Wednesday, March 23, 2011

Eye of the Hurricane

How do I even begin to sum up my past weekend?
Was it even real?
Did that really just happen?

Here's the deal:
I won a contest by uploading a video of myself singing a David Wilcox song to his facebook page. David Wilcox is an acoustic singer/songwriter that i've been listening to my entire life. Not an exaggeration. My parents have been fans since before I was born. There is some old VHS floating around my house somewhere of home videos of me, one of which caught me dancing and singing one of his songs at age 5.
So I entered this contest and I won. And winning meant that I got to go on stage with David Wilcox this weekend and sing one of his songs with him.

I had already had tickets to see him Friday night at a small church in Marblehead. That was sweet. Small venue, great seats, great acoustics, great David. I hadn't seen him in concert since early college, and it was amazing. I went by myself - a little date with Jenna. Couldn't have been happier.

Oh wait, yes I could have been. Because Saturday, he was also playing 2 hours away in Northampton, MA. So Elisa, Lauren and I drove out there on Saturday, putzed around the quaint hippy town for a while, I bought a great pair of $6 sunglasses, and we ate burritos. Then at 4pm I went to soundcheck. With David Wilcox. I just waltzed right into the bar, introduced myself, and waited for him to check the sound to a point where I could sing along. And then I did. And it was magical. He played guitar and sang harmony, while I led the vocals on "Eye of the Hurricane," one of his most well-known songs. I almost felt guilty for taking such a personal song away from him - but he was so gracious. And he complimented me up and down (can't complain about that). He was so excited to share the song with me. He kept saying how people were going to love it and he was so excited and it's going to be a better song together than on his own. And he said I did things vocally that he wouldn't have come up with on his own. I melted.

Sound check lasted all of about 15 minutes, and as I was trying to plan out how I would respectfully offer him a copy of my own CD, he beat me to the punch and asked me for it. I about fell over - but handed him a CD and left sound check to kill an hour or so before the doors opened for the show.

We had great seats at the venue, delicious seasoned fries, and the waitress sat one random, but super nice man with us who was on his own and needed a seat. He offered to share his brownie sundae with us, and even though we had a lovely time chatting with him, we declined the generous offer. He later covered our bill. (That's how you know you've hit rockstar status - jokes.) I also got to meet the Promo lady who helped set up the gig, and David's manager. They were both super nice and also complimenting of my singing.

David called me up in the middle of his set to do the song - and I can't even describe it because i'll never do it justice. It was just so unbelievably cool. Who gets to sing on stage with their lifelong favorite musician? Lots of audience members had super nice things to say on their way out, and I went up before we left to say goodbye and thank you to David. They were rushing to pack up so another band could go on stage, so there wasn't a lot of chitchatting - but I got my moment. I'm set. It was unreal.

There are photos and videos on my facebook of us playing the song together.
Check it out.
And once again, tell your friends about http://jennarene.bandcamp.com/ OR www.noisetrade.com/jrvoorhees - you can get my music and help me get to India.

2 comments:

  1. JENNA
    I cried a little reading this post because I can't even imagine what something like that would be like.
    Videos don't work on my laptop so as soon as I get home I'll check out the video.
    Also, how do I get your CD?
    so much love to you friend, so happy a dream came true for you this weekend.

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  2. A-MAZING. amazing. I am so happy for you what an incredible experience! I'm with Rae- I can't even imagine what that would feel like! xoxoxoxox you're famous.

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