003 Every Sing: Michele D'Amour Singing the Blues

Welcome to EverySing, episode number 3. Michelle Damour of Michelle Damour and the Love Dealers. EverySing is about singing from every angle because singing is as big as the world, and hearing about the driving passion of contributors to music enhances our own love and understanding of singing. I'm Nancy Bos, and today's guest is Michelle Damour. Now, Michelle has been a friend for a long time, and I've gotten to work with her voice over the years. So you're going to hear that friendship in the conversation today, and I hope you enjoy just being part of what we have to talk about with the blues and singing and what really stands out as key to Michelle's success. She brings up a lot of great points, and those points I put down in notes. The notes and the links from this conversation are available on the show's Facebook page, which is a public group called Every Sing Podcast. All you have to do is ask to join and you can get in on the conversation with all of the podcast guests. If you'd like a quick way to engage them, that's the place to do it. Now there's one thing I could really use your help with, and that's support. Podcasting is a pretty expensive hobby. If you'd like to donate, you can donate at patreon.com/everything. I give away some kind of cool little prizes on there, but mostly I'm just grateful that you're enjoying this podcast and giving back so that you can help me make more episodes. Before we get started, I want to take a moment to thank our sponsor, Teadora at teadorabeauty.com. Teadora is offering 25% off to all of my listeners who enter "everything," all one word, at checkout on teadorabeauty.com. Our favorite Teadora products around my house are the Beauty Bar, the Brazilian Glow Radiance Oil, the Sugar Scrub Mask, and we also love the soap. I'll tell you a little bit more about Teadora at the end of the podcast. I'm also offering some help after the interview. You maybe heard it in episodes 1 and 2, but if you didn't, for people who are new to listening to podcasts, after the interview I'm going to tell you how to subscribe to your favorite podcasts like this one and how to rate them on iTunes so they get better ranking, and what the show notes thing is all about. Ready? Here's Michelle Damour and The Love Dealers.

Mr. Congressman, hear what I say. You work for me. You've lost your way. You're lining your pockets while I'm just turning out mine. Just turning out mine. Keep going. Running out of time. All I do is work! Work! Work! All I do is worrrrkkk—work! Work! All I do is work! Work! Worrrrk! Said all I do is worrrrk!

I actually wrote my first blues song when I was 6. And so people often say, what could a 6-year-old possibly have to write about?

Pain in a 6-year-old's life.

And so I will tell you that my song was called My Mom Is So Mean. Wow. And I don't remember what she did anymore. But I do remember going down to my bedroom, ripping off a piece of drawing paper, grabbing my favorite purple colored pencil, and writing down some lyrics. I still have them somewhere. It's a pretty dog-eared sheet of paper by this point, but it was kind of this, um, Mannish Boy kind of— of course, right?

That's the only kind of blues that was on Sesame Street at that time.

Well, you know, actually Yes, that was on Sesame Street, but my dad had a really wide, very eclectic, very extensive collection of albums. And I do mean vinyl, people, when I say this. So he had the Rat Pack, he had reggae, he had blues, he had jazz, he had country. He loved Roger Miller and Willie Nelson. And I think I learned a lot of my lyrical storytelling stuff from those latter two. So I had listened. I had heard some Muddy Waters, I had The Records of Howlin' Wolf by the time I was 6. Ah! And Ella Fitzgerald I grew up listening to. There you go. Good. Coco Taylor I had heard by that point. Nice.

The Staples Sisters.

Yeah, so my dad had great taste in music. He could not sing very well, but he had a good ear. And for those folks who don't perform, don't play an instrument, don't sing, That's okay because we need listeners. Those of us who do perform need audience. Yeah, so being a good listener is a wonderful, wonderful thing. Don't underestimate that.

So how amazing that as a 6-year-old you knew to express your frustration through music. That was the best way. You weren't punching the wall, you weren't breaking the heads off the Barbies.

Yeah, and thus began my journey of music and writing as therapy. Yeah. And so You know, I'm always— and it's not always my therapy. Sometimes, you know, songwriters are great eavesdroppers. And I hate to say this because I don't want people to go out in the world and be self-conscious, but you hear wonderful things that then take your mind down a path, and then there you are writing that song, and it's not even about you.

So I was thinking of you as a singer, but you're already like, I'm a songwriter.

