Where Do You Start?

I had a rehearsal cancelled at the last minute this morning and now I find myself sitting here in my office (aka the kitchen table) not knowing where to start on all the things on my mental ‘to do’ list.

I’m hanging out for the postman to bring me Barb Jungr’s charts (or ‘pads’ as they call them in the UK) so that I can get those tunes under my fingers before I fly to Sydney to rehearse in just under 3 weeks time.

In the meantime I’ve got a few charts of my own to write up for Etype. The band played it’s first set comprised entirely of original tunes at the Jazz and Jamm event (where we raised around $6000 for Support Act!). The aim is to keep working on writing new songs. We’ve got a ‘band camp’ scheduled in the next couple of weeks where we’re going into lockdown for 2 days and 2 nights for intensive writing session. I’m really interested in discovering how well that works.

I’ve been contemplating the best plan of action for writing some material for Cabaret Confessional – my first ’solo’ show. I say solo, in that I’m devising it myself, but I’m thinking at this stage unless I get a major vocal chord transplant (I wonder if any great singers have donated their vocal chords to science, or as ‘organ transplant donors’?) I’ll have some guests in to join me at the performance, because noone is going to want to listen to me sing for an hour. Anyway, with what I’ve written to date, Cabaret Confessional will be a very SHORT show. I’ve got plenty of work to do on it, but the trouble seems to be finding, or making the time. Maybe a Cabaret Confessional retreat is in order. I have the fantasy that being on tour will be a bit like that – a few hours travelling, a few hours doing Barb’s show and a few hours writing each day. I’ll keep you posted on how that goes. How do YOU manage to balance the things you want to do with the things you have to do? For me the things I want to do are the creative things, versus the things I have to do to earn money and day to day admin stuff. Write me a comment below and tell me the best way you’ve found to juggle all the things in your life.

The idea of the title of this post came to me just as I began writing. It’s the title of a beautiful song written by Marilyn & Alan Bergman and Michel Legrand. I first discovered it with my old pal David Gauci and we later included it in ‘My Blue Angel – Dreaming of Dietrich’ with Catherine Campbell. If you’re interested in having a listen, you can find it here in one of my favourite shops in the world.

Did I mention I have stacks of work to do?