Bob and the McCormick's "Spice Boys" at Ventures Four.
Festivus Maximus party.
FEBRUARY
Both Laura and Susie make Piv's debuts.
We meet Tom T for the first time.
Chazz gets re-upped for his role in HBO's "The Wire."
Karaoke returns to J. R. Tee's.
Beginning of St. Valentine's - St. Patrick's contest.
Joyce sings for first time, and is instantly hooked.
Karaoke contest whores try to fix contest. Turns out the perfect scores
they give themselves are the only good scores they get. HA!
First sighting of Libbi in two years!
MARCH
Karaoke at Herbert Wells Ice Rink.
Laura wins St.
Valentine's - St. Patrick's contest.
Freak ice storm.
Surprise birthday party for Lou.
APRIL
Doktah Jay loses his hearing for nearly two months due to massive ear
infection.
A certain singer begins pissing people off by singing on everyone's
songs.
Opening of Singspace.
First Ina sighting since May 26, 2005.
J. R. Tee Dave makes an appearance.
We return to J. R. Tee's for first time in a year.
MAY
Bo and Dena get married.
Tornado makes his first (and only) Ventures Four visit.
Susie raises over $10,000 at fund raiser.
JUNE
Debut of "The Jims."
J. R. Tee's is now Harvey's Pub.
JULY
Godfather manages to land a gig at the same place that canned him a
couple years ago.
Grab A Crab becomes our favorite Saturday night hangout.
We check out karaoke in Laurel. One good show, one dump.
The Cousin Vinnie Memorial Karaoke Contest. Winner is Jim.
Debut of Mark (hereafter known as Mark with an A).
We check out Putty Hill Station and Tully's.
Doktah Jay (and 150 others) get food poisoning at a wedding.
We check out karaoke at the BWI Ramada.
Columbia Ale House blows.
We find out that Vi has very hot daughters.
AUGUST
Doktah Jay fills in at Grab A Crab, and for Susie at Ventures Four.
Fred in "Donnie and Dina's Wedding" and "The Miracle Worker."
Fund raiser for Joey McCann's children.
Michelle makes her karaoke debut.
Ann returns after a long illness.
SEPTEMBER
Laura Queen releases her first CD.
Susie and Doktah Jay fill in at Grab A Crab.
Many new venues start holding karaoke this fall.
The return of Tom T.
In Uniondale, NY, a man breaks into a home and beats the owner with a
karaoke machine!
OCTOBER
We check out Debra Crawford at Jilly's. What a dingaling she is.
While trying to get information on an upcoming show, we find that the
owner does not know the address of his own club!
Mark (with an A) wins the Halloween Kamikaze contest.
NOVEMBER
Susie and Doktah Jay fill in at Jilly's.
Holly's brother, Andy, begins KJing.
New karaoke show by David Wile, opens. Karaoke Koyote takes off to rave
reviews.
We visit Pioneer Pub.
Grab A Crab closes for kitchen renovation. We suffer crab cake
withdrawals.
DECEMBER
The Christmas Card show at Ventures Four.
We visit Ventures Four, Harvey's, Tulley's and Pioneer Pub all in five
days.
Doktah Jay hosts New Years Eve at Ventures Four.
Susie's holiday karaoke party in her new home karaoke lounge is a
smashing success.
Grab A Crab kitchen is STILL NOT completed.
SOME NEW
SINGERS WE HEARD IN 2007
Ted
Lindsay
Tonya
Cindy
Joyce
Cee Cee
Mary
Apple
MIchelle
Nuet
Tanya
Shane
Big Al
Peacock
Arnie
Sam
Andrea
Vanessa
Raul
Amalia
Jim 1
Jim 2
PA Dave
Daphne
Thornie
Julianne
Angel
Tiffany
Shine
Papa
Reuben James
Tom T
Mark (with an A)
Arturo
Miguel
Michael O
"Dirty" Ernie
Ransom
Donna
2007 KARAOKE QUOTES
"Hey, I'll be loose next week, if you want to do anything!"
"When you sing that, it makes the hairs on my arms stand up!"
"Hmm, maybe you better shave your arms!"
"The Adventures of Aqualung and Elbow Dick!"
"Oooh, did you sing that song for me?"
"Who are
you?"
"Captain Jack to go!"
"Who the hell is Captain Jack?"
Bo: "Mom and Dad, your daughter just sang 'hell' 14 times!"
Tiffany (the daughter): "And damn!"
"You kicked ass, man!"
"Oh really? I didn't mean to kick anyone in their ass. Are they okay?"
Charles: (while walking past Drs. Nic and Jay) "Doc, Doc, Goose!"
(Item on the daily menu) "Cream of Pot."
"Excuse me, can you get your french fry off of my tit?"
TO WRAP UP
2007 turned out to be a very good karaoke year in Maryland. The second
half of the year saw an increase in venues taking a chance on karaoke
shows, and many of them booked new and established KJs.
The quality of CDGs continued to improve and the time between a song's
release, and it's availability as a karaoke track has decreased. Some
songs are out within two weeks of their debut on Billboard's charts.
Many KJs began dabbling with computers this year. The only problem we
have been experiencing is that songs that are burned at high speed (and
we understand the KJs trying to get as many songs burned in as little
time as possible) also burn bad data from the disks and the quality of
the files is not much better than the CDG. As this technology gets more
popular and profitable for the karaoke companies, we look forward to
better prices, and more KJs actually spending money instead of
resorting to pirating CDG collections.
Contests continued to spark debate, mostly from the people who lost.
Let's see. They don't like the contests that are judged by judges. They
don't like contests that are judged by the audience. They don't like
themes. They don't like kamikaze. They don't like ties. Our advice.
Don't enter!
We had the opportunity this year to get out to more shows, in different
areas. Oddly enough, we would find ourselves making comparisons of the
singers we heard with people we already knew. "Oh, this must be their
Dr. Nic, this must be their Pete." We imagine everyone does this when
they visit new venues.
In 2008, Maryland will go smoke-free in all bars and restaurants
throughout the state. We predict that the first month or two, business
may slow down, but in time, two things will happen. The smokers will
get used to stepping out for a butt (and maybe quit), and the venues
will see an influx
of new customers, who have stayed away because of the smoke. The smoke
also damages the KJ's equipment, so we're sure they will enjoy cleaner,
less stinky equipment.
The best part of the whole year, as always, was meeting new singers and
KJs, and enjoying their talents. We thank the bartenders, waitresses,
and cooks, for keeping us fat and happy!
We will continue to keep you up to date on shows in Maryland, try to
visit more gigs, share our adventures with you, and we hope you'll
write in with your own adventures in karaoke as well. We appreciate all
emails
from our readers, and hope you will send us news of new gigs, things
you would like to see on the site, and anything else karaoke related.
