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Your absolute BEST audience ever!
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Subject: Your absolute BEST audience ever! From: Rick Fielding Date: 02 Apr 01 - 12:05 AM Since I recounted a pretty weird story in the "worst" audience thread, here's one that started out equally harrowing but really left me (and hopefully the audience) feeling good. I often used to play Hospitals, and would go from ward to ward, but would get a trifle shy when visiting the Alzheimer's patients. (there was a fascinating thread on this a few weeks ago) My mother-in-law in Glasgow has had the last 15 years of her life taken away by this horrid condition, and although I'd read extensively on the subject, I was still uneasy. Perhaps it was because most simply didn't react at all to the music, and I was never sure if what I was playing was appropriate or not. One time a nurse said to me, "Why are you so polite when you come in here? The patients hear everyone having a good time in the other wards, but in here you sing so quietly". Bingo. She was right. I started doing sing-alongs from the twenties and thirties,(loudly) and you could just feel the energy happening...plus they (most of 'em) sang along! Great fun. I wish I'd clicked in sooner. Any really good audience experiences? Rick |
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Subject: RE: Your absolute BEST audience ever! From: Bert Date: 02 Apr 01 - 12:24 AM Another story from way back in my Square Dancing days. I was calling this dance for the local electricity company. As I was starting out, a couple of young loudmouths started making the usual silly remarks about not being squares and generally putting me down. I just grinned at them and got on with my job. After the dance they both stopped by and said how much they had enjoyed themselves and how great the evening was. |
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Subject: RE: Your absolute BEST audience ever! From: Big Mick Date: 02 Apr 01 - 12:25 AM Yep, and since I posted on the last one, I thought I would post here too. But wear a damn surgical mask so you don't spread that crud you got here........LOL. It occurred a couple of weeks ago. The Wednesday before St. Pat's. We had just got the word that our time with Jim Goldsmith was short. We had been asked to come and perform at the Welcome Home For the Blind in Grand Rapids. Obviously we were a bit distracted, but it took about 5 minutes with these folks to realize a fundamental truth. Have you ever wanted to perform your music for people that absolutely came to hear every word, who hung on every nuance? As I told a joke, or gave a little history, or "set up" the mood we were after for a song, these wonderful people who could only rely on our set up, and then our interpretation through their ears would respond. It was pure and wonderful, and they were great. At the end of the performance every single person came up to us and thanked us for a wonderful visit. And one older woman came up to me and was talking and she had an accent that I recognized as Dutch. She told us all about her kids, grandkids and her dear departed husband. So we sat her down and performed The Dutchman just for her. She was wonderful and as I sang the verses she would say "Yep, that's how it is". When I started the verse "The Dutchman still wears wooden shoes......" she said outloud, "I have a pair in my room". Pure magic. And she said, "you boys do that pretty good....".......well, all I can say is that we were sated.......Great fun. Can't wait to play for them again. All the best, Mick |
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Subject: RE: Your absolute BEST audience ever! From: GUEST,Timothy Cameron Date: 02 Apr 01 - 12:54 AM Summerfolk in Owen Sound a few years back. The audience were so supportive, the symbiotic relationship was healthy, and in the middle of my set, I threw caution (and my set list) to the wind and did "Not Fade Away" a la Mojo Nixon. And in the middle of the song, HUNDREDS of people hollered "Hey Bo Diddley" in a call-and-response thing I was ad libbing on the spot. About a year later two people approached me as I was wandering through a mall here in Toronto, and recognized me from that night, and told me what a blast it had been. |
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Subject: RE: Your absolute BEST audience ever! From: Sorcha Date: 02 Apr 01 - 01:13 AM Well, since I too posted to the Worst Audience one, I guess I ought to post here too. My second worst was a Nursing Home night, but I think my best is also Nursing Home nitght when everybody is "UP" and all there.These people are, in effect, a captive audience, and there is nothing better than a really wild night at the residential care center. Of course, up there, there is always Steve--40 something,& severely handicapped. Brain damaged at birth, spastic,MD, and cystic fibrosis.
