Folk Show for the Hungry

Day 17: Folk Show for the Hungry

By Laura Carpenter

Thanks to the lovely ladies from SkyanI (pronounced Sky and I) for helping make this AoK happen! For a few weeks we were wondering if AoK #17 would ever be. Kaler had been calling and chasing down bands for quite some time, but to no avail. It was the Saturday night before St. Patty's Day and around here that means many young adults and musicians have plans to engage in some kind of revelry. Finally, SkyanI accepted our invitation to play at The Redemption Movement and the event was on! Since we were unable to get any other bands on the bill, I seized the opportunity to subject the audience to a few songs of my own. Admission was $5 or a bag of non-perishable food items and all proceeds were donated to The Lord's Table, a free meal service provided daily by St. James Episcopal Church.

I accomplished a personal victory while doing this AoK. I wrote a song ten years ago called Short Skirt (a satirical song about immodesty). The guitar line has a lot of finger picking in it, which I am not accustomed to doing in public. I get nervous when performing and it results in some shaky hands.  I discovered this problem back in junior high. At that time, I had been practicing the song Fur Elise for months and had it down. I especially loved playing the runs at the end. However, the night of a piano recital, it all broke down. I was nervous and my hands were shaky. The song had been going just fine, but when I got to the runs I lost all control and dexterity. My hands felt like fingerless nubs. I botched the runs. I started them a second time and botched it again. I knew I could play them, so I tried a third time to play the notes and my fingers were simply not responding. My mind went completely blank and I didn't know where to pick up again with the song. So, I put my hands in my lap, let out a sigh of defeat and exited the stage. Later that night I felt powerless to control my nerves and wondered if I would ever be able to perform music ever again.

I took up trombone in high school. Trombone requires no dexterity because it's a slide instrument and I did well with it. I had forgotten about my performance jitters, but while studying music in college the problem returned. 

In college, I was required to perform vocal solos and piano solos in front of a judge of professors. I remember just laughing at myself as I played piano at an adjudication feeling that my hands had virtually been disconnected from my brain.  They limped along as I played a song I could play note for note when alone in a practice room. I remember singing vocal solos in rehearsal with my voice teacher exclaiming, “Laura, that was so good I got shivers up my spine!”, but in performance I could barely squeak out the high notes because my throat and chest tightened up. I looked at my teacher in the audience and the expression on her face was shock and bewilderment.

All of this goes to say that ten years ago I wrote a song that I wanted to perform for others, but felt I would be unable to do so, due to nerves. I literally had visions of being on stage trying to play it, but my fingers turning to useless stubble and me having to exit stage in defeat.

 Last Saturday night I faced that fear head on. After some practice and a calming Kava tea, I played my song for a small group of strangers for the first time. I was able to play it through completely and my fingers didn't miss a note! Even though the audience was small, it was a big personal victory for me. I love writing songs and I desperately want to be able to play them for others. Fear tries to keep my musical passion under lock and key, but with God's help, and a husband who keeps pushing me into scary situations, I am slowly but surely breaking free from fear.

 SkyanI then took the stage. They are an indie-folk band composed of three young ladies.  The three of them sing harmoniously while one of them also accompanies on an acoustic guitar.  Since there were no other bands, they were free to treat us to just about every song they knew. They covered a wide range of songs such as Gigantic by the Pixies, Mr. Saxobeat by Alexandra Stan, and Animal Tracks by Mountain Man. SkyanI also played several well written originals.



Their voices and harmonies blended beautifully and their melodies were enchanting. Kalil's guitar strumming resonated gently through the room. We thank them for sharing their songs and their time with us and look forward to having them back again. Thanks to their participation we were able to follow through with AoK #17 and collect some money and food for The Lord's Table.