A few weeks ago, Joe Trainor was asked to sing the Thursday night pre-game show for City Theater's 10-Minute Play Festival. The festival ran for 5 consecutive nights, and each night a different singer entertained the crowd in the lobby/bar area before the theater doors opened. Joe asked me if I wanted to share his set and sing some stuff together, so I jumped at the opportunity. Even though Joe and I are totally tight pals, I still idolize the crap out of him, and any chance to sing with him is snatched up instantly. ("Hey Jill! Later on I might be humming random intervals over the 60-cycle hum of the generator outside." "Dude, I'm so there.")
Anyhoozle, our set on Thursday went well, and even though we both kinda feel like we weren't in our best voices, the crowd loved it and we decided that sharing the stage was something we had to do more often. With that, Joe asked me if I was free this weekend, and would I wanna play a few tunes with him at his gig at Maynard's Piano Bar. I said absolutely.
Jeremy, Boutell and Alisa came down to Maynard's to see the show, and I was so happy to have them there. We had a great time; Maynard's is a neat place. It's got yummy food, a warm atmosphere, good acoustics, happy patrons and staff, killer desserts, a nice selection of port wines, and a sweet grand piano in the middle of the place. Joe's brother Allen and his wife Mindy were playing that night, and they played a really good set of covers-- all stuff I wanted to hear, and all done with a(n) unique twist. Joe sang/played with them on most songs and together they sounded solid. The crowd was interested in what they were doing, but people were definitely having their own conversations while enjoying their dinners.
As the night progressed, the softer dinner music stopped and the more rockin' stuff was whipped out-- the volume increased ever so slightly, and the clientele changed a bit. Joe called me up and we sang our stuff and it just felt soooo gooooood. When we play together, we just plug into each other and he intuitively knows when I'm gonna pull back and breathe and/or when I'm gonna plow through a phrase; no matter what, he's right there with me. He makes singing so effortless-- with him, I feel like I am expressing myself via music, and not just singing a song... big difference.
The crowd could feel it too... they were silent when we played, which was a huge honor. Some guy who was mercilessly hitting on this girl at the bar stopped in his tracks when we played; we had his total attention-- something the bartender couldn't even wrestle from the guy for three seconds to take a drink order. That was quite a compliment.
Anyhoo, Joe and I realize we've got something pretty amazing here. He asked me to write up my dream set-list and he would do the same, and together we'll sing the crap out of some tunes and make a couple bucks. Wheeee!
I know I have kvelled about him in prior posts, so I'm not gonna go too insane here, but suffice it to say that my world would be a much darker place if Joe wasn't in it.
I've got bad news for him and Paula: Eventually I'm gonna turn into their lovable but omnipresent annoying friend... a la Monroe from Too Close for Comfort... and they'll be ruing the day they adopted me... because yo, they're stuck with me now. :-)
Enjoy these pictures, snapped by The Mosk.
| Fortune Teller Miracle Fish today tells me that I am: In Love. Fishy fishy fishy fish... |