Oh yeah, yeah. So, um, our first EP, which came out in, uh, 2014, had, uh, let me think here, 4 covers, 3 originals. Then our second CD came out a year later and had 12 originals. And then the new CD that just came out June 21st, all 12 originals. And that was pared down from the number we could have recorded. What's that CD called? It is called Lost Nights at the Leopard Lounge. Awesome.

Is there a real Leopard Lounge?

There are many Leopard Lounges. Literally. But where that song came from, the theme song or the title-ish track, Leopard Lounge, we were talking about, wow, as blues musicians, isn't it interesting, to use that term very loosely and tongue-in-cheek. Interesting. Some of the places we've played that just have, you know, the venue itself has a checkered past. It's been a brothel, it's been a jail, it's been, you know, a dance hall, it's been, you know, all of these things. Romantic. If the building has any kind of history. And then the patrons themselves have checkered pasts and you can kind of tell. And so we started swapping these stories about, oh, you know, I played, you know, this place out in Brooklyn and there was a mobster sitting up front and his two bodyguards, his two no-neck bodyguards are in the booth in the back, but they're keeping an eye on him, you know. And so we start swapping these stories. So all the stories in that song are true. All the characters in there are all true. In the Leopard Lounge song? Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Oh my gosh, no, I just assumed that was all fiction, honestly.

Wow, wow. But we combined them all, so we combined, um, and so it's some great people watching, some of the places we go.

If you want to find all the evil in this town, Leopard Lounge, where it all goes down.

Yeah, so yeah, you're going everywhere from these seedy lounges to— you were talking about earlier before the show, you're talking about singing outdoor fairs and festivals.

Yep, farmers markets, festivals, completely different audience, complete, you know. Um, we did a series— talk about diametrically opposed— we did a series of movies in the park events in Portland, Oregon. So what they do is they get a big park Um, they put up this ginormous inflatable— oh yeah, movie screen. And then for 2 hours before the movie starts, they have a band play.

Wow, 2 hours!

That's a party. And so all these kids are showing up with their parents, their grandparents, whatever. They're putting blankets down on the ground. Um, there's usually food trucks, they're getting dinner. Yeah. Um, and then of course they show like a Disney movie. Amazing. And so actually, the song Black Cat Boogie— okay, comes from our performing before the movie 101 Dalmatians.

Black Cat Boogie. And of course, I remember that movie.

And this was the original animated version. I remember it very fondly. We actually did the song Cruella de Vil. Cruella de Vil. How can you not do that song? It's a great song. How can you not? And then, but then I thought that dogs were going to get 2 hours of screen time, so I needed to even things out. So I wrote this song called Black Cat Boogie for the kids. And so there we are up on this stage and all these little kids start dancing around and they're meowing and they're turning into cats. It was amazing. We thought, okay, that was cool. And then we thought, well, we'll probably never sing that song again, probably never do that song again. And for some reason we pulled it out. I think we were at a venue that wanted us to do only originals, and so we said, oh, let's do that song. And the adults loved it.

Yeah, but they weren't on the stage meowing.

They were not meowing, thankfully. Um, this woman from Iceland who was visiting a friend came up and said, oh, I I love that song. I love the Crazy Cat Lady song. And so we went, maybe we're on to something here. So it became part of the repertoire. It became part of the album. Fantastic.

So it sounds like when you talk about writing music, you talk about we. Yeah. How's we work? Ah, well, I will—

every song's different. Some songs are like a download. They're just there. The groove, the lyrics, the melody, it's like, where did this come from? Oh yeah, exactly. Some of them start with lyrics and they might, the lyrics might sit for a while. And then Patrick, my bass player, will come along and say, I have this bass line. And in fact, one of the tracks on the album is that. He came along to me and said, hey, I have this bass line. And I said, you know, I think I have lyrics that go with that. Because like all songwriters, I have spiral notebooks full of lyrics, and I said, I think I have lyrics, you know, shuffle shuffle shuffle, yeah, here they are, matched perfectly. Wow. Other times, so what I'll do is I'll come to the band with, here's a general idea of the groove, here is the melody, here are the lyrics that I have, and then they kind of, you know, I'll start singing it for 'em, and then they'll start putting their own parts, you know, usually the bass player says, well, I'm gonna make the bass part more interesting, 'Cause I've used, well, I used to write bass lines based on what I could sing and play at the same time. Increasingly, I'm writing bass lines with him in mind because I know what he likes to play. And then the drummer will start off with something and say, "Ah, no, I don't like that. Oh, okay, let me, what about this?" The guitar player will start messing around. And so then it has this life, it takes on this life of its own. Like the Frankenstein monster getting zapped with the lightning and all of a sudden it's walking around, right?

