In Karaoke, Talent Means Nada

[Joshua Bernstein]

With September came the brilliant fall foliage of Vermont, clusters of school children waiting outside the neighborhood for their school bus, and election season.

He was glad to have free time again this year; although he had enjoyed campaigning the last two years well enough, he had missed having time to spend with friends. Meeting someone after work even for a brief moment together had been difficult, let alone spending an entire evening laughing and chatting.

Or, in this instance, an entire evening singing karaoke.

Josh flipped through the karaoke book with interest. "Oh, good, they have Don McLean!"

As if any karaoke bar would not have Don McLean, but somehow despite the prevalence of music from his youth he always felt a bit as if eventually all the music he knew would be replaced by songs he didn't recognize.

"Oh! And they have Jim Croce! This song" (by which he meant Bad, Bad Leroy Brown) "came out when I was in middle school, and I loved it! I think I may even remember the lyrics without a book....but I probably shouldn't risk that."

[Deleted]

Rosella would like to make it a point to go out and enjoy herself with a friend like this, but to be honest, work had a bad habit of keeping her occupied. At least things at the club were running smoothly enough for her to take a night off for herself. Hopefully the person she hired as the manager was as competent as he seemed.

But, she didn’t come out with Josh so she could worry about that. This was a night to relax, after weeks of nothing but working long days, longer nights, and hardly having a single moment to herself. And thank goodness, too. The company before her was well worth it.

“You never know how well you know a song until you have to sing it without the lyrics,” she commented, smiling broadly at the man across the table from her, her chin rested lightly upon the back of her wrist. Rosella closed her eyes and chuckled. “It’s like that Carpenters song,” she said, reminiscing herself over the memories of the songs she grew up with. “Every sha-la-la-la-la~ and every whoa-oh-whoa-oh~, right?” Rosella might sing that one sometime tonight just for the sake of irony.

She straightened and stretched her arms out in front of her. “It’s not that I don’t like Lady Gaga or Miley Cyrus, but…..you really don’t get the same sound these days as you did back then, do you?” Rosella was all about being progressive, but…it was still sad to see some of these classics get lost in the generations.

[Joshua Bernstein]

Josh laughed and shook his head. "Sometimes my nephew sends me youtube videos to hmmm...what does he call them?...Americana folk bands. You know, they aren't too bad, but nostalgia has such a strong pull."

He shook his head as he continued to flip through the book. "I don't know that I could pull off a Lady Gaga song. Although that could be entertaining for everyone else, what do you think? Should I try oh, what was the name of that song that was so popular? Bad Love? No, Bad Romance, that's it."

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“American folk bands? Is that what they’re called? Is that what they call Indie bands these days?” Or was there a difference? Rosella shook her head. She tried to keep up with the music scene, but…well, her age still showed through in much of her knowledge.

Rosella laughed at that image. “I think there’s a lot of people who would pay you good money to not sing that.” Though who knew, maybe Josh had a hidden diva underneath all that scruff? She pat her hand gently on the table, reaching towards him slightly. “Stick with the Jim Croce, hun. May as well give these young people something worthwhile to listen to.”

[Joshua Bernstein]

Josh shook his head at Rosella's question. "I think Noah listens to more folk music than rock, but it may have some overlap. Don't ask me!"

Although he enjoyed music well enough he couldn't say he was overly familiar with all the different subgenres.

"Sometimes Noah tries to explain about different genres to me, but I don't really understand all the differences."

He could hardly remember all the names, let alone what they were supposed to mean. There was so much Trad this, third-wave that, Neo-this, and so many genre fusions he couldn't even keep them straight. He had told his nephew that Disco-punk sounded like an oxymoron, and the younger man had laughed and tried to explain, but Josh hadn't followed the explanation.

"Any songs here catching your eye?"

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Rosella shook her head. “I may know many kinds of music, but I am always surprised to find out what I don’t know.” New stuff was always coming out every day, every week, every year, and it was all Rosella could to do keep up with a single genre, much less the many variations of the same genre they had these days. It wasn’t just ‘rock’ anymore. It was ‘punk’, or ‘shredder’, or ‘death’(who came up with that one?), or modern….what constituted as modern rock? And what happened when all that ‘modern’ music became ‘old’? Rosella didn’t understand it. To her, good music was simply good music, no matter the era it was made in. “If you ever get a clue of what it all means, be sure to drop me a note, I’d love to know myself.” She chuckled at the idea. It wasn’t anything for them to stress over, she supposed.

