Lake Folk in Cleveland, Lake Folk in Cleveland

You maybe heard that Lake Folk had it’s first out of town show last weekend.  We played two nights in Cleveland.  The first night was at a mega-houseparty my very special fwend, Brian Beck, was hosting.  That show went really well, I thought, and we sold a lot of EP and received a lot of nice comments.  Brian has a really beautiful house with dark wood paneling and floors and rustic lighting (pictures below).  AND a fireplace.  Our instruments sounded rich and full there on Saturday afternoon when we were practicing for our show that evening.

The second night we played at Arabica in Solon, Ohio, which is a little cafe/bar just outside of Cleveland.  We had a sound guy who was really great and I think our sound might have been the best ever.  Unfortunately because of the following night of jamming, drinking, screaming and all other manner of debauchery my voice was not at it’s best.  To hopefully mitigate future throat-related problems I’ve done two things.  First, I bought this.  I cannot wait to take pictures of me using it.  I was waffling on it a bit, but the first review said that it is a MUST HAVE for singers and speakers.  So, there you go.  And yes, I did buy the aromatic pads to use with it so that I can breathe in soothing menthol and eucalyptus.  Duh, that’s a no-brainer.  The second thing I did was to contact a voice PhD student at Michigan for some voice lesssssssoooons.  I’m hoping he can give me some advice on how to strengthen up my voice and increase my endurance.  I’ve never had any formal vocal training (does high school choir count?), and I’m a little nervous.  His ad said to expect “an honest assessment of your strengths and weaknesses” at my first lesson.  Great.