Superstaaaahhh

You know you're a rock star when...

When you arrive at 4:15 for a 4:30 call...and you're sitting there casually looking over music and chatting with a friend on the phone, cracking jokes about beer and traffic and airsick bags in vans...

Then around 4:45, the Director wanders over kind of ashen-faced and finds a soprano and says "can you hit a high C-sharp but lightly?" Then, by way of a sort of vague general announcement..."Ok, I just talked to Russell (~Walden, Judy Collins' musical director)...and he actually did write the choral arrangement to go with ner new hurricane Katrina song...and she wants us to sing it."

...and I was suddenly like "Um...whoa, dude, I've got to go...I think we're getting new music..." -- or at least I sort of think I said something vaguely goodbye-esque... (if not...sorry!!! I was too stunned to be coherent... :)

So...mark time: 90 minutes prior to the show, we're on stage, in rehearsal, learning a new piece of music -- WITH JUDY COLLINS (and you have to understand, we never rehearse with her...ever). And the music isn't really all that hard...there's a little syncopated bit in the middle, but it follows the cadence of the words, so that's ok... Except that the sheet music we're reading only has the choral parts written...so we can't follow along with Judy on the verses -- can't tell when we're with her and when we're echoing her... And the last three systems on the last page of the song, we're completely lost. Turns out, there's a 6/4 measure written and she's not playing it like that... So they take a minute to think about it and then the performance notes come out fast and furious: "Ok, the 6/4 measure, take it out and make it a 4 -- bar line after the half note; the next half note becomes a whole note -- bar line; same with the next half note -- whole and a bar; insert another full measure of rest; three counts and you're in... Ok, let's try it..."

Boom. So we sing through it and it almost makes sense, but not really entirely (oh, and there was a contingent of the group at this point who didn't catch the notes, so they're still in the "uhh....wha?" stage)... Then the sound man chimes in from the back: "Russ? We've got doors in 5 and 6 inputs still to check...could we stop rehearsal and move on to sound check, please!?"

Prep time over. Good luck, kids...

And with that, an hour or so later, we performed. And, all things being equal, we did pretty well and had a marvelous time. Judy was incredibly gracious and kind...and her voice was lovely. The audience rocked (thank you, audience!!!) "The Water is Wide" gave me chills and once again, was worth the whole show for me, "Open the Door" was actually really fun...and Amazing Grace, the final tune, was...spectacular. I'm willing to bet more than one person welled up...

And, I'm pleased to report, no one was injured in the performance of "Saints and Angels" (the Hurricane Katrina song -- if you bust the $0.99 for it on iTunes, all the proceeds go to to the American Red Cross...go! invest! help! :).

The crowd was appreciative...Judy was gracious...the Director didn't pass out. It was awesome.

You know, we're probably not really rockstars, any of us...but tonight, we were damn close...

*happy sigh*