He speaks, but not well (meaning, if you are around him enough, you can understand him). He is ALWAYS "up" and flirts outrageously....."I love you Sorch," "Come home with me, Dana"....wheel chair bound but he loves to "dance".........he usually gets the other, older residents going with his antics. PS--Steve also plays 3 finger piano for the weekly residents Hymn Sing.........and his Mom visits every day.There is not much better than playing for Steve....but opening for Three Dog Night and Turtle Creek was close! |
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Subject: RE: Your absolute BEST audience ever! From: catspaw49 Date: 02 Apr 01 - 01:28 AM "Specialized" audiences are often the best and I read stories here that the same is true for most of you too. Like Sorcha's post above you get some wonderful rewards. On this type of thing, over two years ago, I posted what follows below. I don't know if they were my best, but they were certainly my most exuberant and participatory! ********************************************************** .............Like many of you, I do school programs. Six years ago, I went to an elementary for the first time, where I did the program by classes. It works for me a lot better because more kids get to participate and are closer to the instruments. I generally talk about the thread of folk music in America and focus on one instrument. At the end of the day with the fifth graders I was already impressed with what this teacher had been doing for "the Cause." A little girl asked me while I was talking about guitars (although dulcimer was the focus) if I knew "Lily, Rosemary, and the Jack of Hearts." Taken aback a bit, I said that I think I remember all the words and yes I can play it. The whole group is acting antsy and said they knew it too....AND...only fifth graders got to sing it. The vocal teacher played piano, I played guitar...and we sang it!!! Turns out that several years before, she had played it for a class and they loved the "mystery" and "whodunit" of the thing so much, she let them try it at the spring concert. Now it's "tradition." I love going to this place because the kids are all interested and know songs from Ireland, Italy, Africa, and the Appalachians. They know Seeger and Guthrie and Leadbelly ...and Bob Dylan and Tom Paxton! I now only focus on instrument history and contruction and such at that school....they're GETTING the music! What a great place...and I get to go again next month!!! Moreover, what a wonderful teacher!!! ********************************************************** Sadly I didn't get to go the next month as I went to the hospital instead, and even more sadly, this great teacher left the system. Wish I knew where she went. We probably have a 'Catter living close by anymore. Spaw Spaw
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Subject: RE: Your absolute BEST audience ever! From: Chip2447 Date: 02 Apr 01 - 01:40 AM My two year old niece, no matter how bad I sound, she is always there to laugh and dance and always asks for more. Thanx lil CJ... |
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Subject: RE: Your absolute BEST audience ever! From: GUEST,khandu Date: 02 Apr 01 - 01:58 AM My son, Capt. J., is and has ever been my best audience. He appreciates the nuances of my playing style that are easily overlooked. Ironically, I am the Captain's best audience. I listen with much admiration to him as he takes his Dad's teachings and improves upon them. Ah, these are the best of times! khandu |
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Subject: RE: Your absolute BEST audience ever! From: Lady McMoo Date: 02 Apr 01 - 04:10 AM Not dissimilar to Sorcha's. Two of us did a free concert of Irish and Scottish music and songs for a small audience here in Brussels at a day centre for mentally handicapped and autistic, and Down's Syndrome, children. They were absolutely fantastic and I don't know who enjoyed themselves more, us or them. I was just a pity we had to pack up and go at some stage. mcmoo |
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Subject: RE: Your absolute BEST audience ever! From: Seamus Kennedy Date: 02 Apr 01 - 04:28 AM Back in the middle eighties when I was the house entertainer in Ireland's Own in Alexandria, VA, we had a show each March just before St. Patrick's day for the deaf students and some faculty members from Gallaudet University in D.C. A lovely lady would come on stage and sign the whole show all night for the deaf people. My jokes, patter, songs, bits, choruses, she did them all. And it's a weird sensation to tell a joke and hear the laughter of the hearing members of the crowd, and then about 20 seconds later to hear the laughter of the deaf folks for whom it has been signed. It took me a while but I had to learn to wait for both bursts of laughter to subside before moving on to the next thing. Extremely gratifying as a performer though. All the best. Seamus |
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Subject: RE: Your absolute BEST audience ever! From: mkebenn Date: 02 Apr 01 - 07:16 AM Played a free concert at Strong Prison in Rochester, NY, about 30yrs ago. Recognized one of the inmates, a 70yr old black man named Earl who was a street person, and whom I'd brought home for dinner a couple of months before.Played Bo Jangles and dedicated it to him. When I was finished, he had tears running down his face. I'm not sure he felt better, but he was affected, and what more can you ask for? Mike |
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Subject: RE: Your absolute BEST audience ever! From: kendall Date: 02 Apr 01 - 09:28 AM The Today Show in 1976. Millions of people in the audience and I couldn't see any of them! I've had far more good ones than bad,but, those at the Glenfarg Folk Club in Scotland ranked right up there. About 20 years ago, I filled in for a performer who was passed out drunk. I sat on the edge of the stage at a Bluegrass festival and sang "The Band Played Waltzing Matilda". You could hear a pin drop. That encore was very satisfying. |
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Subject: RE: Your absolute BEST audience ever! From: Peg Date: 02 Apr 01 - 10:19 AM Wow, Kendall you played on the Today Show? Lucky you got there before that obnoxious weather man who encourages people to stand out in the cold for hours so they can wave to the camera... well, I am not sure it was the best audience; must give that some thought; but one of the most thrilling audiences was the thousands of people at the Parliament of the World's Religions in Chicago in 1993. I was in a pagan choral ensemble at the time, and we'd been invited to perform in the main concert. His Holiness in Exile the Dalai Lama was sitting in the front row....