So the 4 of you come together as 4 individuals to become one corporate being. You are the band together and you're all putting in your stuff. That's got to be an amazing feeling.

Yeah, it takes a mix of vulnerability. Yes, and trust. And trust and also confidence. Because you have to come out and say, "I am confident that this is a good idea." But I'm vulnerable enough. But I'm vulnerable enough to give it to you when I'm not— it's not 100% baked. Wow. Yeah. And I'm gonna trust that you're gonna take that idea and help me nurture it into existence. But they're great. I mean, Ryan, our guitar player, is a songwriter in his own right. He has had wonderful— just little tweaks on what if you said this word instead of this word, what if you change this phrase. That have helped. So he has a great, a great ear for that. Yeah. Patrick has come up with some lyrics.

Some bands just get thrown together or they're top-down bands, but you guys are a family. How long have you been together?

I formed the band almost 6 years ago. Patrick has been with us since the beginning.

And did you form it through Craigslist?

Um, no, actually through friends that had met at the local blues jams.

Nice. So you knew the passion and the interest was there from everybody to start with.

Yeah. What happened was I had been going around to blues jams with no particular goal other than just to sing. And Rick Bowen, who was our original drummer and was with us for several years, said, you know— he was running a jam at the time— you should have your own band. So, side plug, never underestimate the power of believing in somebody. Because I'm not sure I would have gotten there, or maybe not as quickly, without that. I love that. And I said, "Well, then you have to be my drummer. You just volunteered." And he was like, "Um, okay." And then I went and recruited Patrick because I knew he was going to be able to play more complex bass lines and really have that groove. And I also knew he worked really well with Rick. That's important. Cool. Perfect. Um, so we are on our third drummer at this point. Ronnie joined us beginning of this year, so that's why half of the tracks are recorded with our good friend Rick. Got it. And half of them are recorded with Ronnie because we did an initial recording session back in November and then we finished up earlier this year. And then, uh, and then Ryan joined us last fall, so he's our third guitarist. I, I really, really love this particular incarnation of the band. Cool. Um, in terms of how the personalities mesh. Um, we always have dinner before we rehearse. Oh, nice. Um, so that helps to foster a feeling of family and just mutual support that I think you don't get otherwise. Yeah, I love that.

You don't just show up and start doing the music. You've got— you're communicating first.

Well, yeah, that, and plus people just play better when they've been—

when they've had some food.

So we don't make a pot of gumbo, or we'll put— do some burgers on the grill or something like that, and we just get everybody like, hey, 'How was your day?' Yeah. 'What's going on?' Nice. Wow. So, yeah.

Cool. So one particular song on this album really stands out. It's different than all the rest. Mm-hmm. It's Trouble.

Ha!

What can you tell me about Trouble?

I remember working on it. I remember when it started. I was in my kitchen, probably cleaning. So I know that's not really very glamorous, but—

Oh, everybody does it. Yeah.

I was kind of working with some intervals. Okay. Just vocally kind of goofing around with some intervals. And then I got this idea. So the chorus is, "You brought me heartache, damn straight, nothing but trouble." Oh. And that's those intervals that I started with. And then I started thinking of those lyrics. And then I was like, okay.

Now, have you experienced this personally?

Yes. Okay. Who hasn't? You've had a great spouse for a long time, right?

Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

And yeah, I have experienced troubled relationships. Actually, what's funny about the album, we've had people ask us, can you sum up in a few words what the album is about? And I said yes. Really? Bad people, bad places, troubled relationships, the blues, and cats. Yes. Leopards and black cats. The song What the Cat Dragged In is a double bonus song because it's about a troubled relationship, but it has the word cat in it. Double bonus points. So anyway, so I was playing around with this, you know, right, these intervals, and then it gave me the chorus, and then I, you know, came up with this idea of, you know, that person who walks in the room and you know they're trouble. You know, you walked into the room and I smelled trouble, but you can't resist. You just— and we've all been there. Oh yeah. And that's where the song went from there. And the guys took it in a bit of a jazzy direction, which I think is wonderful.

