Daddy sang bass (Momma sang tenor)
Me and Lil brother would join right in there
Singin' seems to help the troubled soul
--Daddy Sang Bass, Carl Perkins, 1968
--recorded by Johnny Cash, 1969
One of my earliest memories is lying in bed with Momma sitting there and singing "Winken, Blinken and Nod" to me as a lullaby. She had a nicely rresonant tenor singing voice and she sang well. She could also recite some poetry from memory with a good voice and effect, I recall with fondness "The Owl And The Pussycat" (Edward Lear) as a favorite. Yet years later, she would claim not to remember the incidents.
Why she was a tenor has an interesting history -- as a young woman, she fell down a stairwell and broke her neck. A vertebral fusion saved her life but left her voice permanently lowered.
Dad also denied any singing talents, but in the shower he could be heard belting out various ballads and novelty songs (all rather obscure and usually lewd) in a robust and excellent baritone. He wasn't around much in my early youth -- it seems that a NYC "child development center" had recommended that
he be avoided as an influence in our lives -- and consequently we were shipped off to boarding schools until 1966.
My boarding school, Crow Hill School in Rhinebeck, NY, had an excellent arts program, with various arts teachers coming in from Woodstock across the river to provide enrichment. The resident music teacher attempted to teach me piano, but I couldn't get the hang of using both hands well enough. But I took to music theory like a duck to water, and boy, could I sing. Ms. DeKooth, the music teacher, taught me to regard my voice as an instrument not different from any other musical instrument, and to experiment and practice with it without fear.
So, while piano fell to the side, I learned to sight-read, transpose, and all the other skills necessary to a musical talent. To accommodate me, and some of the other vocal talents at Crow Hill, a "Glee Club" was tried for one year. I was slated to do a featured solo at the year-end concert, but due to being an unrepentant free-thinker, my punishment was to be banned from performing in the concert. It could have ruined me, but I was young enough, naive enough, and independent enough to refuse to regard it as a punishment. Besides, that year I still had a critical solo verse in the younger kids school play (The Ugly Duckling) so I got to do singing that year anyway.
Come 1966, my Dad took a tenured Professorship at Duke University (rather than remain at NYU as Director of the Engineering School Computation Center without tenure.) I was old enough (12) to go back into public school, so I entered 7th grade at Sherwood Githens Jr. High in Durham, NC. The superior
education I had from NY allowed me to concentrate on social skills rather than struggle with the academics -- and I needed to deal with the social situation. As an immigrant Yankee, a non-racist the first year of "integration", and a budding gay male, it took lots of negotiation and avoiding to not be the target of bullies and cliques. School chorus was one of the best classes to take to gain "street cred" and avoid the study hall classes where the most abusive interactions occurred.
I was good enough to go to All-State Chorus in both 7th and 8th grade. I also got selected for several special choruses in the region. The most significant one was the children's choir for the premier of Duke Ellington's "Come Sunday" with Dave Brubeck, the Artist-in-Residence at UNC. Years later I got to premier "Come Sunday" again, when the Unitarian-Universalist Association inaugurated a new hymnal including the song at the General Assembly in Charlotte, NC, singing as part of the GA Choir.
In high school, I auditioned and was accepted for the Select Ensemble class in all three years. From boy soprano in Jr High, I settled into a high baritone, living comfortably in the inner voices of anthems and pop song arrangements. Church choirs also vied for my presence as a solid sight reader and confident and reliable voice for the hectic pace they kept. St. Stephens Episcopal in Durham got my nod for letting me be an Acolyte and choir member at the same time.
Also in High School, I picked up Technical Theater, AV Technician, and Master Tech of the Auditorium to keep me busy and out of the way of the jocks and bullies. Fortunately for me, I could "ace" any standard tests, and passed many classes on the basis of tests rather than on the basis of doing homework which I seldom handed in on time. Also, my senior year, the school board revised the graduation requirements about a month before graduation, and I squeaked by with a C+ average. I placed in the 99th percentile on the
National Merit Scholarship Test, got a 1750 on my SAT, and a 790 in the Biology Achievement (one question wrong!)
This gave me enough to get into NC State University. I declared for a double major in Computer Science and Biology (Genetics) and placed out of most of my first-year classes by testing. (College English was another matter, I actually had to do the work in order to pass, it took me several tries. I could clearly speak, read and write, but "demonstrated writing skill" was my downfall.) At NCSU my choice extracurricular activities continued. Thompson Theater, WKNC Radio station (I was Classical Music Director almost
immediately) and, most joyfully, the NCSU Men's Glee Club. Milton Bliss was a well respected musical director, and the Glee Club was selected for the National Music Educators convention in Atlanta in 1972.
Highlights of the music at NCSU were: premier of Vaclav Nellybel's "Come O My Love" in Atlanta; a recording of a setting of Vachel Lindsey's "General William Booth Enter Into Heaven"; a masterclass with Milton Bliss in lieu of a formal performance arts class at NCSU. Milt convinced me I was a real tenor and gave me the confidence to be a first tenor. College, alas, got the better of me. I was doing too much stuff, and GPAs are based more on actual work turned in than on test results. I couldn't maintain a 2.0 and in the
fall of 1973 I was forced to drop out and enter the "real world."