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Subject: RE: Your absolute BEST audience ever! From: Mooh Date: 02 Apr 01 - 10:46 AM Thankfully, there's been more of these than the worst ones from that other thread, but I'll only mention one. Back when the celtoid band I play with was doing some original songs, a festival audience was actually singing along with the chorus to a song I wrote, without prompting. They knew the words from our cd and other shows. That feeling is indescribably cool. The singer (not me) acknowledged me when the song ended, and the crowd was so generous I thought I was having a religious experience. No amount of money can buy that feeling. Peace. Mooh. |
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Subject: RE: Your absolute BEST audience ever! From: RichM Date: 02 Apr 01 - 11:21 AM My favorite place to play here in Ottawa, Canada, is Saint Vincent's Hospital. It's a chronic care facility for people with severe physical disabilities.
Each time we have performed,there is one 60ish man who spontaneously jumps out of his wheelchair, silently demands eye contact with one of us, and does 30 seconds of frantic and joyful dancing...then he has to rest until another song catches him up, and away he goes again! And there's the middleaged woman, who is wheeled into the hall in her bed---who loves to dance! The volunteer who is with her pushes her around the floor in time to the music. And all during this, the patient has a beautiful angelic smile on her face, her arms waving in time to the music. Just love all the folks there! Rich McCarthy
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Subject: RE: Your absolute BEST audience ever! From: A Wandering Minstrel Date: 02 Apr 01 - 12:29 PM The inmates of a small pub on Valentia (West Killarney) who put a pint of Guinness on the piano for every Bob Dylan song I could play ....And of course, I was Very, very drunk |
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Subject: RE: Your absolute BEST audience ever! From: Mr Red Date: 02 Apr 01 - 12:42 PM Singing my love song "My Love is Like a Chocolate Box" holding a box of Black Magic (UK candy) and handing it to the spinster of my lust. Everyone else seemed to suss me and thought it (and the song) was a hoot. Sue thought it was just a comic song! I had to do the same at another FC (almost as "best audience" as #1) before she cottoned-on. Mind you the consumation thereof was fact by then. |
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Subject: RE: Your absolute BEST audience ever! From: Mrrzy Date: 02 Apr 01 - 01:23 PM Yeah, Kendall, how'd that happen? And although this may sound repetitious... |
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Subject: RE: Your absolute BEST audience ever! From: Peter T. Date: 02 Apr 01 - 01:34 PM Hey Peg, I was at that concert! It was great. The whole conference was totally bizarre. yours, Peter T. |
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Subject: RE: Your absolute BEST audience ever! From: kendall Date: 02 Apr 01 - 05:19 PM OK, Dont accuse me of name dropping. You did ask. Back in 1976, the Today Show visited all 50 states and did a program in each one to celebrate the 200th birthday of the USA. The producer contacted Folk Legacy records, and those wonderful folks told them about me. I still dont know what Sandy and Caroline told them, but, it must have been ok. They came to Portland,and interviewed me. From the start I told them that if they were looking for a clown, or a characature of a Maine character, that I was not their man. They assured me that they wanted the real thing, so, we went to Cape Elizabeth and filmed the show at Portland Head Light. That was the biggest pay check I had earned at the time, $400.00 to sit on my ass and sing one song while playing my 12 string guitar. The producer and co-producer were dancing round and round congratulating each other for getting just what they wanted. The song was "Rolling Home" Since then, I have done 2 or 3 spot plugs for the Today Show at the same location. I also did a spot for the "On The Road" program with Charles Kuralt at the same location. Those rocks are hard on the stern! I still have the picture that appeared in the local paper the next day. If anyone would like to see it, I'll e mail it. I cant believe how lucky I have been for getting so many breaks. For those of you who believe in this sort of thing, I do thank the universe on a regular basis. |
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Subject: RE: Your absolute BEST audience ever! From: GUEST,marty D Date: 02 Apr 01 - 05:46 PM Still has to be my kids. They NEVER boo. But they DO walk out of the room in the middle of a song occasionally. Martin |
