A mutual acquaintance introduced me to a singer about five years ago. I had written a Christmas song and I was looking for a female vocalist to record it. “I know a really good singer,” he told me. Having been a musician for over thirty years, I’m constantly hearing stories about so and so’s sister or cousin or friend that I should check out because they’re ‘really good.’ So I was a little skeptical. “She’s young and totally hot too,” he added seeing that I wasn’t jumping out of my chair.

‘So what’s the catch?’ was the question I kept to myself. He was persistent though and so this singer and I set up an informal audition. She was 23 or 24 at the time and very attractive but could she sing? Oh yeah. Did we ever work together? No, not beyond a few rehearsals. Why? That’s a real good question, I’ll answer it this way.

Remember the scene from the Peanuts where Lucy chides Charlie Brown into kicking the football only to pull it away from him at the last second. Well that’s basically what has been happening with ‘Lucy’ and I for years. There was always something that would come up just as we were ready to strike. You would think ol’ Chuck would learn! He did and so we drifted apart.

I bumped into Lucy on Facebook not long ago and she filled me in on what’s been happening. Just around the time that she was having a child, I had gotten re-married. My wife Lisa and I were celebrating our second anniversary around the time Lucy split with her husband, (again).

Meanwhile…

During the past few months I had begun to approach local theatre companies about my new Musical entitled, ‘Welcome To My World.’ It’s a fictional story about the misadventures of a group of street people who after the tragic death of one of their own, try to make a CD and hold a concert to raise awareness for the homeless. It’s loosely based on a true story and I was the real-life village idiot (volunteering at the Kelowna Gospel Mission at the time) who bet his bank roll to put it all together.

As I made my rounds through the community pitching my musical to theatre companies I once again found myself playing the village idiot. It seems that (so far at least) few groups are willing to gamble ticket sales on a local, original play. It occurred to me that I might have to rent a place and start my own theatre company. But who would I get for my starring role? That’s when I thought of Lucy.

Another interesting thing happened during this period. Although I had more than enough music for my play (I’ve actually had to cut six songs to bring it under the two hour mark), there were a couple of numbers that I wasn’t overly thrilled about. One day I’m out on a hike with the family, we’re on top of a mountain and my son James looks out over lake Okanagan and says, “Yeah, okay there’s lots going wrong in the world but right now, up here looking out at that…(the Okanagan) it makes me think everything’s going to be okay.”

That was the inspiration I needed. I went home and wrote a song and it fit perfectly into my play. I recorded it and gave a copy to Lucy. She loved it! Again! We recorded the song and I had scheduled her for a video shoot.

Guess what happened next. Ol’ Chuck missed the football and landed on his duff (again) when Lucy bailed at the last minute (again). Enter Lisa. (aka Peppermint Patty in the Charlie Brown scenario). She will be the first to admit that her vocal style is sort of an acquired taste. She’s also never performed live before but we’ve recorded her in the past and she’s come up with some popular songs. On my Youtube site I have produced a number of music videos. ‘Johnny Get Your Gun,’ a war protest song performed by Lisa is the most popular by a wide margin. On pixiecat Johnny Get Your Gun Lisa has four original videos and a host of friends and fans that love her stuff. I asked her if she wanted to spend the weekend recording a song and shooting a video. "Sure, why not." She said and off we went. She learned the song in less than a day and we shot the video in one afternoon. Then I spent the next two days doing the final mix of the song then editing the video. Crazy? Yes. Did it turn out? You tell me... I don’t know if my play is ever going to hit a stage and this song has as much chance of becoming a hit as buying a lottery ticket has of winning a million but if nothing else, my family and I had a blast working and playing. So without further ado, here it is: Gonna b ok