As lots of you know I’ve been trying to sing on every one of the dozens of flights I’ve taken this past summer/fall. I even had an All You Can Jet pass with jetBlue for all the shows I had in various parts of the country in Sept/Oct and I really thought of all airlines they would make it happen.
It turned out to be on a Delta flight about a week ago when the stars aligned as I was traveling home from Arkansas by way of Memphis (which happens to be one of my favorite cities to stop into when I’m traveling the country).
I was really tired from a conference I had been at in the Ozark mountains and rather than put up the usual fight to get my guitar in the overhead near me I just let them gate check it. Next thing I know I’m sitting in my seat thinking about just how to position myself to sleep though the whole flight when I hear: “Will the passenger with the guitar please come up to the front of the aircraft.” Jeez, I’m thinking, I didn’t even put up a fight and this is when I get in trouble, what’s going on?
Turns out the flight attendant didn’t want to let my guitar travel underneath and had made space in the closet. I’m really thankful and as I tell him that he says “But only if you’ll play for us.”
“Yeah, yeah, yeah,” I say, “you all say I can and then it never happens. I’ve been trying to for a while, it’s one of my dreams to sing on a flight but you guys never let it happen. If you can make it happen I’ll be impressed.”
“Well, if you want to once we get up the air I don’t see why not.”
“Okay, as long as none of the passengers have a problem with it I’ll definitely be singing for you guys.”
At that point a few of the folks in first class who had heard the exchange between us agreed that they wanted to hear me sing. That felt better to have some people on my side.
Once we were up in the air and he came through with the beverage service I asked him if he was serious and if we could really make it happen. He said to just give him a minute to do a few more things.
I started to get ‘ready’ in my ‘greenroom’ doing some very quiet vocal warm-ups and thinking about what I wanted to perform (and putting on some lipstick). He brought over my guitar and asked me how I wanted to handle the performance. It’s always so loud in a flight and lots of you know how loud I sing but I didn’t think the acoustics of the jets would carry through to the back even from the middle so I said we should go through the announcement intercom a bit.
I went up to the front of the plane, said hello to some of the folks in first class who has encouraged me earlier and after Angel announced me and held the phone up to my guitar and voice while I sang. He had never heard me, I didn’t tell him I had any credentials so who knows what he (or anyone) expected to hear but I’m so happy they all trusted me and listened.
Here’s the awesome flight attendant who made it happen! If you have him on one of your Delta flights you’re lucky, he’s a hoot!
Enjoy the video to see the performance and some pictures that I threw in to stabilize the video turbulence.
Next up… Virgin Galactic! (If you know Branson let him know!)
-Natalie
It turned out to be on a Delta flight about a week ago when the stars aligned as I was traveling home from Arkansas by way of Memphis (which happens to be one of my favorite cities to stop into when I’m traveling the country).
I was really tired from a conference I had been at in the Ozark mountains and rather than put up the usual fight to get my guitar in the overhead near me I just let them gate check it. Next thing I know I’m sitting in my seat thinking about just how to position myself to sleep though the whole flight when I hear: “Will the passenger with the guitar please come up to the front of the aircraft.” Jeez, I’m thinking, I didn’t even put up a fight and this is when I get in trouble, what’s going on?
Turns out the flight attendant didn’t want to let my guitar travel underneath and had made space in the closet. I’m really thankful and as I tell him that he says “But only if you’ll play for us.”
“Yeah, yeah, yeah,” I say, “you all say I can and then it never happens. I’ve been trying to for a while, it’s one of my dreams to sing on a flight but you guys never let it happen. If you can make it happen I’ll be impressed.”
“Well, if you want to once we get up the air I don’t see why not.”
“Okay, as long as none of the passengers have a problem with it I’ll definitely be singing for you guys.”
At that point a few of the folks in first class who had heard the exchange between us agreed that they wanted to hear me sing. That felt better to have some people on my side.
Once we were up in the air and he came through with the beverage service I asked him if he was serious and if we could really make it happen. He said to just give him a minute to do a few more things.
I started to get ‘ready’ in my ‘greenroom’ doing some very quiet vocal warm-ups and thinking about what I wanted to perform (and putting on some lipstick). He brought over my guitar and asked me how I wanted to handle the performance. It’s always so loud in a flight and lots of you know how loud I sing but I didn’t think the acoustics of the jets would carry through to the back even from the middle so I said we should go through the announcement intercom a bit.
I went up to the front of the plane, said hello to some of the folks in first class who has encouraged me earlier and after Angel announced me and held the phone up to my guitar and voice while I sang. He had never heard me, I didn’t tell him I had any credentials so who knows what he (or anyone) expected to hear but I’m so happy they all trusted me and listened.
Here’s the awesome flight attendant who made it happen! If you have him on one of your Delta flights you’re lucky, he’s a hoot!
Enjoy the video to see the performance and some pictures that I threw in to stabilize the video turbulence.
Next up… Virgin Galactic! (If you know Branson let him know!)
-Natalie