Nervous, no not me!!!!

November 20, 2008
Last night, we went to a class we've been attending at the Peña Tio Jose de la Paula in the old gypsy barrio Santiago in Jerez. This is a relatively high-level class about the history of flamenco song. They provide a famous artist and guitarist to demonstrate the songs and then at the end, the members of the class are invited to get up and take a try at it. Well, last night they were talking about the Buleria. Jerez considers itself the home of the buleria, so they take it VERY seriously there and so, when I was called up to sing - well, I didn't wet my pants, but close.

Not only were the participants there, a bunch of gypsies had come over from the bar next door including Diego Carrasco (who was the lead singer/guitarist in that show that we showed your previously in Sanlucar a few months ago). So there was a wonderful opportunity to make a complete fool of myself.

But I had been thinking about it all day and had written a verse especially for the occasion:
Mas presumido no se ve
que un guiri cantando flamenco
por la gente de Jerez

More presumtuous there couldn't be
than a foreigner singing flamenco
for the people of Jerez

They loved it. I did that verse first to get it out of the way since I was afraid I'd forget part of it.



In short, it went very well and the audience was very good with me.