Talent show

Unwell; Matchbox Twenty

In 2005, I assisted a local private school with their annual talent show. Students from grades five through eight submitted their acts to the music teacher and she programmed the entries into a well-thought out show. Whenever someone needed piano accompaniment, they had me at the ready.

One brave young eighth-grader came to the microphone with a solo. You don’t often find a thirteen- or fourteen-year-old male willing to throw down something phat in front of his homies unless some genuine talent lurked. This young fellow had brought a karaoke CD of a Matchbox Twenty song called “Unwell” to sing to and, man, he nailed it. He earned himself a most righteous minute-long standing O.

So, I downloaded the song from iTunes, featuring the impressive voice of Rob Thomas. I particularly liked the banjo intro and outro played by band member guitarist Kyle Cook. You would think that a rocker like Mr. Cook would deem banjo-playing beneath him. How refreshing to find someone who thinks outside the box, searching for something musically rich in an instrument largely foreign to the genre.

When I hooked up with the Delta Queen steamboat in 1997, the bane of my existence came from my duties at the calliope. I graduated from a major conservatory with a master’s degree to play THIS? For two weeks, I was annoyed and completely put out that I had allowed myself to take this job with this inane performing aspect. Then my Midwest work ethic woke up and put the whole thing into perspective in the following way: Look, someone has handed you a rubber band and asked you to strum a symphony on it. Now, can you do it or not?

So, I chose to embrace the destiny that this calliope beckoned and proceeded to find joy in the gauntlet that had been thrown down before me. Marches, state songs (like “California, Here I Come”), river songs (like “Swanee River”), women’s name songs (like “Mame” and “Margie”) and “The Teddy Bear’s Picnic” began to hoot from the calliope, entertaining listeners from seven miles away. I swear, Metallica has nothing on a steam-powered calliope when it comes to volume. You can hear me, yes, me, playing the calliope here.

The music video of “Unwell” reveals a little more about the meaning of the song. Mr. Thomas, in the video, claims that he is NOT crazy, but simply suffers from various occurrences that would, or could, compel “normal people” to label him as such.

A few weeks after the talent show, the school held eighth grade graduation followed by awards. This same young man who had serenaded the crowd at the talent show proceeded to garner award after award after award. We found that the panache that he exhibited at the talent show for throwing off inhibitions had a limit. The first teacher to proffer an award to him gave him a hug. He accepted it with a smile, but then whispered in her ear that he didn’t want any more.

Credits: To those who can’t stop the music, who find that they are not above using anything to keep the music flowing.