I have performed in piano bars, restaurants, and clubs throughout the United States, but for various reasons, I have rarely ever accepted a request from an audience member, unless that audience member was my wife. In some cases the request was Justin Bieber (and I didn’t play it for obvious reasons). In other cases the request was a little “sacrilegious” (see Stephen Lynch’s song, Craig, for example). And yes, in some cases, I just didn’t know the song.
I am taking a leap of faith and testing “request cards” with my audiences over the next few months. My repertoire list grows almost daily. A new song comes on the radio and I rush home to figure it out. Last week, it was Fall Out Boy’s Uma Thurman. That one’s still going to take some time, but it’s getting there. This week, I managed to add Five for Fighting’s entire album, Two Lights, to my list!
In any case, I’m quite excited based on the requests I’ve already received when posting this photo on social media sites. I’ve seen everything from Queen to Gershwin. The Gershwin request (from my friend, Lyndon Fuller) restored a little of my faith in humanity. It was then subsequently killed by a request for Taylor Swift’s Shake It Off.
Here comes some fun!