Karaoke On The River

2009-12-20T10:31:00.000-08:00

This pic above is me and Joe singing Long Black Train Karaoke style.

We live near the Colo. river which separates Arizona from Nevada. Every night there is Karaoke at the Riverside Casino.

Couple nights ago I had the pleasure at last, of singing Vince Gill's special number "Go Rest High on that Mountain."

I suppose it would be a good song to do at a funeral but anything goes at our gigs, and I mean anything at all.

Louise, for example frequently does "One day at a Time."

In general we like to do the electric slide so you might hear Black Velvet or Sharp Dressed Man or Boot Scootin' Boogie alot.

About the Go Rest High tune. It's a wonderful love song, about somebody's friend or relative is about ready to die and he's getting a great send off message.

I've been wanting to sing this particular song it seemed forever but was afraid I couldn't reach the high note that Vince does with perfection; I won't sing something if I think I will murder it with the effort.

Amazing though, what a couple glasses of wine brings out of a karaoke singer! Lol! Another singer, DD I'll call him comes in frequently to sing when he's not at his favorite gambling table.

His wife Ness, I'll call her is my friend. When it's DD's turn, the KG hosts goes looking for DD, she has to keep the show rolling along.

The host finds the little woman and then Ness brings out the good 'ol cell phone and I can hear her say, "it's your turn love, come on up."

DD arrives finally and asks Ness, what shall I sing as he pulls out his collection of karaoke discs. Ness says this one or that one would be great and DD vetoes the requests one by one until Ness hits upon just the right tune for him to do according to his mood.

DD knew I'd been itching to do Go Rest High as a duet with him, but he'd said we needed to practice it first, to see how we sounded together.

I disagreed we needed practice, but I nodded my head thinking, we both are afraid we're going to murder such a beautiful message. Frankly, both me and Ness have to shore up his confidence in himself.

DD has one of those melodic, always on key, smooth sailing voices with timber and resonance that makes you wonder why he isn't famous by now. Ness mention Go Rest High as his number to do, and he had only about 30 seconds to decide.

DD turned to me and said Yes! Let's me and you do it, why not? I was elated at the idea and jumped down from the barstool just knowing he and I were going to fill the entire club with music from the soul which had nothing to do with the gambling going on next door.

DD took the first verse like we'd agreed upon. I'd have no problem picking up my harmony note then. Years of choir had trained my ear well.

I had no problem with the higher octave harmony note, but I might have had a problem if I'd had to take the lead; Vince Gill has a high tenor voice I often struggled to copy. But so does DD and he was doing great, just as I knew he would.

I could go below him or above him, back and forth as I knew he would hold steady to the melody line and be predictable for me.

We took the tune to the maximum power level in delivery to the approval of the audience. Thumbs up were all over the place.

It seemed I'd been waiting for this moment a very long time. One of the KJ hosts told Ness later, "I've never heard Alysia sing so good!"

I thought about that for awhile and realized there are some tunes, combined with just the right lyrics, like they are made for us to sing because it all fits so well with the inner self.

Go Rest High is one such tune for me, yet I would never have done it without DD for whom it resonates well also.

What I feel happening inside me is a great peacefulness when I do a good performance. For many of the karaoke singers, those who are regulars at least, it is the same way.

They are reaching for something inside of them, the high note perhaps, the feeling of pushing air out with sound from the bottom of their soul, and if it doesn't come out right, they come back and try to master it once more. Singing can be addictive in that regard. It can also be like gambling as you don't know what's going to happen until you take the chance and get up and just do it.

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Karaoke On The River