Yeah, but you didn't take it jazzy with your voice. You kept it just crunchy with these delicious tight intervals of unexpected pitches. It's just— that song is just genius.

And so that's what came out of me playing around with intervals. So hey, doing your voice practicing is a good thing.

Well, yeah, that's true. So we're going to take a second and listen to that song. Okay.

You walked into the room and I smelled trouble. You came into my life and brought me pain. I once was full of light, but you turned day into night. And now I've learned a thousand words for rain. Into each person's life The rain comes falling. If I had known you'd take my son away, well, I'd have turned my back, told you to hit the road, Jack. Forgotten that I'd ever seen your face. You brought me heartache, damn straight, nothing but trouble. Heartache, damn straight, nothing but trouble. Getting out of town, so don't come looking. Going to the station to take the next train.

And it's funny, it's always interesting to me to see which songs people like, like looking at the airplay and looking at like what songs are playing where. Yeah, it's fascinating. Yeah, like the song All I Do Is Work. Okay, they love it in, in like Norway, in the Netherlands. Oh, hi, you people get 12 weeks of vacation a year. Why are you—

what are you laughing at? What is speaking to you about this song?

How is this relevant? I mean, I love that you're playing it, but why?

You don't have a whole lot of comedy songs.

We do actually. The first album we have a song called Pretty Good for a Girl. Oh yeah, right. Which is very tongue-in-cheek. It is. The second album we have the song Dress Code, also known as We Don't Wear Spandex in the Blues, which came out of my experience of being in a calendar, a pinup calendar that was really— that was a, um, not super pinup-y, but that was— it was a fundraiser for a children's charity, so of course I said yes. Children, yes, okay, fine. Money for children who need money, okay. Sure. And they sent a stylist out to my house. Okay. And every— I swear everything she brought was, you know, cut down to here and up to here in spandex. And I just went, we don't wear spandex in the blues. And then a song. Get it through your head. Yeah. And so I had a little bit of fun with, with that, you know, what we do and don't wear. In the blues.

So you have always been about the blues. As long as I've known you, it's been, "I want to sing the blues." You wrote a blues song when you were 6. What is it, Michelle? What's driving you? What's the passion? What do you love the most about this?

I think I would have to say it's the stories. Yeah. It's that, you know, a lot of people say, "Oh, you know, the blues, it's so depressing." If they say that, they don't really understand the blues. Okay. There's, you know, that idea with the blues that somebody has it worse than you, and so they're— it's like watching a soap opera, right? You watch a soap opera because, man, those people are messed up. Yeah. And your life by comparison is so much better. The blues is kind of like that. So if you think about Born Under a Bad Sign as a wonderful example, you know, this person is talking about, I've been on my own ever since I was 10, didn't learn how to write, didn't know how to read. I mean, it is It is sad, but at the same time he's kind of bragging. He's kind of saying, "I am bad, man. I went through all this and I am still here." And I think that's part of it.

It gives us courage for our own lives in that way. Yeah. But for you, it's about telling the story from inside of you, or is it about the audience, or is it about the collaboration with the band?

You know, I have to say it's really about the audience because the thing that just will make me cry without fail is when somebody comes up to me and says, wow, that song that you sang about X really meant a lot to me. So one of the first songs I wrote for the band is called Hey Bully, and it's about bullying, and it's, you know, basically putting the bully on notice that what he's doing is not okay. I have had numerous people who are disabled, who have a child who's disabled or something like that, come up to come up to me and say, "Thank you for that song." Wow. I wrote a song called "Memory" about Alzheimer's disease that's on the second album, and I've had people come up to me and say, "Oh, you know, I'm a caregiver for Alzheimer's patients," or, "My aunt, mother, grandmother, whatever had it, and thank you for that song." Wow. And that is like, okay, then that person is experiencing the healing that I had when I wrote it. Yeah, the healing. And I'm passing it on. When you wrote it.

Yeah. And I'm sure some unexpected reactions sometimes that— yeah, I hadn't thought of it that way kind of reactions too.

Yeah, yeah. So, well, sometimes they don't know what a song is about. Um, when I am in a little more intimate venue, um, I will often tell some stories. Yeah, backstory.

