Babe's Bucket List Challenge #5 - Stage Performance

 

Welcome to Babe's Bucket List Challenge, where I'm tackling twelve of the thirty things on my bucket list and writing about the experiences...won't you join me?

Remember my dad (from the Word of the Year post)?  Dad's joie de vivre was unmatched -- he loved life!  Music, surfing, engineering, strong coffee, and family were part of his core.  He loved tinkering with ideas and often worked with his grandsons on projects such as building a siege tower, designing and building a chicken coop, and designing and shooting off rockets...plus going fishing.  He lived life with an engineer's precision, a surfer's spirit, and a drummer's soul.  Even as his health declined, his spirit, sense of humor, and love for ice cream never wavered.

In his honor, this year I have created a bucket list - a compliation of dreams and aspirations - to work from.  My husband (who grew up in our town and interned with him as a teen) has also written down a bucket list, and we're going for it!  You can download your own Bucket List template at the Word of the Year post.

Music has always been a big part of my life.  (If you remember our original blog, Gypsy Road School, every blog post was a classic rock song title.)  Dad was a drummer.  I sing, play guitar and bass, and am now learning the drums.  I've played with a variety of people throughout the years, though always in a garage-style, just-for-fun capacity.  After hearing from a number of people that I should do more, but never quite having the confidence to do so, I promised him in one of our final conversations that I would continue following this dream...

Group Work

I loaded up this drum set and drove it cross-country to a new home...thankfully the neighbors live far enough away that it's not too loud. I do the vocals for our Monday night jam band, but spent some time working with the drummer to learn some basics and beats. Nowhere near as good as dad, but it's a fun place to start and get some energy out!

Monday group has been jamming along each week, too...learning new songs and putting together new arrangements. With our personal life taking a turn, hubby's job keeping us ten hours away more often than not these days, I ended up stepping away a couple of years ago because I just couldn't get there every week. However, that time was redirected into other musical ventures...

Solo Work

A lot of that time was spent on songwriting...taking a lot of these big emotions from all the things that have happened over the past few years and channeling them.  It's something folks don't talk about - all these changes that happen in your early 40's.  From loss of parents to kids growing up and moving on to career changes to those pesky little hormones that create so much havoc...

One fun-filled night out with my friends, they dared me to go up on state for open mic night.  That was an adventure!  See........none of us realized it was a songwriting competition.  Everyone who competed that night, barring myself, had albums for sale and Spotify channels of their recordings.  Some had even been out in Nashville working.  And then there was me.  What was I going to do...back out?  (Not really my style.)  So when the emcee asked where they could find me online, I simply shrugged and said, "nowhere...I thought it was amateur night!"

Here's the FUN news!  I came in second place that night...by one measley vote.  Honestly, if the kids hadn't left early because they wanted some Chick-fil-A (can't fight a teen's stomach), I probably would have had three more votes and won...which is so weird.  The guy who won totally deserved to, and there were several good acts that night, but something much more important happened.  Up to this point, I had always been with a group or at least a duo.  Going up alone, and with words from my own heart, was a different beast to tackle.  This one, while terrifying, turned out to be so much more fun than anticipated.

While I still enjoy performing with others and hope to get back to Mondays, completing this bucket list challenge has inspired me to continue songwriting and working a solo act.  It's a hobby, but one that fills my soul.  "Where words fail, music speaks."  What fills your soul?