What's a song you absolutely LOVE, but would NEVER play at a gig? Maybe it doesn't suit your voice, it's too obscure, goes on for nine minutes, has 14 chord changes before the first chorus, or you already know the audience would stare at you like you'd just started reading from the electricity bill. We all have songs we'd love to play if audiences weren't involved. What's yours, and why doesn't it make the setlist?

I'm working on a new app at the moment and I'd really like some feedback from the gigging musicians in here before I go too far down the rabbit hole. The idea is deliberately simple. A lyrics and setlist app for musicians who DON'T need 400 features and an engineering degree to work out how to use it. 😂 It won't have MIDI or a heap of complicated automation. The focus is on making the things most of us actually need onstage really easy: - Create and organise setlists - Lyrics with simple autoscroll - Easily change the font size - Add chords directly into your lyrics - Clean, simple interface - Quick to set up and easy to use during a gig Basically, build your setlist, open the song, hit scroll and play. I'm already building it, but I'd love some input from people who actually gig. Would you use something like this? And more importantly, what ONE feature would you consider essential in a simple lyrics/setlist app? I'm deliberately trying to avoid feature creep, so don't turn it into the cockpit of a 747 just yet. 😂

Since we all have instant access to everything under the sun, mistaken lyrics aren’t as common as before. But I’m sure we all have had those funny moments when we learned we’ve been singing the wrong lyrics for years. I sometimes use these anecdotes as fun openers for songs. Here are two fun ones that I’ll share. Let’s hear yours. 1. I never understood why Neil Diamond was being so harsh to senior ladies. In Brother Love’s Traveling Salvation Show, why does he say, Pack up the babies and CRABBY old ladies?” 🤔🤓😂 2. On a road trip singing along to Elvis’ Greatest Hits and belting out Return To Sender, my friend’s wife says, “She wrote upon it. That’s how it goes? I thought it was She wore a bonnet!” 🙄😆😆

I am decidedly not a singer. I am learning, a newly minted vocalist. I few years ago I was sitting at an open mic with two bandmates as we scoped out a bar for our band. We were listening to open micer and they started singing along, and I joined in. They stopped dead, turned to me and said "never open your mouth on stage, EVER". Last year I started taking lessons with my current bandmate, Stephanie. She is a marvelous talent, and an exceptional coach, teacher, and mentor. She has me taking center stage on songs. There is one song I would love to learn to sing. It's Mexico by The Dead Daisies. A killer song. I said elsewhere I have the lyrics committed to memory. I cannot find the emotional range to sing it well. I think of it as "acting" out the song. For the true singers on the list...... How do you reach that emotional connection with the lyrics to convey the intent of the song? Or am I just too needy?

I do three of them: Stand By Me/Still Haven't Found What I'm Looking For; Three Little Birds/Drift Away; and (sigh) Brown Eyed Girl/I'm a Believer. I'd like to do more of them - give me some ideas!