Violet and the Newsroom

Hey all! Anabel here with a lay-down of the past weekend. 

I’ve been absolutely hyped for this. See, I caught what first just felt like a common cold, but then the sore throat would go away for days on end, and oops! No voice! So, I relentlessly rested it for the last few days, only talking in pertinent meetings and chatting with friends via google translate. 

“You’re such a gremlin when you can’t talk.” ~ Tori, my roommate who put up with it

Needless to say, it feels GOOD to sing again. 

Three part harmony is one of my favorite musical ‘tricks’ to pull off. I’ve loved it since I was a kid, and it ‘clicked’ for me in college. Now, I’m one of those weirdos that thinks of harmony in numbers when I sing it. If you know music theory, harmony is just making chords out of voices, which can be a technical process. And unfortunately, I’m a numbers person. So it goes!

My first gig of the weekend was with another outfit, Champs of the Sun! Their full band material is on streaming platforms! Violet and I play in that arrangement, but lately we’ve been having fun with Mark, the band leader, as a trio. I don’t know if anything can beat our gig at Chevy Chase Inn where we got a bunch of Irish sister-city tourists to break it down to Celtic fiddle tunes, but our trip to Covington on Saturday came close! Aside from the performance, I also got to see a good pal who’s kicking butt in law school at NKU, so that made the night so special. And, we enjoyed some of the best German sausages I’ve ever had.

Then, after a brief sleep, we started back for Frankfort! First, for Church service. Thanks to the First Presbyterian folks for having us in their Bluegrass Sunday program! I especially enjoyed embarrassingly intruding on the children’s church.

Like many rural folks, I first learned to sing harmony in church! My second-grade self got to sit with the older ladies in the front and pretend I knew how to read music. My school didn’t have a choir or anything of the sort, so where else was I supposed to go?

Then, to Kentucky Coffeetree Cafe! We’d been conceptualizing this trip for a while; we play, and Clay’s uncle pulled some magic tricks and recorded us!

Quick note: the other way I learned to sing harmony was by recording myself on the computer. As an angsty, anxious teenager, figuring out I can do it all myself via multi-track recording was amazing! I still have some of those recordings. They’re embarrassing, yes, but fun.

In the past couple years, though, I’ve learned singing with others is much more fun. I realized that as I stood by my car all dramatically, once my instruments and anxieties had been loaded inside. Same moment I realized we’d be getting our first snow in November.

(Dang iiiiit)

~ AP (Anabel)