I am not tone deaf. And this, apparently, is all it takes to be the lead singer of a band. A very short lived band, yes, but still, for one glorious half hour I am a rock star. The lead singer of...wait for it...THE DUNESNAKES.
In a small bar on Main Street, while the real band - that is, the one that's actually getting paid to play at our little Church shindig - take a break, the Dunesnakes make their first, and last, appearance. We plug in our guitars. Eric steps up to his drum set, (which, due to a little misundertsanding, is a cymbal and a bass drum). I spend some time tuning, and finally I step up to the microphone and immediately say something self-deprecating.
Some people feel unsure about their talent becuase they have self-estreem issues, I am unsure of my talent because I do not have any. I have heard recordings of myself singing, and I can tell you: I certainly wouldn't want to hear myself sing. This particular evening my singing leaves a little to be desired and my guitar playing is adequate. Fortunately, Mark is an enormously talented guitarist, and I'm surrounded by my friends from Church, and I've had a couple beers. So we fill the little bar with some sweet tunes. (Yeah, I said "sweet tunes", and I feel a little weird about that, but I'm going to stick with it.) Things that everyone can sing along with. in fact, at some point I'm pretty sure I told them to sing along with me becuase there are a few notes I can't hit on Under the Bridge. We start with a little Tom Petty, you know, Free Fallin', then move to the Red Hot Chili Peppers song. Finally, we end with a litte Lynrd Skynrd. Yes, of course, Freebird, in which Mark scorches his guitar and rocks the solo for something like 15 minutes. I am trying here to use that rock n' roll temrinology that Mark is fond of (you know, guitar = ax, and lots of talk about rocking and burning it up), but I haven't really gotten it down. Obviously. Anyway, it's impressive. He even does the playing the guitar behind his head thing. And for about thirty minutes, The Dunesnakes rock.
And now I think I've pretty much gotten the rock star thing out of my system. I think I'll leave that to Mark and other people who actually have talent and dedication and don't have to check the spelling of Lynrd Skynrd.