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Subject: RE: Your absolute BEST audience ever! From: Jim the Bart Date: 02 Apr 01 - 06:07 PM My favorite audience was at a place called "Lambs Farm", in Libertyville, IL. It's a huge place where many children with disabilities live. Each year they have a picnic with various musical acts, a craft show, and lots of animals to pet. I worked fulltime with a C&W Band, Cactus Jack, throughout the 70's and the show must have been in 1977 or 1978. Lambs Farm is right next to the tollway between Chicago and Milwaukee, Wisconsin. As we approached the grounds, I saw a long line of cars waiting to get in and thousands of people on the grounds. We told the Officers directing traffic that we were performing and they escorted us to our "dressing trailer"!? We were moving through a sea of people, and we were being treated like celebrities! We had been hired to do one set and then serve as the backup band for a Nashville singer named Gene Watson. He was very hot at the time (His song "Love on a Hot Afternoon" was riding high), and although we hadn't met him, we had been given a list of songs to learn and keys to learn them in. It was mostly country standards, Hank Williams stuff and songs from his album, which we dutifully learned note for note. We thought we'd get a chance to go over his stuff in the trailer before we played, but his plane was late. Instead, we just started playing until he showed up, and the crowd was great. They loved everything we did, sang and danced and clapped. We felt like we could do anything! Finally the star of the show showed up. Although he was the headliner, he was new to the business and not used to big audiences. And he was scared to death. His people rushed him to the stage, gave him a guitar (not amplified!) and we were on. He turned to the band and said "E", turned back the crowd and started playing one of the songs. After the first verse we figured out which one we were doing and fell in behind him. His confidence grew visibly as he began to realize we knew what we were doing, and it was going to be OK. That's how the whole show went; he turned, told us the key and started on in. By the time we played his hit, the place was ours. We must have spent an hour signing pictures and autographs for the kids when it was over. That was relatively early in my musical life and I have never since experienced that "STAR" feeling on that scale. As far as that crowd was concerned we could do no wrong. |
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Subject: RE: Your absolute BEST audience ever! From: Murray MacLeod Date: 02 Apr 01 - 07:26 PM I would second kendall's mention of Glenfarg Folk Club. It is the favorite British venue of many artistes, both British and American. I have been to many folk clubs, both here and in Britain, and for me, the Glenfarg audience is the best anywhere. Murray |
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Subject: RE: Your absolute BEST audience ever! From: bill\sables Date: 02 Apr 01 - 07:47 PM When I had a ceilidh band we used to play at the M.S. home in York. and it was always a reasonably good night, but on one occasion a man of about 35 asked us if we knew Masons Apron and could we play it for him. We thought this was an unusual request and asked him where he had heard it before. He replied that he was once a fiddler in a ceilidh band before he developed M.S. and produced a cassette of his playing. Our fiddler, the late John Carey, offered him his fiddle and asked him to play but he declined saying that he couldn't get his fingers moving any more, John then said perhaps next time we were there he would play with us. Well about two months later we returned to the home and started playing again and our friend turned up with his fiddle and asked if he could join in, "I've been trying to practice" he said. We started to play Masons Apron and he did indeed join in. One by one each of us dropped out till in the end he was playing solo. When he finished there was a standing ovation from the rest of the band and there wasn't a dry eye in the place including members of staff and the band. We'll never forget that night. Bill |
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Subject: RE: Your absolute BEST audience ever! From: gnu Date: 03 Apr 01 - 05:56 AM If you read the companion thread, WORST audience, you would know I was once mobbed by thousands of appreciate fans, some of whom even gave up their lives just to get close to me. gnu |
