The Sunday Setlist: E., And Friends

AllTheButtonsThatPop

ProudAsPunchVille

My oldest kid first sang with me in front of an audience of about 500 when she was four years old.

Now.

There are a couple of things I should make clear before I begin.

First, it was a captive audience given that E. came into sing to one of the big classes I teach on the last day of the year.

Second, pretty much from the from the beginning it was actually me that was singing with E.

Not the other way around.

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In the ensuing years E. became involved with all manner of big singing projects, including a whole lot of musical theatre and a longterm stint belting things out with the Bach Choir.

But one thing never changed.....

Which is that E., and later littler e. too, always came to my last day of class for a sing-a-long.

This became such an event that students from the past and students from other classes as well as members of our departmental staff, including some that had retired over the years, would stop by for the show.

And it is a show that has had a good long run.

Fourteen years long.

But next time out there will have to have a cast change.

Because earlier this fall E. went off to a college of her own.

A college that is not mine.

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Almost two years ago now, I decided I wanted to sing with my kids more often.

Well, actually, there was a little bit more to it than that.

And some of that 'that' had a whole lot to do with my long pent-up desire teach myself to able to do stuff like this, even if only badly.

But a bigger part of it had a whole lot to do with the fact that I wanted to give E. the feeling that she could get up anywhere and unleash her magnificent instrument in any way she, herself, so chooses.

In other words, I wanted her to know, for absolute certain, that there really is no need for big productions or big producers or big directors or, yes, even teachers, to validate anything that you do.

Which, of course, is a DIY ethic that is, essentially, the very essence of busking.

So that is what we did, pretty often for an entire year.

Busk, I mean.

And the video at the top of the post, I think, will go down as, perhaps the best example of what it was we actually did.

Later, after the family project was done, E. headed off on her own down to Granville Island where she played for the vendors and the crowds for most of the next year or so.

Which brings us to yesterday.

Which was the day E. disappeared into the bowels Montreal Metro for the first time.

Three hours later she emerged with $80 in her pocket that she didn't have when she went down the stairs.

And a whole bunch of songs swirling in her head.

And, I know for certain, she left a whole bunch of smiles on the faces of the folks that heard her sing.

Can I possibly be prouder?

****

E. is also hanging out with her friends, some new, some old, in their dorm rooms.

Here, too, there is music (and revolution?) in the air.

A wee bit of that music has been captured, by her new friend H, below.

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If you would like to see and hear the evolution of our Busking Year, it starts here....And ends here.

And, just in case you were wondering, littler e., who fronts the very first busking video, is actually the dancer in the family....Now, how the heckfire am I going to keep up with that?

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