HOW THE NEW 'THE LEGENDS' WAS BORN
It all started with my parking luck. It has been amazing, for years. I want to go somewhere, I get to park out front. But this visualisation thing is something else. I don’t rely on it, but lately it seems if I don’t go out and get what I want, it walks in the front door. It’s almost scary sometimes, and I never, never, never take it for granted. But it's happened more than once. Kitchens may be something to do with it.
I wanted to work with a band again. Published the thought on the website, nothing on the horizon, just kite-flying. Ran into Dave Lambert again, first time in over a decade, invited him to my birthday party. Then we all got singing (as you do) and later Dave said, ‘By the way, I don’t suppose you’d be interested in joining a band, would you? We’re looking for a female singer.’
After all the jokes about ‘putting your foot in it’ and ‘leg-ends’ had calmed down a bit, I had a listen to The Legends’ demos and realised that I might just have been handed the ultimate birthday prez: a working band of truly accomplished musicians, all of whom can sing, all of whom can carry harmonies. That almost NEVER happens. Awesome. So we tried out.
‘We’ are Dave Lambert (fiddle, lead vocals, harmonies, mandolin, guitar), Rob Norman (keyboard, harmonies, bodhran, tin whistle, guitar, bass), Dean Semmens (drums, drums, drums, harmonies) and me (vocals, guitar, harmonies).
There was plenty of enthusiasm. We quickly realised our tastes had much in common, musically we communicated well and were all fast learners, and vocally we sounded good-to-excellent together without even trying. It augured well for what might happen once we put in the work. Meshing ‘personalities’ was interesting to start with, and it was touch and go for a while whether I would actually meet the drummer before our first gig. My voice was taking its time to warm up, after years of very little singing. And the discipline of strict rhythm accompaniment on guitar for the instrumental tune sets was a rude awakening for someone more used to the esoteric timing shifts that tend to develop from playing solo, as I had been doing for about ten years!
But we did get it together in time for the Fleurieu Folk Festival (Aldinga, November 2005). Even waiting to go on stage, exhilarated as I felt, I was nervous as all hell, and I wasn’t the only one. It must have taken us half an hour to set up on stage, in the middle of a concert, which didn’t help – THAT mustn’t happen again! But the MC handled it, the audience were patient, and we started playing. The energy shot straight up to the roof and stayed there: that was the moment we knew this line-up was going to work.
It was fantastic. Of course there were mistakes, mislaid picks, clumsy transitions, all of that. They didn’t matter. It really, really worked. Amidst the applause and shouts for ‘more!’ someone waiting to go on stage said, ‘I hate you – how can we follow THAT?’ All music to my ears.
And that’s how the new The Legends was born. So I’m feeling lucky. But taking nothing for granted.
  
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 February 2006 |