Good at telling stories from the stage. That makes a big difference.

And then people are like, oh, I loved it that you you told what that was about. Or, you know, I'll say something like, I wrote this song on a piece of scrap paper in the parking lot of a 7-Eleven. I mean, it's true, and it's all true, you know. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Beautiful. There's the song called No Good, which is the one that was written in a 7-Eleven parking lot. And I'll say, I'm not naming any names, but it's about a few people who are being thorns in my side at that particular point in time.

Beautiful therapy again.

Well, the doctor saw it the day you were born. He said, this one should have come with a pair of horns. No good. You're no good. Got no business acting like a babe in the wood. You're no good. Well, you grew up a little and you went to school. Somehow you never learned the golden rule. You're no good. You're no good. You're no good. You're no good. Your teachers hit you with a ruler and I wish I could. You're no good. Good. Good. You're no good.

So you were talking earlier before the recording about one of the banes of your existence. Yes. And it's not smoky lounges where people are lighting up cigarettes.

Well, we don't have those in Washington State. No, isn't that a beautiful thing?

Yeah. Makes such a difference for a singer.

Well, so this time of year, summertime, it's beautiful. You'll be playing farmers markets or outdoor festivals, or you'll be playing these wonderful venues that have outdoor stages. And so a couple of challenges that brings vocally will be that the heat will tend to dry your vocal cords out. So you've got to make sure you stay hydrated, hydrated, and you know, a little Gatorade or Pedialyte or whatever your PdLIVE choices for that is a wonderful thing. But then sometimes what they'll do is they'll have a bonfire somewhere, or they'll have a campfire where people can make s'mores for atmosphere. Yes. And then the smoke is blowing right over onto the stage, and that is not good for— not good.

Yeah.

So, um, I have a fan. It's not a very big fan. It's maybe about 14 inches across, um, that I'll use for my comfort. Yes, on stage. But, um, if If there happens to be a fire, I will put that fan up on something like a milk crate or something and make sure the smoke is blowing away from me.

Yeah, sucks the air away from you.

Because otherwise I'll be coughing. Okay, so— I think just about anybody would be, but yeah.

I know something about you that a lot of people probably don't, and that is that you practiced getting a rough sound. Yes. By being the Cookie Monster.

That is true. That is true. Yes. Can you give me a little Cookie Monster? Oh my gosh, I haven't done Cookie Monster for a while. C is for Cookie.

So I'm taking from that that Cookie Monster was not the answer to the problem for you. What are you doing for— do you— you do make— most of your sounds are completely clean, not a lot of rough or texture.

Not a lot. Um, Well, my growl is well in hand because I'm of a certain age. That does help. And so my growl is there when I need it to be there. I control it. But I view growl as— I personally would not want to growl an entire song because then it would be tiring. And then that emotional point that you're trying to make by growling lost, right? It's just too much. Yeah, much the same as vibrato or bending a string for a guitar player or snapping and popping for a bass player. It is, it is a tool, but you don't want to do it through the whole song because it becomes tiresome for the listener. So if I growl, it's because I'm making a point. Cool. You know, I— so yeah, and you taught me that. Well, yeah.

Can you give me a little bit of a growl, or is that asking too much?

Ah, well, there's my vocal fry. We talk about like using— so there's the lyric, you know, at the end of the verse she's saying, what the cat— look what the cat dragged in. But then I'm typically when I'm singing it, I'm going, look what the cat dragged in. And I'm trying to growl it, which I'm not doing. But yeah, I'm, I'm trying to, and I'm trying to hold that note and go dragged, you know, because it dragged. I want it to sound like dragging. Yeah, you know. Yeah, exactly. Yeah. Oh.

What I'd like to know is, was there anything else that you want to share with the audience?

Yes, I would like to talk briefly about the importance of a growth mindset. There's two— there's probably many more than just two, but for the purposes of this, let's say there's two ways you can approach the world: fixed mindset or a growth mindset. Fixed mindset says I only have so much talent, so much intelligence, I don't have this so much ability and there's no point in learning, there's no point in trying.

I am what I am, this is what you get.

