Not Amos Lee...ME!

Last night was to be Amos Lee! Amos Lee! In anticipation of the great event we left Salt Lake at about 4:15. Perfect. We would miss rush hour traffic, have time to eat, and then jump in line to stand front and center and take in all of the goodness that is Amos Lee. Everything went as planned until the part where we jumped in line. We left at 4:15, ate at good ol' Costa Vida and killed some time in the Union Pacific building as it was much too freezing to wait outside.

Waiting for the ticket counter to open. Trying to buy a ticket to Albuquerque. Where is isn't so blasted cold.

When we went over to The Depot around 6:30, walked right past the big "sold out" signs in the window with our tickets in hand and found out that they were letting people form a line inside - where it was warm! There were only about 6 people there. The front would be ours! We handed our tickets to the lady at the door and that is where the night and our perfect plans took separate roads.

"Amos is sick. He waited until the last minute to cancel, he even came for soundcheck, but he just couldn't make it through the songs. But the opener will still play, and the band will play. Free concert tonight, folks."

We sat for a bit, maybe wanting to avoid going out in the cold more than anything else, or perhaps just wallowing in denial about having come 2 hours early for a Not Amos Lee concert.

These were our sad faces

Anyway, we decided to stick around long enough to check out the venue, and so we sat and watched the ever more eclectic crowd that was growing. (Apparently Amos Lee is big with middle aged cowboy/granola types) About 5 minutes before the doors opened, the manager of The Depot came and told us that Amos had a great idea about what to do with the evening. Amos Lee karaoke. They would let audience members sign up for a chance to sing with the band - with Amos Lee's band. Then they would pick 5 people from the list to come up and sing.

The night just got a whole lot more interesting. Should I sign up? Did I really know Amos' songs well enough to sing one of them with his band? Would they really follow through with this? Would I even get picked? Should I really try to sing? Can I really sing?

While all of these questions were running through my head Jamen said something to the effect of, "You are going to sing, and you are going to be great."

The questions stopped.

Ok.

Why not?

So I signed up.

The opening act sang. The band started to sing. It felt like the night was stretching on to forever. I was getting more and more nervous, and more and more excited. Shauna calls it the "pee pee hide-n-go-seek feeling". Scared, and excited, and nervous altogether. Was this really happening?

They didn't announce who would be singing until it was time for them to get on stage. The first person called was a girl named Rachel. But she wasn't there. So, technically, the first person called was me...

"Jennica Dorsey from Provo, Utah! We are going to do "Colors"." It was like I never thought it was going to happen and knew that, of course, it was going to happen all in the same moment. I wanted to take a second, collect myself, prepare, something - but there was no time. "Where is Jennica?" I raised my hand. I walked forward to the front of the venue and up the stairs that led to backstage. When I got back stage there were several people there to guide me right onto stage. Crowd to stage time? Maybe 30 seconds. So much for preparation.

Really? You are really ok with me doing this?

I may or may not have told the audience that they had to cheer really loud for me whether I did a good job or not. I am still not really sure if it was a good job or not. I couldn't hear myself at all, but there I was. I had background singers and a band, and the audience was singing along. They did cheer really loud, by the way, and they made me feel like a rock star.

(About halfway through the night Jamen went to go see how long the list was getting. Apparently he put in several good words for me while he was there. Who knows if it helped, but thank you!)

After I sang, I shook hands with the band. They were super cool. Most of them just wanted to hug me. I was ok with that. I also asked the drummer for a drumstick. Jamen has a rather extensive collection of drumsticks from famous people that he makes friends with - this seemed like the ideal time to add to that collection. The drummer looked at me like I was a little crazy, but was more than happy to hook me up with a drumstick.
Overall it was completely surreal - and completely awesome. To be honest, I am still feeling a little shocked and speechless about the whole thing. I mean, in all reality, it was just glorified karaoke. But it was glorified karaoke with Amos Lee's band. In front of a rather large audience. At a major music venue.

These things aren't supposed to happen.

But it did.

Wow.