Well, I hope everyone's been enjoying the summer - I've had one small patch of sunburn but am otherwise unscathed so far! I'm lucky enough to live down the road from a beach and am quite often found in a wide-brimmed hat, walking along the sea front or with my nose stuck in whatever I'm reading at the time (I've just finished reading Scott Bradlee's Outside the Jukebox, all about the creation of his band Post Modern Jukebox; it was very inspiring!). Another thing I love to do is open my bedroom window and listen to the birds singing and cooing in the trees next to my house.
And today, those birds got me thinking - a lot of people ask me about the name "Nightingale Music" and where it came from, so here's the story of how I decided to become a nightingale...
I met a wonderful lady called Barbara on my last cruise ship - she was the bright and vivacious cuisine demonstrator and gave wonderful lectures (and samples!) on food around the world. She and I struck up a friendship that lasted beyond our time on board, and she had a nickname for me: Songbird.
Fast forward six months, and I found myself in Ireland with no job and no money. So why not set up a business as a singer? And why not concentrate on older music, the stuff I really love singing? I did what any millenial would do and created a social media post:
"Hi all! I'm setting up a wedding music business and I'm on the hunt for a name. Vintage-inspired and classic. I need your help!"
And as soon as Barbara mentioned my old nickname, "Songbird", Songbird Ireland was born.
I had a lovely few years, followed by a heartbreaking six months, in Ireland; by the end of 2017 I was ready to move back to the UK and start again. But Songbird wasn't going to work! It seemed there was a singer or group with some variation of the name in every county in Britain, so I had to rethink. I liked the association with birds.... Sparrow? That belongs to Edith Piaf. I looked up bird names in different languages; nothing. Then one day I was singing A Nightingale Sang In Berkeley Square, and that was it! Nightingale just seemed to fit.
Why Nightingale Music? Well, one day I'd love it to be more than just me. It'd be wonderful to have a collective of vintage music specialists working together in the South West and beyond, and from there who knows? A one-stop shop for all things vintage - The Nightingale Network, perhaps?
Watch this space...
