It’s been a while since I wrote, but more progress has been made.  Last time I wrote that I’d met Alex, a guitar player who’d just moved to Portland.  We’ve practiced four times together now, and we have three or four covers pretty well memorized and performable.  We practice in the basement of my house on Sunday afternoons, and we’ve worked on At Last, by Etta James; Angel From Montgomery, by John Prine; Hallelujah, by Leonard Cohen; Fountain of Sorrow, by Jackson Browne; and Sunday Morning Comin’ Down, by Kris Kristofferson.

Here is Angel From Montgomery:

And At Last, by Etta James:

I’m sorry the video/audio quality is so bad. I have a webcam that wasn’t meant for this.  The washing machine is also a part of our humble little band, apparently. It has a solo at the end of Angel from Montgomery; I’m sure you could hear it.

Now that we’ve got a few songs ready, Alex and I are going to start looking into playing some open mics around Portland, hopefully in Southeast.  I’ll be sure to let you know where we can be found, even though we’ll likely only play for ten or fifteen minutes at a time.

In other news, I have my third guitar lesson tomorrow.  I haven’t really done my homework (what else is new), but things are coming along fairly steadily.  At the risk of looking like (even more of) an idiot, I’ve decided to share a video of one of my first songs with you.  I think I’ll post new songs pretty frequently, so you can see how things are coming along.  Here’s the first installment.  It’s Help Me Make it Through the Night, by Kris Kristofferson.

I have more videos than the ones I’m posting here.  All of them can be found on my YouTube page. You can check there regularly for updates.  I just don’t think it’s fair to subject the entire blogosphere to everything I record!

That’s all for now.  Let me know what you think by sending comments or messages.  See you next time!

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It’s been a while, I know.  Perhaps you thought I’d given up.  But my daily fight to live the dream continues, people.  Today I met with a guy from Clackamas who plays with a cover band.  I found him on Craigslist, the matchmaker of matchmakers.  He’s looking for a female vocalist to play wine bars and cafes around town with him, and I guess I fit the bill.  Over a glass of chardonnay we discussed our potential repertoire: Bonnie Raitt, Jackson Browne, Willie Nelson, Kris Kristofferson, The Eagles, Melissa Ethridge, Patsy Cline, Norah Jones, Etta James, The Backstreet Boys.  Not.

My Inspiration.

If the wine bars go well, chances are the band will be interested in having me sing a few songs with them when they play parties, corporate events, and weddings in the future.  (That’s right folks, I could become a wedding singer.  Please send a SASE for autographs.  One per envelope.)  I’ll keep you posted on how things go with this project.  For now, I’m supposed to compile a list of songs I’d like to sing and send them his way so he can learn them.

Yesterday I met with another guy I found on Craigslist (not in the personals section).  He just moved to Portland and plays the guitar.  He’s looking for a singer (and eventually a band, possibly) to play with.  He’s more interested in writing original material and performing it than he is covering songs, but he said we could start by playing a few covers at open mics around the neighborhood.  Once we’re confident we can work together (and once I get comfortable on stage), we’ll move on to writing songs.  We’re going to practice in the dusty basement.  Woohoo!

I’ve also signed up for my first guitar lesson.  On Monday I’ll head down the road about a mile to a local guitar teacher’s house and learn a C chord, maybe!  Yeah!

In other news, I now live in a big, old, green house in Sellwood.  It is cozy and much classier than the other college rentals I’ve been to.  My roommates are fantastic and so is the neighborhood.

That’s all for now.  I’ll keep you posted on the dream-achieving.

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Last night I stood within twenty feet of one of my heroes.

I LOVE YOU WILLIE!!!!!