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Subject: RE: Your absolute BEST audience ever! From: Deni Date: 03 Apr 01 - 06:23 AM Reading this thread, it comes over that most of the best moments of playing come through interacting with audiences and 'making a difference' not, as some would think, with well-paid, so-called prestige jobs. There have been a few good & varied gigs lately for us, mainly because we diversify and do pop, country, blues, old time music hall and our favourite, traditional folk. I learnt this absolutely beautiful song called, I Wonder What's Keeping My True love Tonight, and we sang it in a festival singaround with Ray Fisher at the helm. Now over here, (UK) Ray Fisher is a big star and hers was one of the albums that got me into traditional folk, so I was understandably nervous about singing. My legs were shaking, which gave me a tad more tremelo than I normally employ. But the audience were totally silent, and when I dared to open my eyes and look at them, many were wiping away tears, (and it's only a song about unrequited love, no death or anything.) My husband then sang one of his own songs and Ray Fisher asked us to perform later, because she liked us. THAT was the moment when we knew all that practising had paid off! WE floated for the rest of the weekend, with festival- goers asking if we were booked at the festival and where they could see us, and us saying no,we weren't booked, we had to pay a fortune to get in, get terrified,get upset and have shaky legs. Still shaking...much later...
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Subject: RE: Your absolute BEST audience ever! From: Bill D Date: 03 Apr 01 - 11:19 AM since I don't do gigs..(maybe Ferrara will post about some of her recent zither/harp concerts for Jewish groups)...let me note here the nicest one I saw as part of an audience. Several years ago, the Folklore Society of Greater Washington..(FSGW) was the first stop on the Copper Family's U.S. tour (their first, I 'think')...In preparation for coming to the 'Colonies', the Coppers had gone 'round to bookstores in the UK and bought copies of their own book, hoping to sell a few and spread the word.....well, they didn't have ANY idea. We gobbled up those books before they had time to take a deep breath! (Yeah,,I got one...it pays to arrive at stuff early!) Then the concert started...and the look on their faces when many in the audience started singing along with them was priceless! Here were people who KNEW and loved their songs! In America!....It just got better...They were, to my eyes, inspired.....sang SO well, encouraged the audience and glowed with delight....and we demanded at least 3 encores..(4?)...and I'll swear Bob Copper had little tears in his eyes during the standing ovation...they mingled, talked, signed books, tapes...it was wonderful!....perhaps folks greet them like that everywhere they go, I don't really know....but it FELT special. |
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Subject: RE: Your absolute BEST audience ever! From: Bert Date: 03 Apr 01 - 12:03 PM Bill, FSGW 'is' Special. |
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Subject: RE: Your absolute BEST audience ever! From: GUEST,Phil Cooper Date: 03 Apr 01 - 11:09 PM One of my peak memories of a performance was the set Margaret and I did for the Memphis Dulcimer Festival in 1999. The hall was packed, the lights were set great, the sound was great as well. Larkin Bryant Cohen introduced us by saying we sang ballads, and not the kind you think of when someone thinks of jazz standards. We went out and sang our half hour set and thought we'd better include a ballad, after that intro (we usually don't do one of the big ones during a short set)so Margaret sang our version of "Lord Gregory". The audience reaction kept us buzzed for days. On the other end of the spectrum I did a couple shows for an adult mentally handicapped shelter workshop years ago (when I did solo things)and the response was about as heartfelt and genuine as anything you could want. They laughed at my jokes and really appreciated the finer nuances of Pat Sky's "I Don't Want you Hangin' Round." |
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Subject: RE: Your absolute BEST audience ever! From: Murray MacLeod Date: 04 Apr 01 - 06:35 AM Deni, I would love to have heard that. I love the song, it is unquestionably one of rhe most beautiful. Does Ray still keep her guitar tuner in her little hand-knitted pouch ? Murray |
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Subject: RE: Your absolute BEST audience ever! From: Deni Date: 04 Apr 01 - 01:01 PM Murray I don't know where Ray Fisher keeps her guitar tuner but I do know where she keeps her audience. In the palm of her hand! But gently. Deni |
