Monday Musings

My family can sing. 
That is a very plural statement intentionally excluding the singular.  The singular being me. 
I can vividly recall, the time my dad wanted to lock and load the "Von-Lanigan Family Trio" consisting of himself, my brother and I.  Unfortunately, there were no other males to use in the family so his hands were tied.  Knowing I could knock the melody of Happy Birthday out of the park, and sometimes even throwing out some harmony for special birthdays, I was kind of hoping for something short and somewhere hidden behind a curtain.  Nope, my dad shot for the moon, picking the song "I have seen the Light" by Philips, Craig  & Dean.  I know, who are PC&D (I shortened it cause let's get serious it won't make this worse). Well, they are of the male persuasion and a trio.  That is pretty much were the comparisons end.  They all sing 6 octaves higher than me, they are tall, and they understand key changes.  Both my dad (Dave) and brother (Brent) have singing experience.  My dad being old school legit singing on the radio, barbershop quartets, and throwing out his sultry tones at Easter Cantata's (just wanted to say 'canata').  My brother has always been known to be musically inclined.  That being said, I am proud to say that I did not tour with Mandate, my brother's chorale singing group, which brought new meaning to the term "hand expressions."  They did more grasping at air and elbow pumps, that you weren't sure they all struggled with terets.  Oh yeah, and they sang with matching outfits.

It was all looking great until we sat down in front of the piano.  We start singing and they soon realized I had about 6 notes in my range.  That and I tended to sing flat.   With the glory of the "Von- Lanigan Family Trio" waving in the distance, there were no obstacles too large for my dad.  He adjusted the melody here, dropped a key there, and launched into attempt #2.   It was not pretty.  I could not find the key if I was paid,  and Brents arms were twitching.  By the time attempt #6 arrived my dad had changed the key so many times we were now singing Jingle Bells.  Somewhere between attempt #4 and #5, Brent had rounded up his Mandate cumberbun and ressurected his "Fins 68" special double hand, air grab, palms out, over-the-head meet and clasp move.  My dad lost it.  Now I could go into an explanation as to what it looked like, but let's just say Peggy, my dear mother, had to initiate an intervention.     Dad got a time out, I was asked to leave the house for a couple days and Brent was on the phone planning the Mandate reunion tour "Fired Up" throughout Saskatchewan.   Needless to say, The Light was not going to be seen ever again.

Believe it or not, that story birthed from the fact that, this weekend, I noticed the band "Newboys" has a new lead singer, namely,  Micheal Tate.  Tate used to be part of the famed "DC Talk."  Kind of bizarre.  Especially since you can check out the video with, special guest, Toby Mac (former member of DC Talk as well) singing the DC Talk jingle "Jesus Freak" with the Micheal Tate of the Newsboys, here.  Again Bizarre.

Enjoy Monday.