Happy Birthday, G-Man!

Okay, so it's one day late. I haven't blogged about our karaoke exploits lately, because-- eh, what's there to write about? We came, we sang, we had fun.

Last night at Old Town Tavern was special, in a couple of different ways.

First off, it was the DJ's birthday! His name is Gary, aka G-Man, and he was featured in one of Tabitha's Project 365 photos the last time we went out for karaoke:



Gary is pretty awesome all around. He has a huge selection of songs, is very encouraging to everyone, and even chimes in in accompaniment while someone is singing. He's very friendly and treats everyone, especially the regulars, like a personal friend.

In honor of his birthday, they served yummy chocolate cake and small appetizers. The whole bar chimed in to sing Happy Birthday to him at one point in the evening. And every so often, he'd get birthday shout-outs from whomever was on stage, at the end of their songs. I thought it was pretty admirable of him to be working 1) the day after Thanksgiving and 2) on his own birthday! Which, of course, falls on Thanksgiving every several years. Better than being on Christmas, I suppose?

I thought I overheard him tell someone he was born in 1951, and if that is true-- wow. He definitely doesn't look that old.

The evening was notable for a second reason: I finally dragged our friend Kartik up on stage. Ever since we started going to OTT for karaoke regularly, he's been hooked on country music, as Tabitha and I sing quite a bit of it. A volunteer day with Habitat for Humanity, where the redneck foreman blasted country music as they worked, helped too. So, he's been wanting to perform Craig Morgan's "A Little Bit of Life" for quite some time. I wanted to get him on stage for at least one song last night, especially since his best friend was visiting from the Bay Area. Unfortunately, we discovered very little overlap between our musical tastes. He didn't know any Beatles, Elvis, ABBA or even Christmas tunes! I didn't know Pink Floyd or Michael Jackson. I wasn't sure I knew the Craig Morgan song well enough, but at least it was familiar enough to me, and we listened to it on his phone a couple of times, and basically "crammed" for it. We got called up sooner than we expected, and Kartik did great! He wasn't as nervous as expected, and now that he's broken his karaoke cherry, the prospect of doing other songs later on will be a lot less daunting.

All in all, a fun-filled evening. Celebrating G-Man's birthday, enjoying cake and listening to some of the other regulars (like Jenny and Cathy-- both very good!) and finally getting Kartik on stage, opening the way to more of his singing in the future! :-)