Singing with The IoRicans

Rllink

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My wife and I were asked to play and sing in one of the downtown stores for the Music Walk next week. So we are pretty excited about that. And they asked us what we called ourselves, and we never really had a name that we called ourselves, so I told them The IoRicans, being that we live in both Iowa and in Puerto Rico.

We have close to thirty songs on our playlist now, and probably ten more in our pocket that we could pull out if we wanted. I really like to get people singing and clapping along when I perform, so I got three different colored 13 pocket files from Staples. Then I printed off a dozen or more copies of each of our songs and put them in different pockets in the files. I printed a list of them in the three colors that correspond to the file that they are in. Then I printed up a poster that invites people to get into the folders and find the song sheets for the songs that we are playing, and sing along. I also said that if they wanted a different song than the next one on our list, just dig it out, and we would play that one instead.

The poster starts out in big letters, "If you've always dreamed about singing with the IoRicans, here is you chance". Then the directions are below that.

Anyway, I've always brought along copies of some of the songs that I sing, and we've always handed them out to people who wanted to sing along, but as this audience is passing through and we want to get their attention so they will stay and listen to us, I tried to get a little better organized, which is hard for me sometimes. I hope it works. We want to win.
 
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"If you've always dreamed about singing with the IoRicans, here is you chance". Then the directions are below that.

I have always dreamed of finding Ioricans one day. To sing with them is simply way beyond my wildest imagination. Please follow up with those directions (is this "downtown" maybe Canal Street - New Orleans)?
 
Great idea Rolli, lots of people like a good sing along. Seems like you have put a lot of thought and effort into your "gig". I know you were very excited to be asked to play at this event. Congratulations man........break a leg.

We are proud of you brother, thanks for sharing.
 
Does your wife stand up and do you sit with your uke? Anyway the IoRicans is very unique style to me. Have a good gig!
 
I have always dreamed of finding Ioricans one day. To sing with them is simply way beyond my wildest imagination. Please follow up with those directions (is this "downtown" maybe Canal Street - New Orleans)?

Downtown Ames, I don't think we are ready for Canal Street in New Orleans yet, but we are working on it. One of our songs is City of New Orleans, but that is more of a train song I guess.

Great idea Rolli, lots of people like a good sing along. Seems like you have put a lot of thought and effort into your "gig". I know you were very excited to be asked to play at this event. Congratulations man........break a leg.

We are proud of you brother, thanks for sharing.
Thanks Dave. I'm used to people singing along, so I'm more comfortable if I can get that going. I have put more thought into it than I usually do, and that is good. I need to take it up a notch if I want to progress with this.


Does your wife stand up and do you sit with your uke? Anyway the IoRicans is very unique style to me. Have a good gig!
We usually just stand. Actually, my wife doesn't usually sing with me, so I just stand. But this is going to be longer than anything I've done before, so I'm looking for stools. I will probably end up standing a lot. I like to move around with the music a little. I'll have stools, and we will go from there.
 
WTG man. I hope you have a ball. (I would have said "blast", but there are too many bombings these days). If someone makes a video, can we see? And maybe you should come to TBUG sometime, we're halfway....
 
Downtown Ames, I don't think we are ready for Canal Street in New Orleans yet, but we are working on it. One of our songs is City of New Orleans, but that is more of a train song I guess.

I like that song. :D Have fun! You've sure done a lot of prep. Just curious, do you use a lead sheet or similar when you play, or have you memorized all the songs?
 
I like that song. :D Have fun! You've sure done a lot of prep. Just curious, do you use a lead sheet or similar when you play, or have you memorized all the songs?
I have most of it memorized, at least to some extent. A few of them I don't. But I also have everything on paper in one way or another and placed in order in a three ring binder. It is too easy to get lost when I go live and sometimes I need to get back on track. Plus I make notes on some of them. Like I might jot down what note a song starts on, just to get it started in the right place. Maybe I'll jot down reminders that I'm going to strum a particular song, or that I'm going to pick it in one style or another. If there is a particularly obnoxious and tricky chord, I might highlite it so that I can see it coming. Sometimes I highlight the chorus, just so that I can find it fast if I have a lost moment. There is just a lot of stuff that I like to have there in front of me, even if I have the song itself memorized.
 
