As I review my twenty plus years of slugging it out in the music trenches as a full time professional singer, I think I might be a tad bitter. For openers, there’s American Idol, America’s Got Talent, The Voice; all broadcasting showbiz hopefuls throughout the world along with YouTube, MySpace, Facebook, or let’s just say the internet – 21st century portals that produce instant stardom for the talented, for the ‘not really talented but really pretty’ or for the lucky bastard. Okay-I admit: I’m bitter … wrong place and wrong time most of my adult life-awesome. It’s frigging great to be twenty years too late.
I can’t tell you how many times I yelled at the television during American Idol, especially during audition weeks. ‘WHAT!? How can he have the nerve to wait in line for two days and suck that bad?” Is he deaf?? Doesn’t she have ears?? Is she high? Doesn’t she have a mirror at home? Oh come on!! Did he lose a bet?” We no longer watch it … I was starting to foam at the mouth.
Maybe I think life isn’t so fair because I was a professional singer for about half of my life and I shoulda gotten such a shot. Heck – folks came up to me plenty of times and told me, “Catey you’re going to be a star!” (they were mostly men, but that could have just been a coincidence). Seriously though, I had groupies. I had stalkers. I signed autographs (weird, but really true – still don’t get it, but whatever). There were so many big and wonderful moments – and some ‘what the heck am I doing with my life’ moments.
What I do know is I’ve been around enough people with big talent to know who’s got the goods and who stinks on ice. From working in little hole in the wall bars with bathrooms that you were afraid of, to glamorous casinos, cruise ships, restaurants, outdoor festivals, musicals, parades, Grand Openings, birthday parties, holiday parties, ridiculous parties, bar mitzvahs… . I’ve played in rock bands, show bands, dance bands, jazz duos, trios, big bands – when I look back on it, I guess I covered a lot of musical ground. I’ve done A LOT of gigs. And I worked with a ton of musicians. Some were absolutely scary-talented – frighteningly good. And some were just frightening. From unforgettable Sam, the beautiful and awesomely talented cruise ship singer/dancer with a body, face and voice destined for Broadway, to Brad, the big band guitarist that scared everyone by quickly standing up every time he had a solo — we all had something in common. Whether we admitted it or not, we wanted to make it in the music biz. Why wouldn’t we? Not just a living, but make it BIG time in music… and we were doing it the only way there was at the time. The road. No TV shows, no internet channels – just one gig at a time – lots of them. Just waiting to be discovered. Just a matter of time….
And for every one of me (Catey James), there’s thousands more out there just like me, like Sam and Albert. All with stories about crazy club owners, creepy agents, groupies, weirdos, other musicians …
This life might have thrown me some curve balls, but it’s hardly been dull – good thing I liked to keep a journal, because I’ve got some stories to tell.
theclubsinger 