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Subject: RE: Your absolute BEST audience ever! From: GUEST,Sonja Date: 13 Dec 02 - 02:48 PM One of my very best audiences was a pub (coffeehouse?)in the UW district of Seattle back in about 1984 or 1985, at an open mic for songwriters. I did a song called "Lessons From The Garden" (satire on politics and other aspects of human activity), and "Cheesecake and Apple Pie" (a song about Vanessa Williams's then-recent fall from the graces of the Miss America Pageant). I may have also done my "Moral Majority" song (but IIRC, each performer got to do only 2 songs). Anyway, probably because the audience was other songwriters, they LISTENED, and they really appreciated the songs. I've never gotten such overwhelming applause and laughter elsewhere (though some places have come close on a song or two). (All too often, my audiences are either intoxicated or distracted and won't catch a joke if a song contains one, won't follow a story line in a ballad.) Nursing homes and some assisted living and retirment homes are also often among my best audiences (though they can also be among the worst, partly because of distractions). (They don't know me as "Sonja," though.) SWO |
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Subject: RE: Your absolute BEST audience ever! From: Shonagh Date: 13 Dec 02 - 05:23 PM My favourite and best actually happened about 7 hours ago!! I was down in London playing for chivas brothers with a band im in (about 15 young fiddlers aged 16-18). Because of fog, we were delayed at heathrow (we were goin to aberdeen) and so were many other hundreds of people. Everyone was bored so we decided to have a bit of a session in the middle of gate 5 departure lounge - we werent sure how it would go down - 15 scottish fiddlers plonking themselves on the floor and just playing. We finished a set and it broke into the hugest round of applause i have ever heard! it was just great! all around the room people were smiling and we were all happy coz we had made bored people happy, amused little kids for a while, played some great tunes and got about 40quid! We were on the plane, just about to land and we even got a mention over the tannoy! cool or what?! hehe!! Shonagh |
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Subject: RE: Your absolute BEST audience ever! From: Deckman Date: 13 Dec 02 - 09:54 PM Thanks for revitalizing this thread ... it's a fun one! I didn't have to think for one second about what was my "absolute best audience." It happened a couple of years ago, in 1960. I, and several of my Seattle singer friends were invited for the weekend down to Clarke Junior College, in the town of Vancouver, Washington ... just across the Columbia River from Portland, Oregon. We all arrived on a Friday night and were spread around the faculty homes for supper and housing and a hoot. We spent all day Saturday scattered around the campus doing various workshops. Saturday night was a series of small concerts and a hoot. When I woke up Sunday morning, I was sick ... very sick. My throat had seized up and I could barely croak. I knew I was in deep trouble as I was supposed to sing the big concert that night. I drove off and found the nearest pharmacy. It was very small and the druggist was quite elderly and looked tired. I explained my problem. He asked me to sit down for a while. He went into his back room, got out a mortar and pestle, remember those, and proceeded to make me a medicinal treatment. I actually went into his private area and helped him mix this stuff up. He advised me to stop talking for the rest of the day, swallow as much of this stuff as I could stand. I kept quiet all day. It was only ten minutes before the concert that Sunday night that I tried to sing. In the dressing room, I vocalized a little, and it felt O.K., but just O.K. I walked on stage, struck a chord, threw back by head and let her rip! Oh ... it was grand! I'd NEVER had a voice like that. My range and pitch were perfect, from the highest notes to the lowest. And also from the loudest to the whisper soft. I was very pleased and relieved. And most of all, I captured the audience in the palm of my hand. Where ever I wanted to take them, they went willingly. Story songs, ballads, sing-a-longs. The next morning, as we were leaving town, I happened to grab a Portland newspaper. I was amazed to find that I was reviewed. And the reviewer said ... "I was a relaxed as Perry Como and he had the audience in my hand." My only regret was that I did not track down that druggist and go into business with him. To quote a line from a famous movie starring Jane Fonda ... "Oh, it was swell!." CHEERS, Bob(deckman)Nelson |
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Subject: RE: Your absolute BEST audience ever! From: Genie Date: 13 Dec 02 - 10:33 PM Bob, I WANT some o' that stuff!! |
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Subject: RE: Your absolute BEST audience ever! From: Deckman Date: 13 Dec 02 - 11:10 PM Genie ... the closest I can come to it today is VIILI, from the original culture my GarndMother brought over from Finland in 1896! Bob |
