioned this to Sam. Well, I rather agree, he said. "You've got a big quota of song-givingness that you haven't really used yet."

I like this. I find it encouraging. That is motivating.

But what people don't see is the invisible hive of activity that is happening! Learning! Practicing! Exploring! Discovering! Re-imagining! Playing! Got to start. Performance tomorrow. Voice a wreck.

But I'll peak in my late sixties! I can sing forever! And relax!

Naturally 7

Genius

The stereo in Neros

Red letter moment yesterday.

Getting coffee for my colleagues in Neros. Listening to the music in the queue. I was interested in the singer and thinking about her style.

Another track comes on. Oh, I think. Someone else has done a cover of Change is Gonna Come, like I did with Honeyroot. Humm, I think, these people must have heard our track and been really influenced by it. I feel proud. Humm. Hang on, that singer sounds a bit like me.

We get to the chorus.

O! It is me! I'm on the stereo! It's me singing like a proper singer on the stereo in Cafe Nero in Hampstead!

I bubble with excitement. I look around. I want to tell everyone. I'm handed my coffees. I want to tell the barrista. I'm shy. I don't.

But it was cool :)

Bobby and Aziza Mustafa Zadeh

carmen