Paris Songwriters Club participant
But attention, or watch out, or wait right one second: Paddy wants to make it clear that this remains the Paris Songwriters Club, and that he still prefers songs performed being those written by the performers themselves. But he felt that it was time to open up to continue to do exactly the same thing that is the point of the original idea: To encourage singer songwriters and just plain performers to get up on stage, experiment, and hopefully feel the urge, and the comfort to eventually write their own stuff.
It came out of his mouth before I even said it, that there were cases of people who write their own songs, but don’t have enough of them.
“But if someone comes and they’ve written, like, 2,000 songs, I’d really rather they do their own!” said Paddy, when we spoke about it at the end of another great night at the open mic.
Dr Faustus Talking WWIII at Cave Cafe
In fact, and indeed, as I sat there last night and listened to one original musician after another – none of whom I had ever heard before – I realized that almost all of them were doing their own songs anyway. And I felt that, this is great, the tradition continues, but the doors are open for anything. (I must not forget to add that Paddy has also always allowed for people to do stand up comedy, acting, reading, whatever they want.)
And boy, did “anything” follow. From Brooklyn came a somewhat secretive guy who called himself “Dr. Faustus.” I say secretive simply because, a), he left before I even had a chance to talk to him and b), I had the sense that he had done a pact with the devil, and so hightailed it outta there as soon as he could.
Woman Sings Pakistani song at Cave Cafe
And I say that about the pact because his cover of Bob Dylan’s Talking World War III Blues was just brilliant. So brilliant that I thought, “Who is this guy?” But never got an answer, except he is from Brooklyn….
So I was happy the doors had opened for that one.
There was another guy who did a song that might as well have been a personal composition for most of us, as I think a lot of us might not have heard it before, even if I think it might be well known in Corsica. And if not, it should be. It was something like “Ma Patrie, Corse…” but I did not note the title, and anyway, the guy said it was written by his music teacher in high school – so it might be considered something of a personal composition after all.
Woman Sings Man Percusses at Cave Cafe
When it came my turn, as I have not been performing in public much lately, and there I was doing cover songs for the first time on Paddy Sherlock’s open mic, I was overly nervous, and felt worse than half ok during my first two songs. I was also using a guitar that was up to my chin with the strap setting, and that didn’t help. I did “Runaway Train” by Soul Asylum and “Come Pick Me Up,” by Ryan Adams.
But it was on my second time on stage after we had run through two songs from all musicians present and had time for another go that the evening transformed for me into a truly memorable one, and gave the real sense to the meaning of the new approach allowing cover songs at Paddy’s place.
I am working on a recording of a cover song that I hope to release soon. The guy who wrote the original even offered to sing or play a bit on the song himself, and given that he is a very successful musician, I got out and recorded my guitar and vocals as quickly as I could. I got a friend from Canada to add bass. But then I realized that having upped the tempo so much in my version recorded in the studio that I don’t have enough “space” to sing the chorus as it should be done, in a long, drawn out manner. In short, the chorus sung by me stinks.
Corsican song at Paris Songwriters Club
I’ve been wrestling for weeks, even months, on how to fix that problem. So with only a few people left in the room last night, I decided to explain my predicament and ask for ideas on how to fix it. I sang the song, it went down pretty well, and I felt much better about my performance. (To the point that some listeners did not quite understand the problem with the chorus – but I told them I cheated on stage, making room in that part that I don’t have in the recording!)
But what happened was I got some fresh ideas – particularly from Paddy a bit later – and now I have some new ideas on how I might fix that problem with the chorus.
Paddy said at the end that this kind of thing was totally within the spirit of what he would hope to be doing with his open mic now that covers are part of the Paris Songwriters Club.
I sure won’t say no!