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What a wonderful opportunity. I recently played at a fund raising event with two uke friends. Some of the guests came up to us afterwards with big smiles on their faces, telling us how much they enjoyed our playing and singing. That made us very happy.

Love your name. Have fun!
 
WTG man. I hope you have a ball. (I would have said "blast", but there are too many bombings these days). If someone makes a video, can we see? And maybe you should come to TBUG sometime, we're halfway....
I would like it if someone made a video of some of the songs. I have a hard time singing to a camera, so I don't do videos on my own, and I feel like I have enough on my plate when I'm out in front of people, so I don't want to add other distractions to what I'm doing.
 
Have you done it or will you play it this week end?
5-8 this evening. I don't know what to expect. Thee hours is a long time, but I suppose that we will take breaks and that a lot of people will want to chat. I think that it would be strange to sit there and sing our hearts out if no one was in the store, so we will have to see how that goes. It all seems to be pretty informal. But I'm going over to the store sometime this afternoon to set up. They have to move some stuff around to make room, for us.

It looks like some of the other groups that are playing are well established in this area, so the competition is going to be tough. A lot of them are real showmen. I don't have any illusion that we will win, but I would at least like to hold our own. I'm nervous about it, but excited too. We are ready. We had these old rickety stools that we were going to sit on, and my father-in-law came up with two real nice metal antique ice cream parlor stools that actually match that we can use instead. That will help with the presentation, and I'm sure that the people who come through and vote are not going to be judging us just on our technical expertise, they are there to be entertained, so we have to make sure that we don't sit there looking like a couple of robots going through the motions. That right there is going to be the hardest part. I can play the ukulele and sing, but I've got to be able to connect as well.

I've only been a spectator at this event in the past. I think that it is nice that we were invited to be a part of it. We will have to see what happens. So thanks for asking. I appreciate the interest. I'll post something tomorrow to let you know if we survived. By the way, can anyone tell I'm really excited about this?:)
 
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Good luck and have a great time. I was in Iowa this past winter working for "what's her name". Maybe I'll catch you on the island this winter:cool:
 
It went very well and we had a good time. The store owner said that she was surprised how many people wanted to sing along with us. I figured that would be popular. It always is. It was different though, a lot of people came in and shopped while we were playing. That was the idea, to get people downtown and into the stores. But we got used to that pretty fast. As of yet I don't know who won. I don't even know how or when the tally the votes. There is a cash prize for the winners, that's all I know about it. But we did make enough on tips to buy supper and a few drinks.

As far as the playlist, we played most of the three hours. I think that we took one break. But a lot of people wanted to talk, and we talked to a lot of people. I don't think that we played any songs just back to back, without some chatting in between. We also did a lot of requests, so songs like City of New Orleans, Margaritaville, and House of the Rising Sun got sang over and over again. But the thirty songs were plenty to get us through the night. They had a kids thing going on in the park, and they gave the little kids kazoos, so we had some help for some of our songs. It was pretty funny. Little musicians in the making.

I'll also add that I learn well from experience, and I learned a lot last night. I like it when things don't just always go as planned, and we had plenty of those moments last night. There was a lot of adapting going on.
 
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Hey Rolling.........I just remembered your gig so I went looking for your recap of the event. It sure sounds (pun intended) like it went very well and you and your wife were a hit. Having a good singer makes a big impact on the audience. The ensemble I play in was blessed with one but she moved away.

I admire you for just putting it out there and learning from your experiences. That is the best way to learn after all. Congratulations.
 
Hey Rolling.........I just remembered your gig so I went looking for your recap of the event. It sure sounds (pun intended) like it went very well and you and your wife were a hit. Having a good singer makes a big impact on the audience. The ensemble I play in was blessed with one but she moved away.

I admire you for just putting it out there and learning from your experiences. That is the best way to learn after all. Congratulations.

Well done, you're a lot braver than I am. I'm really glad it was a nice experience for you and your wife. :eek:ld:
Thanks Dave and Dick, and everyone else around here for the support. It has been a great journey so far.
 
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