In 1973, the Information Technology industry was wide open, Bachelor of Science in Computer Science degrees were rarer than hen's teeth, and 15+ years of experience in programming and computer use was worth more than even a Master's Degree. I was hired by Duke University Medical Center as the first
full-time operator of their nascent Duke Hospital Information Service. It was second shift (4-midnight) and way too easy for me. This left plenty of time for other things. I moved quickly to Medical Records as a Coder and Research operator in first shift. This gave me the time to resume music.
A brief stint with the Duke Chapel Choir didn't last as Ben Jones and I couldn't stand each other outside of the "tea room." I joined St. Phillips Episcopal choir. I loved the ecumenical variety of the Episcopal church. Kent Otto and the motley crew of excellent singers would tackle nearly anything. I got St. Phillips to "steal" St. Stephens annual performance of the Faure "Requiem" and I could hit G#/Ab above C1 (C above middle C).
By 1977, I had moved to computer support for Microbiology and Immunology in the DUMC research campus with two PDP-11s I was directly responsible for, and supporting a handful of other PDP-11s around the campus. I was also on the social in-group with Computer Science (since my Dad was in that
department) and got to participate in the development of UseNet/NetNews. My middle brother introduced me to the folks in Physiology's computer group who were also involved in the UseNet/NetNews development effort. One of their programmers was a young transgendered woman, Sue Finnegan. [See "Eulogy for A Transgendered Woman" in this blog for a brief history.] Sue and I fell in extreme like, then love, and ended up getting married.
In 1980, President Nixon slashed the NIH budget, and Sue and I were on the unemployment line for a while. A position with Digital Equipment in Colorado Springs didn't work out, and I landed a consultant's career in the northern New Jersey and New York City area. We moved to Morris Plains, NJ and started searching for musical opportunities in the area. What we found was karaoke!
I had heard a little about karaoke but hadn't seen it before. One of the local mixed clubs featured a weekly karaoke night, and we became regular attendees. At that time (1981-2) karaoke was laserdisk or audiotape but it was enticing and fun anyway. Local churches were hostile or un-supportive and New York City was too far away for effective participation. (We couldn't afford to drive in and out much, and the public transportation suffered the usual problem of ending too early in the night to be truly useful.) Fortunately, our exile to NJ ended in late 1982 and we came back to Durham.
I got a steady flex-time, staff position at The Center For Demographic Studies as a Systems Programmer. Soon, Sue also joined CDS as an application programmer. (She earned more, with overtime, than I did as a staff member.) For music, I did the occasional amateur musical with the Durham Savoyards and occasional soloist appearances in church at Eno River U-U Fellowship. All along I would periodically pick up the guitar and serenade Sue with John Denver and Leonard Cohen songs.
By 1987, CD+G karaoke was coming into vogue in the area, and several shows were available each week, and we happily resumed our love affair with the art. My "specialty" was 60's pop and John Denver and Neil Diamond. Sue was "The Creedence Queen" and had quite a following with the Triangle fan base. In 1998
the MP3+G format was invented and "computer karaoke" was born. The first RTP KJ to adopt the computer format was David C. Price of Original SuperKaraoke. Within three years nearly every KJ was clamoring to get into the computer era. It was a perfect match for my talents. I became a "goto guy" for folks wanting to get into the computer karaoke era. Most of the local RTP KJs now using computers have consulted with me about some aspect of their systems.
In 2004, Sue suffered a stroke, and required several months of therapy to recover her singing ability. In 2007, Sue suffered more minor strokes, and briefly considered divorce. Through perseverance and luck, I solved the problem with a song. Sue was, you need to know, very short and her complaint with me was that we weren't communicating the way we used to do. One night at karaoke, I selected to sing for Sue the song "Always On My Mind" in the Willie Nelson arrangement. It worked wonders in that she came to understand that I meant every single word in the song for her. I still sing it occasionally for her memory.
In 2008, we lost our home in the "mortgage meltdown" and spent lived in Durham Urban Ministry's homeless shelter. During our time in the shelter, Sue suffered more strokes, and ended up institutionalized. Singing became a rare treat, and helped me stay sane in the otherwise maddening circumstances.
In 2009, the karaoke industry went into a major meltdown with some track producers suing KJs and venues for piracy and counterfeiting. In NC several KJs are in the process of fighting or settling these lawsuits. I've become an observer of the industry and somewhat of an expert in the legalities of the situation, since some of the defendants are friends of mine.
In 2011, following several strokes and an extended period of decline, Sue passed away. On what would have been her birthday, a "karaoke wake" was held in Durham, and many of her friends, fans and KJs who knew her got together for a celebration of her life. For about three months following her wake, I
didn't sing anywhere. I am fortunate in having friends in the community, several of them got together and induced me to get out of my funk and get back to singing.
My current involvement in music is generally two shows a week; on Mondays I get my middle brother to drive me to a show in Durham; on Thursdays I go to a show in either Durham or Chapel Hill with my friend Michael Anthony and anyone else in the house we can get to go along.
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