Comedy of Errors

The weekend wedding gig went..er...um...well, it went.

Nothing like REALLY EXPENSIVE WALLPAPER to make a party fabulous!

The band was a phenomenal collection of Houston's top musicians: David Craig, Chuck Payne, Devin Collins, Mike Owen, Woody Witt, Johan Keus, and Paul Peacock, plus the FABULOUS WONDERFUL BLOW YOU AWAY PIDO on vocals, and then there was me. Oh I'm joking, I had a moment or two...

But the room was full of, well, investment bankers. Not the liveliest of crowds. I hope to get some pro shots from the photographer that was covering the event, but until then, PIDO managed to get a few, just to give you an idea:

Here's me and Devin at the piano (rented a baby grand for this doozy!) going over some last minute things.



and here is one of the band. (minus my handsome talented and possibly deranged drummer) I believe this was taken during Moon River (father/daughter dance) which I counted off way too fast thanks to the Wedding Coordinator coming to me immediately before this and the first dance and telling me the bride has asked that we shorten the dances. This is why I need people like Glen Ackerman around to tell me that I am CRAZY and ignore my crappy tempo and just do it RIGHT instead! What a ROOKIE!



And one of Mike Owen and David Craig. These guys shared a hearty guffaw at my butchered version of Night and Day. Somehow I started out with the words all out of order/wonky and it all went downhill from there. By the end of it, I was just cracking myself up at such a TARD moment on my part.



NOTE TO MIKE AND DAVID: I SWEAR I KNOW THE TUNE BACKWARDS AND FORWARDS AND COULD SING IT IN MY SLEEP WHILE BALANCING MY CHECKBOOK, BUT I WAS TRYING TO MAKE IT INTERESTING AND CONFUSE YOU GUYS, TO SEE IF YOU WERE PAYING ATTENTION. YEAH, THAT'S IT.

PIDO took home the gold for band amusement that night, however, with his original reinterpretation of Blue Moon. He SAID he knew it. He approached the Mic with confidence and proceeded to sing...this:

PIDO BLUE MOON MADNESS

***

MWA ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha!

The best part was that people in the crowd were smiling and nodding at him, totally oblivious to the bizarre non-language emanating from his lips.

It had the making of a cool gig; a multi-million dollar mansion, a rented a baby grand, a pro sound man, had some of the greatest players in town, and we all looked mighty fine, if you ask me. But the room was full of silent old farts glaring at the spectacle or young tards waiting for the DJ.

I managed to get a few folks on the dance floor with "At Last" always a favorite at parties as a sexy slow dance, and then had a little fun with a few people in the room during "Gee Baby Ain't I Good to You?" Of course, our recorder had run out of memory by that point so no proof of anything exciting. I had a moment of panic during "Gee Baby" when the horns all walked off stage during the first chorus. I thought "dang it isn't THAT bad!" but it turns out they were just making room for Mike's A-MAZE-ING guitar playing. Worked out pretty well, and as usual, I enjoy having the stage to myself. (nyuk nyuk)

We will be doing this all again in December, and I look forward to a smoother, better rehearsed show that time around.

***if this audio clip doesn't work, don't tell me. Figuring out how to do this was the source of no less than one ocean's worth of blood sweat and tears, and I do NOT mean the awesome band...just know that I will figure it out and post it again later.

Penthouse, please.

Monday's gig at Hotel Icon was a smashing success according to the hotel management, the clients, and myself. I had the awesome privilege of playing with Joel Fulgham and Thomas Helton, Devin Colllins and my darling hubby Paul Peacock. The party was put together by Robert Shipman of Haute Soiree with help from Rob Smith of Events in Bloom.

We played on the private terrace of the Ritz Suite Penthouse, a 3 level suite of sheer opulence. I wanted to close the door to the second floor master bed and bath and slip into the built-for-three claw foot tub full of rose petals. Here's the lobby:



The afternoon leading up to this gig was yet another comedy of errors. I discovered my books (binders full of my tunes in my keys) had been left at the Convention center on Saturday. So I went home to reprint the charts only to discover that BOTH printers were out of ink and nonoperational. No time to go to Kinkos, so I pulled out the months old stacks of charts that had a few of my tunes in them and shoved them into binders without first punching holes; a sloppy compromise but effective. Of course, Thomas and Joel didn't need a book, just a title, a key, and a tempo. Silly me.

In addition to the music snafu, my pianist had car trouble and I had to go pick him up before the gig. No big deal, really it was more or less on the way, but it set us back a bit time-wise. Then the valet, trying to be oh-so-helpful, took his clothes and shoes and somehow musplaced his shoes along the way. He had to play the gig in his hightop converse sneakers, (and black suit) which I decided was an excellent look for him and needed to become his "schtick."

Then Paul's jacket was moved by the staff. We still have not located that piece of clothing.

We also discovered that our keyboard music stand is long gone.

Then there was the wind. I was not completely clear on the fact that we were actually playing outside until we got there, so none of us had clothespins for our music. that led to some fun slapstick.

Considering the situation as a whole, this should have been a disaster of a night. But it was great. The band was solid and took good care of me. They had a good time and enjoyed the hotel's hospitality, which was impeccable. The decor was gorgeous and my dear friend David Jones was kind enough to take some photos of the band before he had to skeedaddle to another party. I will post those as soon as I have them!

Man this feels good.