Rosella peered over at the book-list of songs. “Hmmm….a few, but…you know me,” she said, turning a smile his way. “I’m such a diva. I want to find something that’ll really ‘wow’ the crowd.” Though with a limited selection like this, it wasn’t easy to find one. “You know…back in Chicago, most of the karaoke bars don’t use books anymore. You just pluck a song out of the sky, tell them, and they check if they have it.” She laughed, leaning in just a bit more. “I knew this KJ who would download a CDG track if they didn’t have the request in his library.” Rosella had her doubts as to the legality of that, but…it made for a nice selection. A lot more freedom to choose, in her opinion.

[Joshua Bernstein]

Josh's jaw dropped at Rosella's statement. "They don't use books? Are they trying to discourage people from karaoke?"

He had a high tolerance for looking ridiculous (at least when looking ridiculous was a side effect of having fun, which karaoke was) but he couldn't imagine how badly he would butcher lyrics if he didn't have a book in front of him.

"If you're still not decided then I'm going to go first."

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Rosella shook her head, laughing at Josh's incorrect assumption. "No, honey. It's just the opposite," she explained. "I suppose it's for the benefit of young people. They all want to sing the new songs, and it's just so tiresome to always be updating books, at the rate songs are released these days." For older people too, though, she thought it benefitted them because it meant they could check for a specific oldie they might want to sing instead of just 'seeing what they had'. They'd just tell the KJ what song they wanted, he'd pull it up on the system, and the lyrics would be right there on the screen, though sometimes it was amusing when those tracks gave the wrong lyrics.

She waved her hand, nodding. "Go on, hon. I'll find something in a minute." Hopefully. "You don't have any requests or suggestions, do you?" she asked, leaning in slightly. It was terrible, Rosella always had trouble making up her mind for these sorts of things. Or in general.

[Joshua Bernstein]

Josh began to slide out of his chair, but hesitated a moment when Rosella asked about requests.

"Do you know any Dolly Parton? I always loved her."

Like many middle aged people he had set up a pandora account as soon as it had hit the mainstream several years ago, and one of the very first channels he had set up was Dolly Parton.

[Deleted]

“I do a pretty mean Jolene,” she said with a smile. Of course Rosella knew Dolly Parton. Who didn’t? Only those who were more than half her age, she often observed. They might know the name, but 9 to 5 was the best they could come up with when it came to the actual songs.

Rosella reached out her hand again to tap the surface of the table. “Go do you song. I’ll be right behind you, sweetie.” And then she’d start to think about what song to do second. “If the waitress comes, what should I get for you?” she asked before he jaunted off.

[Joshua Bernstein]

"A yuengling, if they have it. If not whatever is on tap is fine."

Just because he was supposed to be cutting back on the beer didn't mean he could never have any; one yuengling wouldn't hurt, and it might even help him nurse his wounded ego should anyone boo him off the stage.

It was obvious that he didn't do much karaoke, since as soon as he went up to the DJ she sent him right back to the booth.

He sat down across from Rosella looking mildly embarrassed. "Apparently I'm supposed to write down the song number and give it to the waitress," He chuckled, "So when you're done looking at the book may I take a look and see what number the song I wanted is?"

[Deleted]

“All right,” she said with a nod and a smile. Rosella herself was a fan of wines and cocktails, though the occasional ale didn’t bother her as long as it wasn’t too hoppy. Despite being the owner of her own bar/club, Rosella wasn’t much of a drinker in the first place. She did it more socially, and never on the job, unlike some managers she’d known in the past.

Rosella turned her attention back to the book, deciding what her next song would be after she executed a perfect Dolly Parton at the request of her friend. When Josh returned, she was surprised to hear of his embarrassment. “….oh. I thought you knew that,” she said with a small smirk on her lips, sliding the book back over to him. She chuckled silently, not wanting to embarrass him any further, but….she couldn’t deny that it was amusing. “It’s okay. Lots of people make that mistake,” she tried to reassure him, though there was still the hint of amusement in her voice.


Rosella looked around and found the slips off another table. She reached over and grabbed several along with a small pencil, and set them between herself and Josh. “Here, these are the ones you need.” How silly, the slips only had ‘space’ for one song per slip. This was why Rosella preferred the DJs with the computer libraries, because they kept track of the song order on their playlist rather than on a pile of paper-slips. It was a waste, if you asked her. And far too easy to overlook or lose someone’s song.