And so it begins…

Alas for those who never sing, but die with all their music within them.

-Oliver Wendell Holmes

Word.

Welcome to my new blog.  For those of you who don’t know me, I’m Emily Henke.  I’m 21, from Seattle, a senior Spanish Major at Lewis & Clark College, and a singer.  I have always loved to sing and have dreamed of singing professionally since the day I understood that it could be a career.  In 2005 I graduated from high school as a promising vocalist with a lot of talent and potential to “make it big,” or at least do something that I loved.  My senior year of high school is so far the leading contender for the title of  “Emily’s Glory Days,” especially in the context of music.  I played a lead in my high school’s production of Batboy, the Musical; was chosen from an initial pool of 1000 hopefuls as one of six of the best singers in the Northwest on Gimme the Mike 2, a local, low-budget ripoff of American Idol (click here to watch me and five other finalists singing Ray Charles songs); and recorded a cover of the Patsy Cline/Willie Nelson classic Crazy that I still play for people today to prove that I am not half bad at what I do, when I do it.

For the last three years I have been estranged from music.  Upon my arrival at L&C I discovered singing

Time to get serious, people!

wasn’t the only thing that interested me.  I discovered academic subjects that I actually enjoyed studying, new friends, social justice, paychecks, the opposite sex, and semesters abroad.  Between all the life-consuming activities we tend to collectively term “college,” there was no time for music.  And so here I am, in another senior year, this time feeling vacant and unfulfilled.  History is not set up to repeat itself; another round of glory days is not waiting just around the corner.

It is perhaps waiting a few blocks away.  That is okay with me.  I understand and appreciate that you can’t just push something out of your life and expect it to appear on your stoop when you open the door a few years later and call its name.  You have to earn it back, right?

I am heading back to Portland in a week.  My only commitments this semester are four classes and a handful of friendships.  I have no job, I presently have no part in any active student groups, half my acquaintances have graduated.  I have promised myself that I am going to make a serious effort to get involved in music in Portland this year. I’ve been corresponding with a few bands and individuals via e-mail.  Some of them are good, some are not.  Some are experimental bands, others are cover bands.  We’ll see what works out (and also what makes a good story) and I’ll keep you posted here.  It’s going to be a trip, I think.

Again with the goal of getting serious about this, I bought a guitar today.  It’s a Dean Exotica acoustic/electric and it came with an amp, a stand, a tuner, a capo,  and lots of other goodies I don’t know how to work.  I got it on Craigslist and paid $400 for the whole shebang.  It’s pretty to look at and doesn’t sound half bad either, kind of like me (hahahahahaha).  I’ve send some e-mails to guitar teachers in the Portland area, and I want to take weekly lessons this semester.  If you know of anyone teaching guitar in the Portland area, please pass his/her name along!

That’s all for tonight, I think.  I’ll try to write again tomorrow.  I have some media I’d like to post and I’ve got to figure out how to get a subscriber feed up and running.  Thanks for reading!

-Emily

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