I am what I am, if you criticize me it is a personal attack and I'm only going to do what I know I can accomplish because failure would just be a validation of what I don't have. Or you can have a growth mindset and the growth mindset says I can always learn. I can always develop my abilities. If I fail, that simply means first attempt in learning. Personally, I, being someone who did, who went to blues jams a lot, when a song was a complete train wreck, I learned more than when it wasn't.

And that didn't kick you, and you weren't down and out with that. No. It was like, let's do this again.

No, this just means that I learned something. Yeah, cool. And so anytime I learn something, I view that as a win. Yeah. And so continually working on my abilities as a songwriter, as a band leader, as a singer, as a performer. Constantly I'm watching videos of people whose performances I've admired to see what I can take from that. Yeah. And it's really easy in this business because you will run into a lot of people who are very critical. In fact, you know, the vast majority of the feedback and the reviews and everything on this CD have been positive. But there have been some DJs who said, "I didn't like it." There was one guy who said, "Why didn't her—" and this is hilarious, by the way. I laughed so hard after she said it. He said, "Why didn't her producer tell her to sing better?" Huh. And at first part of me was like, "Wow, what a jerk," because he was acting like it was some sort of personal insult to him that he didn't like my voice. And then I just laughed. And my publicists have this, and I have this little thing where we call it the kiss-off list. And we put those people in the kiss-off list because you can't please everybody, and that's okay. And you can't sound— you know, I'm not gonna sound like Coco Taylor or Etta James or Ella Fitzgerald. You can hear that they are influences in my voice, and that's a great thing. It's a great thing to have influences and to emulate people, but be your best self, be your best you. Don't try to be somebody else. So go out and learn. Now, when people have given me constructive advice about what they didn't like about a song or my voice or the band or whatever, I have taken that and I've used that to improve. So I think if you listen to all 3 of our CDs in order, you would see that trajectory of me learning and the rest of the band learning. Yeah. Which is what you want. So we are touring in support of the album, which isn't something we've done before. We're going down into Oregon and California. We'll be in Idaho in October.

Okay, how are you touring? How? Yes, what vehicles are you taking?

We are gonna take— we don't know exactly what yet, but it'll be either a van or a truck with an extended cab plus a trailer.

All 4 of you together?

All 4 of us. Good thing we like each other. And we're thinking about Europe in the spring. Wow, in the spring of '18?

Yeah.

Wow, amazing. There are amazing people who will help you. There's a company out of Amsterdam where they are totally equipped for bands coming from overseas. You go in there and your drummer picks his drum kit.

Oh, I see. You don't have to take your stuff?

You don't have to take your stuff. Wow. And, you know, they just say to the drummer, okay, what do you have? You have Tama? You have Ludwig? What do you have? And then they show them, these are the 6 Ludwig kits that we have.

And they loan you some monitors?

And they give you monitors and amps and whatever it is that you need in In fact, the rental usually will also include a van and a driver. Yeah, so you don't have to drive. So you don't drive the wrong way down a street somewhere. I want to be a driver for that company. That'd be a blast. How fun would that be? And so that company, there's companies like that, and so then you book your tour and you go to Amsterdam and Netherlands, Switzerland, Germany, huge fans of the blues. And so you can tour for a couple weeks. Stay in Airbnbs, which that definitely makes the whole touring thing easier as well. So that, that's what's next is just keep, keep learning, keep going.

See where this road takes you. Nice. Well, that's Michelle of Michelle D'Amour and the Love Dealers. Thank you, Michelle. Thanks. Michelle mentioned a lot of great resources and ideas to follow up on. If you didn't catch them, don't worry, I've got your back. Notes and links from this conversation can be easily found on the show's Facebook page, which is a public group called Every Sing Podcast. Before I go and play some more of their music, I want to thank Theodora at theodorabeauty.com for sponsoring today's episode. Take advantage of their generous offer of 25% off to discover their terrific products. Theodora's natural products are inspired by ancient Brazilian beauty secrets. Using natural anti-aging ingredients from the Amazon rainforest. They are toxin-free, ethically sourced, sustainably harvested, gluten-free, and made in the USA. For your 25% discount and to help this podcast, use the discount code word EVERYTHING, all one word, when you check out. To wrap it up, I have a lot of takeaways from this interview with Michelle. Number 1: We don't wear spandex in the blues. We like the blues because they show that somebody has it worse than you. For Michelle, it's all about the audience so the audience can experience healing. You can approach the world with a fixed mindset or a growth mindset. It is important to have a growth mindset. Anytime Michelle learns something new, she views it as a win. Be your best self. Be your best you. It takes a mix of vulnerability and trust with the band to make something great. You'll find Michele on her website. This is all one big long word: Michele with one L, Damour and the Lovedealers.com. So I need to spell that out: M-I-C-H-E-L-E D-A-M-O-U-R and the Lovedealers.com. You'll also find her on YouTube, Bandcamp, SoundCloud, and Twitter. Look in the show notes for those links. You can also go to the Facebook group, "Every Sing Podcast" to get the notes and links and to connect up with Michelle. If you like what you're hearing on Every Sing, do me a favor and hit the subscribe button on your podcast player to make sure you don't miss an episode. If you don't know how to subscribe or you're new to listening to podcasts, you might be like I was and not have a clue how to subscribe, review, comment, or see the extra info provided through your podcast player. So I'm going to tell you how to do all of those things with iTunes, but first, here's a little more music from Michelle Damour and the Love Dealers.

