Opening tonight for Cole Deggs & the Lonesome

[Sabre]

...in Denver.  Okay, that's a bit of an exaggeration.  I'm one of seven local artists picked to compete in the Denver segment of the Colgate Country Showdown (part of a nation-wide country music competition).  It's being held as the opening act for Cole Deggs & the Lonesome.  Still, looks good on the bio , don't it?

In a bit of a quandry, though.  You only get to perform one song, and I'm having trouble deciding between two.  I'm either going to do "Hillbilly Delux", originally by Brooks & Dunn, or a song I wrote called "Country Man".  If I do Hillbilly, I'll use a pre-recorded Karaoke track, and play along with it on my acoustic-electric guitar.  If I do my own song, it'll just be me and my guitar; no back up instrumental (Sabre, unplugged:O ).  If I do my own original music, I could potentially get a few extra points for doing original music.  However, I loose the audience recognition and a full-band sound.  Either way I'll be playing as well as singing, which should be worth a few extra points as well...assuming I don't screw up my fingering:( .  I'd post a link to my original tune, but, well, I don't have it loaded on a server anywhere.

Any advice?

[Shaky]

Nothing is more country than just a man with his guitar.

[Jackal1]

Do your own thing.

[Rolex]

I vote for playing your own song. No better way to find out if it's any good, right? And you don't need to pay any money or get permission from the copyright holder...

[Sabre]

Here's the original song I'm thinking of doing, "A Country Man".  Just click on the link and song will begin playing when page opens up...

http://www.myspace.com/richowen61

What you hear is what the audience will get...just me and my Ovation Guitar.  Tell me what you think.

NOTE: Song is registered with Copyright office, 2007.

[Eagler]

do Country Man while dressed up as Dolly Parton

[Cougar68]

There's a catch to both sides.  If you do the cover you'll immediately be compared to the original.  You need to either have your own style of singing it, or by darn good at singing it like they did.  With your original, you're going to lose some of the audience immediately just because its a song they don't know.  I would probably pick the cover just to have a better chance of a good audience reaction.  If you decide to do your original, think about cutting a bit out of the intro and solo sections.  Since there isn't an instrument playing on top of your rhythm, it has a tendency to feel drug out with just strumming.

As a side note, I just opened up a studio and have been doing karaoke and backing tracks for different artists as well as original song demos  (finishing up a Willie Nelson tribute project right now)  If there's ever anything I could do for ya just let me know.

[nirvana]

Do your own song for sure unless you can do Hillbilly Deluxe better than the original.

Oh and good luck!:aok

[Sabre]

Thanks for the comments.  I'll let you all know how it turns out.

[Sabre]

Well, I didn't win, but I had a good performance, and my wife, daughter, mom, and dad were all there to cheer me on.  It was a rather poorly organized, with no sound checks or chance to reherse, not to mention some questionable ties between the guy who won and the radio station that sponsored the contest.  Not that he did a bad job, just that his ties to the radio station give the appearance of impropriety.

In any event, I've got two more competitions coming up this summer.  I ended up doing the Brooks and Dunn song, mainly because I didn't have a full studio band version of my own to sing along with.  I just haven't found someone with the resources to get this done, at least in a time frame that would have helped with this contest (or probably the next two, for that matter; time is short).  I think for the next one I'm going to just say, "Screw it; I'm doing an original song solo."  Thanks again for the words of incouragement.