country | Richie Kaye

Singing and Playing Solo, Episode 3: Tempo

May 3, 2020

Once I’ve chosen a song, I decide how I’m going to deliver it to the audience.

Episode 3: Tempo

Episode 3 is the third in a series for the solo singing guitarist, both professional and hobbyist, who’d like to know how another soloist goes about his work in rehearsal.

Listen to my brand new Space City Funtet album, BLAST-OFF!

Just click on this ROCKETSHIP!

Also on iTunes:

Whinin’ and Complainin’: Classic Nashville Out-of-Love Songs

The Last Whoop-dee-doo

Richie Kaye’s Music & Mirth

A New York City Subway Christmas

PREVIOUS EPISODE

Episode 1, Intro and choice of key

Episode 2, The Set-up

Singing and Playing Solo, Episode 2: The Set-up

Once I’ve chosen a song, I decide how I’m going to deliver it to the audience.

Episode 2: The Set-up

The second of a series for the solo singing guitarist, both professional and hobbyist, who’d like to know how another soloist goes about his work in rehearsal.

Listen to my brand new Space City Funtet album, BLAST-OFF!

Just click on this ROCKETSHIP!

Also on iTunes:

Whinin’ and Complainin’: Classic Nashville Out-of-Love Songs

The Last Whoop-dee-doo

Richie Kaye’s Music & Mirth

A New York City Subway Christmas

PREVIOUS EPISODE

Episode 1, Intro and choice of key

Waylon Sings the Wrong Lyric and Nobody Would Notice

February 27, 2018

This is a lot of fun. Demonstrates (to me at least) just how accomplished a performer Waylon was. The song is “Loving Her Was Easier” (Kris Kristofferson).

At about 1:32, he sings “Healing as the colors in the sunshine and the shadows of her eyes.” In the middle of the phrase, you’ll notice a very very tiny smile that comes to his lips and a curious split-second look in his eye. PROBABLY because he just realized he repeated the fourth line by mistake! But covered beautifully, unnoticeably on national television with all that pressure.

The lyric that should have been sung is: “Talking of tomorrow and the money, love and time we had to spend.” Instead, he naturally went with another “ea” sound that started the previous line.

Great Opening Lines: You Call That a Mountain

February 23, 2018

Today’s opening lines:

I always heard about the great Atlantic

How it humbles you to stand upon its shores

So I thought I’d take the time to go and see it

’cause I had no ties upon me any more

But I don’t know what I wasted my time for…

“You Call That a Mountain”
(Michael Garvin/Bucky Jones)

Reading this aloud, one finds it prosaic, but with melody, it is anything but. This opening skillfully and conversationally sets up the form of the song: the singer visits a new natural wonder in each stanza. In the bridge, the singer then praises the incomparable wonder of his now lost love. The natural wonders pale.

Rhythmically, the lyrical cadence is grasped immediately by the listener. In the verse, sung in 2, the emphasis is on the 2. In the bridge, on the 1. This reversal of emphasis, making the bridge the definitive commentary on the more passive observations made in the verse, is, I think, simply some of the finest artisanship I’ve seen in Nashville classic country.

Definitely, a song I will record for the next EP.

More New Songs Added to the Solo Show Repetoire

September 19, 2016

New tunes added to the solo show repetoire:

A Sunday Kind of Woman (Charlie Rich)

One Note Samba (yes, there are lyrics!)

Heaven (Bryan Adams)

I’ve Heard That Song Before (everybody under the sun)

Lean Baby (Frank)

And coming soon:

Danke Schoen (Wayne Newton)

My Sugar is So Refined (Nat Cole)

Funny, Familiar, Forgotten Feelings (Don Gibson)

Life is Just a Bowl of Cherries (Judy)