The blues I've been playing have been playing me. Thought I was a card shark, always something up my sleeve. Guess you're never too old to be naive. I'm the short end of the stick, so it seems. I've been loving the blues, but the blues is me. Thought I was someone with something to say. The wind took my words, blew them away. Don't know how I got so cheated. Look at all this time I wasted. That I broke down and underrated. The ugly truth, it's a raw deal. I've been given to the blue.

About how to subscribe to a podcast, comment, review, that sort of thing. First thing is how to subscribe if you're on your phone. If you aren't already listening through the podcast app on your phone, first open the podcast app and search for EverySING, two words, or Nancy Bos, one S. Once you're on the show's page, you'll see a button on the right that says— or is it the left? You'll see a button that says subscribe. Tap that and you are all set. You'll get every episode downloaded to your phone every time it comes out. If you're listening on your computer, open up iTunes and click on the iTunes Store at the top of the screen. On the right-hand side of the iTunes Store, click the arrow next to music. And then select Podcasts. Search for EverySING, and once you open the show's page, you should see a subscribe button to click right under the gorgeous blue show logo. Next, how to review and rate. Getting ratings and reviews is super important to podcasters. If you've ever searched for a new podcast on a topic, you know that you are much more likely to visit podcasts with 5 stars. And the bigger the number beside those stars, the more likely you are to take a chance on the podcast. So the way to rate and review is to go to the iTunes Store again and search for EverySync. After you subscribe, you will see a tab in the middle of the page that says reviews. Go there and leave an honest rating and 1 to 3 sentences about what you value about this podcast. And finally, a lot of podcasts put show notes right in the podcast player for you. If you want to see the extra info in iTunes, look for the 3 little dots on the right side of the show when it's playing. Once you tap that, you'll see a bunch of options pop up, and one of them is "View full description." Many podcasters put loads of information specific to the show in this part. I'll try to remember to do that each time so that you can get to the show notes without having to open a browser. That's all for this episode. Thank you so much for tuning in. See you in a few days for the next episodes of Every Sing. Music out.

Black cats, 2 and 3 and 4. Got 'em sitting in the hall, walking across the floor. Numbers 4 and 5 standing by the door. What do we need all those black cats for? To do the Black Cat Boogie. The Black Cat Boogie. Do the Black Cat Boogie. The Black Cat Boogie. Do the Black Cat Boogie. Oh, the rhythm's going to get you. I started out with one, then I got another. That little cat, well, he came with a brother. Pretty soon we had 6, all twitching their tails. Nothing to do but jive and wail and do the Black Cat Boogie. Black Cat Boogie. Do the Black Cat Boogie. Black Cat Boogie. Do the Black Cat Boogie. The rhythm's gonna get ya. There's Jellybean and Licorice and Mr. Tuff, Sooty and Smoky and the one we call Buzz. A house full of black cats, simply divine. What could you do but have a good time and do the black cat boogie? Black cat boogie. Do the black cat boogie. Black cat boogie. Do the black cat boogie. Oh, the rhythm's gonna get ya. And do the Black Cat Boogie. The Black Cat Boogie. Do the Black Cat Boogie. The Black Cat Boogie. Do the Black Cat Boogie. Oh, the rhythm's gonna get ya.

Yeah.