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I am a little hesitant to write the article this month because I have to admit several personal faults on my part, but I don't think I'm alone and that is what will get me through this. Mike has shared with me that as a child, his dream and ambition was to be a gospel singer. He watched his family sing for a living along with the other groups that were part of the Caravan Tour in the 60's and his mind was made up. He was going to be a gospel singer no matter what.

I started singing with my family at six years old. Nearly every weekend of my life, we were somewhere singing and I was loving every minute of it. I remember in 1979, The Blackwood Brothers did a concert in the school gym where I would eventually graduate and that was when my perception of the whole music scene changed. We got to open for them that night and it was the coolest thing I'd done up to that point. I don't know if it was the nice tour bus or all the bling that Cecil Blackwood had on, but I realized that night that there was a way to make a living from singing. That night was like a shot in the arm and we really started getting serious about singing. We started working at getting better vocally and musically and really started learning the business side of the music business. Long story short, I began working and preparing for what I knew I would do the rest of my life. Several years later, I was 17, about to graduate from high school and my dad asked me what colleges I was looking at. I'll never forget, I said, "College? Dad I've prepared all my life to sing for a living. This is what I'm going to do"! He told me that I might want to learn a trade to fall back on in case the music thing didn't work out. I told him that if I planned to fall back, I'd fall back. Well, let me tell you that during the times in my life when the music thing wasn't working, I've had to do work that was equivilent to digging a long, deep ditch with a spoon, so trust me, I've had to work hard to support this music thing. During those times, my dad's words would echo in my ears, but I was determined to make the music work.

I've said all of this to let you know one thing. If your car ever breaks down, don't call me. If you need a roof put on your house, don't call me. If your plumbing starts leaking and you are ankle deep in sewage, don't call me. I can't help you. If you don't believe me, ask my wife and she'll tell you exactly what she tells me after I break what I'm trying to fix; "It's a good thing he can sing". Why am I telling you about how useless I am when it comes to do it yourself projects around the house? Because I know I travel with a bunch of guys who are just like me. Not one of us are mechanically inclined. If something starts to go wrong with the bus, do you know which one of us knows the most about it? Our 16 year old drummer, Jordan. How sad is that?

Now, I don't want to discourage anyone out there that is dreaming of singing, but here's the deal; when you sing for a living, you are normally home a little more than you're gone. If you don't want to be frustrated the rest of your life because you can't put together your kids "some assembly required" toys and they think Santa must not be that nice of a guy because they heard him in the garage banging things around at 2:00 AM on Christmas Eve, don't put all your eggs in one career basket. Sing 'til your heart's content, but learn to do something else that won't make your wife say, "It's a good thing he can sing".

David Staton

LeFevre Quartet
http://www.lefevrequartet.com

Reader Comments

Ha, ha, ha! You are so funny!

God is good all the time & all the time God is good. 

Elaine Harcourt

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