Have you ever listened to a Windborne arrangement and said, “This was nice, but you know what would make it even better? Electric guitar and loud drums.”
If so, then you are in luck! A year ago in January 2020, we were Showcase Artists at Folk Alliance International, a Big Deal gathering of industry professionals–artists, agents, bookers, DJs, producers, etc. Since the conference included artists ranging from Rhiannon Giddens, Leyla McCalla, and John McCutcheon, to little ol’ us, the showcase venues also varied in size from giant hotel ballrooms that seated thousands to more modest settings for a hundred or so. Our venue was (unsurprisingly) one of the smaller rooms, but it was the perfect size for our very enthusiastic and supportive audience. We performed our first two songs and started to relax, feeling good about this whole venture, when the band in the adjoining room began their set.
You know how in hotel conference centers, they have these retractable walls that can divide a big room into two smaller rooms? Turns out they’re not very soundproof, especially when you have a four-voice vocal group pitted against one that looks like this:
The video at the top of this post starts with Lauren giving the introduction for Bread and Roses, and you can’t miss the moment when our unintentional accompanists really kick it off. As you may remember, Bread and Roses starts with Lynn singing a lovely gentle solo, and she deserves all the gold stars for bravely forging ahead with such cacophony in the background. After that, you can watch When I’m Gone, a performance like one you’ve never heard before. Our particular favorite moment is at 6:15 when we get to the line, “Can’t be singing louder than the guns when I’m gone” and you can see us all group thinking, “Ha! More like ‘…louder than the DRUMS!'”
Not seeing any other option, we made the group telepathic decision to keep going with our set as planned. We watched a few of our friends race out, clearly headed to talk to the sound engineer in the other room, and we thought (hoped!) that maybe this was all a mistake of some sort that could be fixed and give us a little more auditory space. But we continued to have a backing track throughout our set, and our sound engineer deserves major props for walking the fine line of constantly boosting our mic as much as possible without getting into feedback territory, so that our audience could at least hear us more than the other band.
In some ways, this incredible blooper had a silver lining–it was certainly a far more memorable showcase than if we’d simply done a great Windborne concert! From what we heard from old friends and new contacts alike, our performance was still good (whew!), and we managed to demonstrate a valuable skill that is hard to present to potential bookers: that we can stay cool under pressure and still deliver a good show even in adverse circumstances.
While we can’t honestly say we’d ever choose for a showcase performance at a major conference to go like this, we also can’t say that it was all bad. If nothing else, it has left us with a great story that we are delighted to share with you.
Have you ever seen a major blooper of a show (or performed one yourself)? Tell us about it in the comments!