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Subject: RE: Your absolute BEST audience ever! From: Cluin Date: 14 Dec 02 - 01:11 AM Best audience response was an old girlfriend. Played and sang her Keelaghan's "I Would I Were." Then I put the guitar away for a while (or should that be "a bit"). Other than that, every audience is great, even the ones in bars I've played to who don't seem to be paying attention. Somebody always is and has a good word for you during the break. The last good audience was the kids at the Christmas party I was hired to play yesterday. Kids - the only audience in Canada you can depend on to sing along every time to every song, even if they don't know it. And you only need one song. "Do Rudolph again!" |
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Subject: RE: Your absolute BEST audience ever! From: musicmick Date: 14 Dec 02 - 01:18 AM Back in the late 60's, I did my first Scottish tour. The agent, Arthur Argo, had me running from one end of the country to the other, mostly by train. On cosecutive days, I was booked in Glasgow (in the southwest) and Thurso (about as far north as you can go on dry land) Well, the trip took all day and, with the inevitable delays, I didn't get to Thurso until close to 10:00 P.M. (I was supposed to perform at7:30) The club manager met me at the station, tossed me into his car and drove me to the club, where the audience had been waiting for close to three hours. I need not tell you that they were enthusiastic, receptive, active and joyful. I never knew if it was because I was so good or because they were determined to have the time of their lives to justify that long wait. Mike Miller |
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Subject: RE: Your absolute BEST audience ever! From: X Date: 14 Dec 02 - 04:36 AM Chino Prison Chino, CA USA. |
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Subject: RE: Your absolute BEST audience ever! From: GUEST,Bardford's SS Date: 14 Dec 02 - 10:42 AM Some of my very best audiences are folks with Alzheimer's. Many of them love to sing, dance, clap along, etc., and their memory deficits often do not interfere with their recall of song lyrics they learned when they were young. |
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Subject: RE: Your absolute BEST audience ever! From: GUEST,JennyO Date: 14 Dec 02 - 11:16 AM I'm in a community choir called The Solidarity Choir and we sing song of freedom and struggle from around the world. We don't get paid heaps, but we have had some very appreciative audiences over the years. Some of the standouts for me have been: Singing at events for East Timor - especially when we sing Kolelemai and Foho Ramelau Singing for the refugees in the detention centre at Villawood. One night we were having a meal in Chinatown after a gig, and we broke into song, as we are wont to do, and we realized that all the staff were standing there, with tears in their eyes, singing along with us. We were singing "Xue Ran Di Feng Tsai" which was sung a lot around the time of Tienanmen Square. Whenever we sing this song to an audience with Chinese people, it elicits a huge emotional response. Earlier that same night we had experienced what was for many of us, the best audience ever, but not in terms of size. We had been booked to sing at an event which Nelson Mandela was attending, but only on the steps in the foyer as people were walking in. We have several African songs in our repertoire, and we planned to break into one of them as soon as he appeared. There were security guards around him trying to hurry him in past us, but when he heard us singing "Rolihlahla Mandela", he stopped and started to dance in time to the music, facing us and beaming the biggest smile. He wouldn't let anyone move him on until we had finished. Then he said "That's the nicest thing anyone's ever done for me!" Yeah, that will do me for best audience! Jenny |
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Subject: RE: Your absolute BEST audience ever! From: Deckman Date: 14 Dec 02 - 11:39 AM Wow Jenny. What moving stories. Thanks for sharing. Bob |
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Subject: RE: Your absolute BEST audience ever! From: Cluin Date: 14 Dec 02 - 02:12 PM Cool! |
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Subject: RE: Your absolute BEST audience ever! From: Mooh Date: 14 Dec 02 - 04:15 PM Jenny...Gee whiz! That's untoppable. Right place, right time, right song, right audience! But what do you do for an encore? Peace, Mooh. |