It was epic.  If you can get tickets to Willie Nelson’s “On the Road Again” tour, buy them now.  You will not regret it.  I saw him with my family last night in Marymore Park in Redmond, Washington.  The man is 75 years old, played for two hours straight, and sounded as good as he did in 1956.  And he played most everything for at least a minute or so–only an obsessive fanatic like me would know a few songs he didn’t play.  On top of being a music and lyrical genius, Willie is a guitar god.  Most people don’t know that.  Willie is the lead (and only) guitarist in Willie Nelson and Family.  He solos in almost every song on this tour.  His guitar is so ancient and beat up that it has two holes in it, instead of just one.

As impressive as the quality and length of last night’s show were, I was even more impressed by how happy he made his audience.  Willie Nelson has been an active musician for fifty years and people have appreciated him for thirty.  Willie Nelson has been making people happy for thirty years!  That’s AMAZING!  And he seems to thoroughly enjoy himself while he’s at it.  He spent a good ten minutes signing autographs at the end of his show last night.  Anyone who had something for him to sign (and had bought the $70 seats–the most expensive seats offered) could bring their piece of memorabilia to the stage and he’d sign it.  When people were out of things to sign he shook their hands.  I didn’t try for an autograph–I don’t really understand the autograph thing.  I wouldn’t have said no to a handshake, though.  Sigh.

In other news, I recorded three new songs at Randy Devitt’s house on Wednesday.  They are “I Can’t Make You Love Me” by Bonnie Raitt, “Stay With You” by John Legend, and “Break Down Here” by Julie Roberts.  I’m happiest with “I Can’t Make You Love Me.”  My mom, Cindy Bain, accompanied me on all of them.  My sister, Allison, joined us for “Break Down Here.”  You can let me know if you’d like to hear one or all of them by leaving a comment here.

In other other news, I am leaving for Portland on Sunday.  I move into a house in Sellwood on Monday, and school starts on Tuesday.  I’ve found some guitar teachers to call–one of them is even in Sellwood!  I’ve also been exchanging e-mails with some musicians in need of vocals.  Some of them are very promising!  Craigslist.org is my best friend these days.  I will keep you posted about the connections I make in my first few weeks of school.

Until soon,

Em

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Not one of these people is me.

I don’t play any instruments (except my vocal cords).  I took piano lessons from second through fifth grade, hated it, and quit as soon as I was old enough to develop a somewhat structured argument about why I would never need to know how to play the piano.

Oops.

So here I am, a singer with no way to write songs.  I’ve been living in Coverville for four years now, depending on established singers and bands for material to mimic.  I’m fortunate enough to have been invited to sing at Magnolia Presbyterian Church once each year, during the summer.  Each August since my high school graduation I’ve prepared, performed and recorded gospel favorites from your grandparents’ childhood years.  Luckily, one of those songs is 128 years old, and thus falls under public domain.  It’s called “Softly and Tenderly.”  I performed it during the summer of 2007.  You can hear me sing it by clicking the link below.

Softly and Tenderly by Will L. Thompson, Performed by Emily Henke August 2007

Mad props to Beth Jaureguy for the decidedly spiritual piano performance.

This year at the little church on the hill we picked things up a bit (I think they cleaned, too, but I’m referring to tempo).  A week ago I sang “Where No One Stands Alone,” a more recent chart-topper that was made popular by the likes of Elvis Presley, Loretta Lynn, and (more recently) the Peasall Sisters (of O Brother, Where Art Thou? fame).  I’ll be recording it on Wednesday.  Let me know (leave a comment or send an e-mail) if you’d like me to send it your way when it’s ready.

On Wednesday I’ll also be recording “Break Down Here,” by Julie Roberts, “I Can’t Make You Love Me,” by Bonnie Raitt, and “Stay with You,” by John Legend.  It’s a good mix of styles and ranges that I’m excited to have on hand to play for people.  My mom (Cindy) is my chief accompaniest on this hot new record, and my sister (Allison) makes a cameo on “Break Down Here,” a song she insisted required two guitars.  She was right.

I’ll post more about the recording process after it’s over.  Until then, let me know if you’d like to hear any of my covers.

-Em

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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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