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TAKING THE VEGAS STAGE! 

   When I was a kid the legendary Vegas performers such as Louis Armstrong, Pearl Bailey, Dean Martin, Peggy Lee, Steve & Eddie etc were still performing on the TV Variety shows! That means although I was actually never in the audience during the 50’s/60’s hey day of the showrooms, I certainly fell in love with the style and the power of those musical personalities. 
When we were thinking about a video for the “Welcome To The Club” single I wanted to recreate the 60’s Variety TV show experience ...but how to pull that off? 

Releasing Vegas Breeze at the beginning of the Pandemic had meant cancelling a fully booked tour and performing a 14 date “Cross Canada” virtual tour from the living room! One of our favourite “virtual venues” was The Aeolian Hall in London Ontario and so we were pleased to be invited back to perform a Livestream with full band from the stage of historic venue during the summer of 2021! Thanks to the excellent team at The Aeolian we felt the footage was strong enough to offer to the public as a video, and working with my director Carlos Coronado we went about re-creating an old fashioned 60’s TV look for the final product!

And then theres the band! I am so humble and proud to be sharing stage with such fine musicians as Michael Shand( Keys), Russ Boswell (bass) & Amhed Mitchel (drums)

Hope you Enjoy it! 

Welcome To The Club! 

 
Since its release the Vegas Breeze album has become a listener favourite on Jazz stations around the world, especially the stand out track “When In Rome”. 

Talking about Rome, we thought we would be touring Europe with this album at this time. 

Since the whole world is grounded (again) for the moment I felt releasing a new track and video would be the best way to bring more music to our fans around the world! 

For those paying close attention our focus on Vegas Breeze was to find unusual songs from the showroom era and chose material from beyond the regular Rat Pack repertoire.  (Creating an “Alternate Vegas Playlist” if you will!)

That led to a really fun period of research, discovery and exploration for myself and the band! 

FINDING THE SONG(S)!  

You know when you are kids (before legal age) you hang out in each others houses a whole bunch (Whoever had the best basement!)   In fact it was while playing records in the basement of a friends house I came across a Nat King Cole song that seared itself into my memory-  The melody was bluesy and swaggering, the lyrics smart and sexy, the arrangement, played by Count Basie’s band, so fun and swinging!  
Although it the album was out of print and unavailable for decades. (There are some advantages to streaming services!)  
Searching for the song I came across another tune, a delicious ballad written by one other than Mel Torme with the same name!  How strange and wacky was that?

TWO SONGS IN ONE! 
The new release “Welcome To The Club” combines the two little known songs, one recorded by Nat King Cole and the other one written and recorded by Mel Torme, (both with the same title!)..and sits firmly in the tradition of the “sophisticated swinger” giving advice to his fellow “loser in love”. 

Working closely with my band on the Vegas Breeze project (Micheal Shand, Russ Boswell and Al Cross) we experimented with arranging the two songs together and it felt like the most natural thing in the world! 

The joining of a tradition “bar stool ballad” with a swinging Vegas “showstopper” seemed to cover all the Vegas traditions at once! But what was really incredible is that BOTH lyrics give advice to a fellow “swinger”after being screwed over by a cheating lover! Perfect for our Vegas Breeze album” 

Cant wait for folks to see the Video Dropping Jan 21st!

 

What I Learned from A Capella By Former Nylon Micah Barnes  

 

I was singing with my band in Canada when The Nylons came calling and I was suddenly in a three week boot camp on my way to becoming an a cappella singer!  

Having sung lead vocal all my career I was not used to holding a harmony note and blending with other singers, let alone doing so without an instrument in site!  On top of that I also needed to pull off choreography at the same time. As I entered that extremely steep learning curve I made the crucial decision to stay relaxed about getting it all perfect and to just do the best job I possibly could in the moment. The other Nylons were tremendously patient and supportive which helped a great deal and put me at ease. By the time I was singing my first concert with the guys, ( like a deer in the headlights remembering my parts just in time to sing them), I had been indoctrinated into that rare special breed of performer, the a cappella singer! 

A cappella singing asks for a strong inner sense of rhythm, a sturdy sense of pitch and a desire to create music in close harmony with others. Not just musical harmony but a kind of spiritual harmony which a cappella singing needs.  

What I learned from my years touring and recording with The Nylons was how to stay relaxed while working in a disciplined and precise art form, how to trust my instincts as we made the hundreds of decisions that affected our career, and how to take care of my Mind, Body and Spirit while in the middle of a gruelling tour schedule. But perhaps the most important thing I got to learn was how to be part of a tight brotherhood of shared musicality and to share that harmonic communication with an audience of deeply committed fans night after night.  I am so deeply thankful that the universe lead me to become a member of The Nylons!