Leelanau Whippersnapper

I’ve long been a fan of Sting even going back to his days in The Police (which was nearly before my time).  I think he is an incredible writer, lyricist, and singer.  On my lunch hour this past weekend I was listening to a program on public radio and was introduced to Eva Cassidy singing one of Sting’s greatest songs “Fields of Gold“.  Just turn it up loud and close your eyes.

It’s been an interesting year for me this past year.  I’ve split up with the person I thought I might spend the rest of my life with, I’ve discovered (although I already knew this) that I don’t live well with people I don’t care for, and I’ve been able to evaluate my life as a single person now in my mid 30’s.  I found some old cassette recordings of me singing today in the basement with lots of other shit that I was going to toss.  I thought that I would try and salvage these from sure ruin.  It amazes me to think how far technology has come in 20 years.  When this recording was made, cassette tapes were still the norm.  CD’s were just getting off the ground and digital recordings were unknown.  Tonight I was even able to edit this recording to make it cleaner and easier to listen to.

Click Here and read on:

The recording you are listening to was created my junior year at Grand Valley State University.  I am singing Dixit Dominus and I am sining countertenor.  I had perfected my upper range at the American Boychoir School after my voice had changed and this became my range of choice when I got into late high school and into collage.  Nobody else that I knew could sing in this range like I could and I was never one to blow my own horn but I was pretty dam good.  When there was an alto or countertenor solo to sing, I got the part, when it came to teaching it was perfect because I could sign in the same range that the boys I was teaching could sing in so they understood what I was looking for.

This recording was made during a fairly critical year in my quest to pursue a music education degree.  I had become by this time rather cynical of my education and actually I had become exceptionally board with it.  I was in my 4th year of teaching for the Grand Rapids Choir of Men and Boys and my 4th year of Collage and I saw little value in the education I was getting as it did not relate to real life at all and was in fact quite far removed.  NOTHING I was learning in collage even remotely related to what I was teaching with the GRCMB.  Not even close.  Sadly, that narrow view of reality would continue until I eventually dropped out of collage about 2 semesters short of graduating with a degree I would never end up using anyhow.  This recording was an attempt to escape the mundane and lackluster world of higher education and try to join the ranks with what I considered to be the premier mens chorus in the world: Chanticleer.  They did not develop a relationship with the American Boychoir School until several years after I had graduated but they were indeed the gold standard when it came to professional choirs.  Having been let down tremendously by the substandard and rather pathetic choirs of high school and collage (and even the Grand Rapids Choir of Men and Boys although that was a higher standard than I could get anywhere else), I wanted to experience professionalism again and I held Chanticleer on an exceptionally high pedestal (and still do).  It was a long shot to audition considering the members of Chanticleer were all well into their 30’s and 40’s and all  professional musicians but I wanted to try anyhow just to see how I stacked up.  My impression from the note sent back to me from Mr. Jennings was that I was certainly qualified and capable but not yet mature enough in my age or technique to join their ranks.  I wasn’t shocked but I was disappointed that my exhibited talent had been reduced to a simple lack of professional experience.  Oh well, it was not the end all for me but it set me on a path that would end my collage career and put me out into the world pursuing other dreams in unrelated fields.

I’ll be posting other mp3 files in future posts.  I have one from when I was 2 years old sining nursery rhymes with dad and I have one of Sarah and I singing show tunes in high school.  It was important that I try everything I can to preserve these recordings even though the quality is lack luster.  The memories are worth hanging on to.  Here is another picture I found the other day.  Early on in life Sarah and I were treated to the establishment of traditions.  To this day, I still shove my hands into pumpkins and revile in the gooey mess.

You know I get teased about my love of Elton John by none other than the same people I catch humming his tunes quietly to themselves time after time.  There are many things I enjoy about Elton John but mostly I enjoy the fact that he has such a huge volume of work AND he is continuing to create more.  I’ve really only just begun to explore his music, several months ago I purchased “The Fox” album which was a very early album of his.  There was one song on the album I wanted but I’ve really enjoyed the others on it as well.  Now I’ve recently become acquainted with his “Made in England” album due to a song called Blessed (click to listen).  It’s a very simple Lyric but a moving and a little haunting tune none the less.  I’m embarrassed to say but this song is on a regular rotation at work and is unfortunately interrupted each time by …SAVE BIG MONEY…that fucking jingle is genius.  If you live in the Midwest and don’t know that jingle, you are living under a rock.  Anyhow, I didn’t know it was an Elton song until just recently when I started to listen a little closer.  All his songs have certain phrases within the melodies that are easily attributed to his style.  There are very few artists out there who do this…it’s something that many artists out there today lack the skill to do I think.  Anyhow, I had to write and post the song here for you all to listen to.

So today was spent going through shit in the house trying to prepare for a move this fall. Jirar is only likely to be home a few more times in the next several months so it’s pretty important that we go trhough shit while he is here. One of my own goals before I move is to convert my entire CD collection over to MP3’s so I don’t have to lug my CD’s around with me anymore. It’s been years since I’ve purchased a CD (I get all my music in digital form now…and yes, I do pay for it). I was going through them and came accross Sarah’s premier CD titled “The Folk Songs”. I figured my sister would not mind a little publicity, so sit back and enjoy this great piece by Amy Ray of the Indigo Girls:

You Left it Up To Me

So I’m off now back to rip more CD’s. The Roommate has returned home and will now occupy the remaining 3 1/2 days of Jirar’s trip home so I won’t see him again. Oh well, I guess I will get to do everything myself.

Yesterday before I blew up my blog, I posted a great choral piece by Brahms. Here it is again, now fully functional.

Psalm 13