Busy time

What with meeting friends for lunch, rehearsals, a concert, having friends round for lunch,  apèros, a Spanish lunch, wedding anniversary, ukulele lessons and other stuff, it has been a very busy time. Fortunately a short holiday in the Lot beckons, so we can re-charge in time for Hallowe'en. A road party is planned!

Our gig last Friday went really well. It's always a mixture of French and English songs, in different combinations of voices, different styles of song as well. There was a real challenge this time with a song called Quant on n'a que l'amour, a duet which I sang with and a French friend Christine. It's very popular in France, but also a big song to sing as it needs to be sung out and gradually builds up to a powerful finish which has to be held.  Pleased to report we nailed it. I'm a mezzo-soprano and Christine is a soprano and we've steadily discovered that our voices are just great together. We always sing a couple of songs as duets, but we both want to do more and have got some fab songs lined up for the next gig. Mike and a French friend Patrick provide most of the musical accompaniment, but also sing. They have concentrated so far on songs by George Brassens, which are stunning pieces, immensely difficult to do, but they always manage to sing them well. The fact that they enjoy playing the songs and together, makes a huge difference. Others are involved at various points throughout the evening. This time eight people in all played or sang something. Very satisfying and a great atmosphere.