Chapter Five
Cal
I walk into Pinky's, a small dive bar in Tacoma that I haven’t been in since we were shitty little garage band. Even though recognition requires playing in a shithole like this and earning the cred, she is far too talented to accept this gig. Pinky's is packed and the owner is getting the benefit, not her.
I called ahead and let the Manager know I would be coming to see her act and asked if I could come through the back so that I could watch her fans response and her show uninterrupted.
Currently I watched from the side of the stage, waiting for her to begin. The minute she started the first song, that beat sucked me in.
She was doing a cover bySiacalledHelium, but the vibe she puts in to it...? She uses this computer to mix the sound and I can feel the direction she wants to go, but its missing something. Bass guitar isn’t enough for what she wants to accomplish. The bass works, but at the very least you need rhythm with it. Take the bass out and the rhythm, add some piano and orchestral drums? This song would be better than the original version.
It's hard to watch because her voice is unlike anything I have ever heard. There’s this raspy pitch that has her sounding like she is in the pro’s. It is her acoustics that need help, once she has her sound, her voice will carry harder, stronger and it will balance out the music.
I knew before I got here that I would want to collaborate on some music, but I wanted her voice since her sound lacks or use her on some duets with Chad. Ideas of maybe even producing where I could utilize my musicality to help her out. Only now, I want to fix her music and play guitar for her songs. She starts and old Cheryl Crow song and she tries, I swear she does and she is close to what she is trying to do… But it just isn’t there.
I see the guitar beside her and decide to help her out when she starts to singHurricanebyFluerie. I know,knowwhat it is missing because I know this song, Tayla listened to it often.Fleurieis on the alternative end of indie artists, but Lexington has switched it into that slow hip hop vibe, but again with the bass.
I can’t let her ruin this song or her name anymore. I turn my hat around so the bill covers to top of my face from the crowd, then pull my hood over my head and hope like hell I can blend in.
She sees me the minute I step on stage and I legit cover the microphone before looking at her. "You are torturing this song. Start it over and let me help on guitar, and for the love of God, kill the bass on your equipment. Leave the instrumental stuff alone and get to the piano, stay there and trust me."
I don’t wait for her to freak out. Dumb move if she would have because this will be career changing if she heeds my advice. I might not be a lyricist, but I am a musician.
She’s smart though and doesn’t flip before she apologizes to the confused audience.
"Hey guys, sorry I had to stop but it was a much-needed interruption as my guitarist just showed up. Welcome, uh… CD."
Hand to God, I felt my cringe from being called that, but accept it because she was trying to give me as much anonymity she could.
The song starts over once she is at the piano and she began to sing. For now, I sit and watch until I can feel where to enter. My eyes are closed and I feel every vibration, every sound until I hit it.
When she starts the chorus, I lick the string then tap it so it carries keeping it soft and haunting to stay with her R&B vibe. The entire dynamic of the song changes and I know how to follow without smothering the artist.
I keep it mellow, even though I could add more and shred it, but there isn’t a need for solo's or whammy bar squealing,butonce the break in the song comes I will shred the fuck out of it.
My thing is not hers, but with a little of my thing, my knowledge and her vibe and voice... holy fucking epic.
I climb the bar on the next verse, keeping it low but matching that bluesy thing she needed and I see her smiling like I made her day.
I am certain I did.
I lay into it, peeling fast and flicking my strings so that the shitty bass she tried adding comes through now, cleaner by the flicks I keep down on the arm of my guitar.
By the end of the song the audience is screaming and she is grinning ear to ear. "Thank you everyone. I am going take a few minutes before the next set."
She stands and I follow her shaking my head in absolute horror. "Never break only three songs in!” I scrub my hands on my beard before readjusting my hat. “They just started cheering you on, now isnotthe time to break." I look out to the crowd and see the anxiousness of her fans excited for more. "Gotta piss? Hold it. Thirsty? Fucking suck it up. You see fans waiting and anxious for more you stay the fuck out there and deliver. Only leave the stage when you’re off and need to get your shit together."
She nods and flinches at my tone, but hell she will never make it with the dumb ass mistakes she's making. I get that I have made her my project, but she doesn’t know that and probably thinks I’m egotistic.
"Okay... any advice before I go back out? I need to get my next beat up."
"What song?" I ask.
"Nothing compares 2 u."
"Chris Cornell’s version?"
She shakes her head no. "Well actually I don’t know. I only know Sinead O’Conner’s version."
