Shakin' All Over

lollipop (or sucker)
first & fourth verses
photo ~ Gregory Bastien

Shakin' All Over was the name of the first song we played for Open Mic last night  ~ Russ, Mike, and me at 8:10 pm.


"Shakin' all over" also describes my initial state of nervousness on the stage.   I put a positive spin on it, thinking, Well, maybe actual physical shakes might add to the emotional authenticity of the song.   I heard my voice shaking as I sang the opening lines, but it wasn't as obvious to other listeners as it was in my ears at the time.

chocolate
second verse

Burnt Sugar Blues was the second song we played.

The second verse was inspired by a headline: women say chocolate trumps sex.   Holy cocoa, Batman, not for me!

honey
third verse

Winnie-the-Pooh was my muse for the third verse.   Really.   The honey-lovin' bear inspired wonderfully wicked ways to indulge in honey.

Writing about honey and chocolate makes my sweet tooth ache.   Lucky for me I have a jar of honey in the cupboard, so I'm dipping in and trying not to get the keyboard sticky.   Mmmm, yum...

Giglet

We're planning to take part in Open Mic again with one song from the sixties, Shakin' All Over, and our namesake song, Burnt Sugar Blues, which we played at the February party.   We'll be undrummed again with Mike, Russ, and me.

I thought "giglet" would perfectly describe such a short performance.

So I looked it up and found that "giglet" means "a giddy, playful girl".   It's obvious we need a new definition for the word.   The Urban Dictionary says it's "large quantities of something; opposite of a niblet".   That's cute, too.

Jazz musicians started using the word "gig" in the 1920s for paid performances.   Well, I guess the audience pays attention, and Fairfield audiences are famous for paying exquisitely conscientious attention.

Having stated for my own edification the wherefors and whereases, I therefore now declare with all due pomp and one true circumstance:

Yes, we got us a giglet!

Our First Open Mic

We (Russ, Mike, me) did our first Open Mic last night:  "undrummed" was our theme for two songs.   Here's the audio file.



Things We Said Today is an early Beatles tune.   Mike played the intro twice because the mic was off when I was supposed to start singing.   I wrote Would You Catch Me in December and Mike and Russ made chords for it in February.   After our set, Keith DeBoer, the MC, introduced my son Shane for the next act.   Shane wrote the first tune, and the second is Stand By Me.



Topping off the night as the featured act was Global Cooling led by chanter Chandra Das, who filled in on a few hours' notice for Jonas Magram who'd had an accident and couldn't make the show (he's doing okay).   Global Cooling's bass player didn't make it, so Russ joined in to fill out the bottom end.

Update:   Jonas supplied the "news report" of his injury ~

Undrummed

We're doing a new sound for our first appearance at Open Mic this Wednesday, April 4.   "Undrummed" is softer and more relaxed, and a whole different sound than what we did in February.     Only the core songwriters will be on stage ~ Russ, Mike, and me ~ so we can get on and off the stage in the 10 minutes allotted per group.   That leaves a lot of space between the notes in these three songs.

We'd love to share these with you at Open Mic in Cafe Paradiso.   Don't know exactly when we'll be on stage; performances start at 8 pm.