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Subject: RE: Your absolute BEST audience ever! From: Deckman Date: 14 Dec 02 - 04:56 PM I'm enjoying this thread SOOOO much that I have to share a story that happened just a month ago. I had been living away from home while I was building a very large deck for a family. It was a three hour drive, and the 'customers' were friends, so I stayed with them during the week. They had two sons, 9 and 12. In the evenings, I would play chess and cribbage with them. Finally I brought up my guitar and started singing songs. One thing led to another, and my last day up there, I went to their school and sang to 400 kritters. Oh ... it was SWELL. The look on those youngsters faces as they were marched into the gym and seated in groups on the floor was priceless. Big eyes, some scared, all nervous, but eyes just'a shining. I sang twice, first for the younger ones, then for the older ones. I had a blast. I've forgotten just how much fun children can be. The topper came when I grabbed a couple of children and asked them to help me pack my guitar up, and help me carry to the car. I need to do that more often! CHEERS, Bob |
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Subject: RE: Your absolute BEST audience ever! From: Bee-dubya-ell Date: 15 Dec 02 - 10:14 AM Our local public radio station hosts a monthly two-hour live radio show - sort of a minor league version of "Prairie Home Companion". The performances take place in various venues around town, all of which seat something in the 1,000 person range. The audiences for these shows are serious music listeners. I have played there several times in a couple of different bands, and have always been stoked at what a pleasure it is to play for people who have come just to listen - not to drink, party, or socialize - just to listen. |
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Subject: RE: Your absolute BEST audience ever! From: Celtic Soul Date: 15 Dec 02 - 12:44 PM Maryland Renaissance Festival Audiences are definitely our most supportive and loyal. But, I gotta say, the crowds at Cerredwins Coffeehouse have to be the best. This because it usually draws the Maryland Supporters, *plus* still more from the local folky community. That, and the fact that we are miked with a real sound system, and enclosed in a temperature controlled environment makes for a much better time for all involved. But, I'd have to say that the Cramer Center for "Pyrate Home Companion" is right close if not tied. |
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Subject: RE: Your absolute BEST audience ever! From: MMario Date: 16 Dec 02 - 11:10 AM yesterday - the end of a long day caroling in icy rain - I started a Christmas Version of "Children Go Where I send thee" - which uses the '12 days of Christmas' lines instead of the more biblical references. It's a LONG song - very long when standing in the cold, with ice water dripping on you. I couldn't believe the number of people that stopped - and stood there through the entire thing!!!!! |
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Subject: RE: Your absolute BEST audience ever! From: GUEST,Pinetop Slim Date: 16 Dec 02 - 11:20 AM Like some of the previous correspondents, I don't do gigs either. Late in the summer of 2001, a fellow invited me to jam with him and another guy out on the edge of Star Island, N.H. We had played a half-dozen tunes, maybe, when I looked up to see a dozen or so "Penguins" (summer workers at the island's conference center) had formed an audience. They were great. "What comes unexpected is often the best, 'cause you ain't got the time to be scared" (Si Kahn, "Queen of the Cowboy Cafe.") |
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Subject: RE: Your absolute BEST audience ever! From: Deckman Date: 16 Dec 02 - 03:01 PM Sheeeuh! You just reminded me of a very funny story that happened to me when I was singing at an outdoor wedding! The Minister gathered everyone together, under a tree, beside the lake. He nodded to me and I struck a chord on my guitar. As I started to sing, a LARGE flock of ducks swam ashore, waddled up and formed a circle around me. They kept staring at me, cocking their heads from side to side. It was so funny I almost couldn't finish the song. When I was done singing, they all looked at each, went QUACK QUACK QUACK, waddled off to the lake , and swam away! Everyone broke up. Talk about a GREAT AUDIENCE! CHEERS, Bob |
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Subject: RE: Your absolute BEST audience ever! From: Steve in Idaho Date: 16 Dec 02 - 03:06 PM My partner Janet - Steve |
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Subject: RE: Your absolute BEST audience ever! From: EBarnacle1 Date: 19 Dec 02 - 12:32 AM A couple of years ago, I was hired to do a storytelling set for a local geriatric center. I got there and started talking. About half way through the first story, one of the residents started talking about how she and her husband had gone out in their boat. This led others to begin. I never did finish that story. One of the staff came up to me later and said that they had learned more about the residents than they had ever known. One of the most interactive speakers had been almost mute since arriving there. Sometimes conversation is the best performance. |
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