Thursday, October 3, 2019
I met Denise over thirty years ago when she joined my very first band as the lead singer; that girl could sing! Our friendship was instant, and we've been friends ever since. Over the years we spent a lot of time together playing music, or we'd sit down by the harbour or up at the dam, stating at the water and we drank coffee and just talked for hours about everything under the sun. Some of our phone conversations lasted for four or five hours.
Denise played in a few bands over the years, and I recorded a CD for her when I built my recording studio. Just for fun, I ran her vocals through a pitch corrector and just as I suspected, she had perfect pitch!
I only have a couple of old demo recordings of her adding the harmony to a few songs that I wrote. If it wasn't for her influence and guidance, I would not understand harmonies the way I do today. She used to "scold" me for not singing harmonies. When I told her I didn't know how, she taught me. Anytime I needed help with anything, she was there without hesitation; that's the kind of friend she was.
I've been listening to those old recordings on and off since her passing. So many memories rush through me that it breaks my heart all over again knowing that never again will we play music together.
In the future Denise, I will write and record a song in your memory, but today my guitar is silent; the music has lost its candence, replaced by the sound of falling tears.
Goodbye my friend.
