Freewrite Einz: I've Got the Fever.

I'm a singer, always have been. I wasn't always good, but I always felt it there within me. Not everybody was born with that spirit. I have so many favorite kinds of music, to sing and to listen to. Musical soundtracks, COUNTRY, blahblah... One of the Blues Brothers once said, "I'm a soul man." That is me to a tee, and Soul is certainly my music.

I began to break out of my shell in high school when I started singing karaoke at a bar called The Moose. My Aunt Karen was the karaoke DJ there, so we always went and had a good time. My first good song was At Last by Etta James. It was actually Karen's favorite song to sing, and I only thought to try it at her wedding reception, held there at the Moose, because it was her wedding song and obviously she couldn't dance to her own wedding song if she was singing it. So that started it all. My appreciation for anything soulful--the Blues, Jazz, Swing-- came rolling in like Katrina. From Etta it went to Ella Fitzgerald and Peggy Lee, to Billie Holiday and finally to Marilyn herself, who didn't really do all that much singing anyway... but whatever. They were all strong women with strong voices. The boys--Frank, Fred, Bing, Dean, Cab, and Mel Torme--were thrown in there as well, but to be honest they didn't quite have the impact on me that the girls did. I always imagined it was me up there on that dimly lit stage, singing the upbeat crowd-pleasers with the band behind me, or laying across the piano humming the romantic standards.

...

A season or two ago there was a contestant by the name of Syesha Mercado. She was a cuteAfrican American woman who showed off her soulful voice in such songs as "One Rock and Roll Too Many," "Me and Mr. Jones," and, of course, "Fever." It was her rendition of this song that was my catalyst. The stage, like mine in my fantasy, was dimly lit, with only a soulful basist and a single wooden chair for her to dance around.

NOT DONE=[