Friday, June 28, 2013

Singing a song

Thirty-five years ago I wrote a song about a friend, RuthAnn, with whom I worked at the local orchard.  She and I worked near one another much of the time, and we talked a lot as we were grading apples.  She told me little snippets of her life, past and (then) present.  I heard a lot of her opinions... for instance, I remember that she just didn't think a storefront church was proper.  I don't know why stuff like that sticks in my brain, but it does.  She was the kind of person you don't forget, once you've met her.  She told me how to make hamburger soup/stew, which I still cook during cold weather.    
A couple of years back we connected on Facebook and got talking about a song I wrote about her all those years ago.  I dug around and found the words, typed them off, and sent her they lyrics.  
She said she sure would like to hear me sing her song.  
I told her that I would record it at some point in the future and put it on Youtube, and I even set out to do it once.  Having not sung the song for so many years, every time I'd start recording myself singing it, I'd mess up and have to start over.  Then the camera battery would die and I'd forget about it.  
Today I decided I had better record her song or I'll end up croaking and she'll never hear it again.  So I got out the guitar and went through it a couple of times.  
Trouble is, some of the words needed to be updated.  
"Horses are her fancy now and she rides all the time" needed to be changed, because she only has one ancient horse on the place and doesn't ride now.  I changed the line to "Grandkids are her pleasure now.  She likes 'em mighty fine."  
Another line went "She says that she'll breathe easier when all her kids are grown..." which became "She surely does breathe easier with all her children grown."  
With those changes in place, I figured my chances of getting through the entire song before the fifth or sixth recording attempt were slim, and by then the camera battery would die.  Surprisingly, on the second attempt, I got it.  I watched the video to the end to see if it sounded all right; considering I'm no pro, it was OK.  But at the end, as I strummed my last strum, the look of surprise on my face was so evident that I had to laugh, I mean REALLY laugh.  I'm still laughing, and Cliff watched it and laughed too.  I tried just taking a still shot of my face at that point to put on this entry, but you have to see it in action.  Maybe sometime I will just edit out the end and show it.  Or maybe I will get up enough nerve to put the whole thing on here for a day or so, and then delete it.  
I'm not using Youtube to share it, because there are many critics in this world, and I am already my own worst critic.  I'm using Vimeo, where I can control the privacy just fine.  Another disadvantage of Youtube is that in order to watch a video you must have a Google account.  I know lots of folks who want nothing to do with Google.  

4 comments:

  1. What a sweet thing to do. SERIOUSLY.

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  2. PS) Love the lyrics.

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  3. Would love to hear you sing. I can't carry a tune in a bucket as they say.

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  4. That is wonderful and I would love to see it!!

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