Spy Guys
Sometimes, I get to wondering if I’m beating my head against the wall with this podcast thing. I get discouraged and consider quitting it. But every time that happens, and thankfully, well before I do give up, someone comes along that validates what I’m trying to do and gets me excited about doing this podcast again.
The Spy Guys - Norm Skalski and Rick Rhodes, have had that effect on me. They’re unabashed supporters of local talent and are doing a lot of exciting things to support and nurture our local musicians and performers.
Now, I was nowhere near tossing in the podcast towel. The show has been going great. In fact, I am about a month ahead in recorded shows and more keep coming my way. I’m having to concentrate on perfecting my editing skills to get the shows put out on a timely schedule!
But serendipity strikes on it’s own time and I heard of the Spy Guys this week. I checked them out online and decided I had to meet up with them. Whenever someone else goes to the same lengths to prove Buffalo and WNY has a great music scene that I do, we have to be kindred spirits.
Now while I’m doing a podcast, the Spy Guys are doing a several pronged approach. They have done an “internet radio show” featuring local artists, but their main media is video. They host a cable TV show on local access around Buffalo called Spy Guys TV. That’s pretty cool too, but they do even more. Did I mention their column in Night And Day? They also hold Spy Guys Talent shows at various local locations and the competitions are filmed for the TV show.
I went to the first one of these shows I could, which happened to be held in conjunction with the Polish Festival at the Erie County Fairgrounds. The talent show went on right after Jerry Darlak and the Touch finished playing. They did an open talent show with about a dozen or more prospective “Buffalo Idols” taking their shot at performing two songs each. The field was narrowed down to five, then three, with one more song at each level.
Now the remarkable thing is how supportive both the Spy Guys and all the contestants were. Everyone was praised and encouraged. In that sense, everyone came away a winner.
Most brought a CD with music to sing to. A few accompanied themselves on guitar or keyboards. My taste runs towards those, especially if they have original material, but I have to say I was impressed with the pure singers. A couple were quite impressive even if the material was pretty cliche. I was surprised that one singer, who I felt was the most compelling and had more stage presence - emoted better - didn’t make the finals.
I’m not going to go into winners, or who was there. It doesn’t matter. This post is about what the Spy Guys are doing, and that it’s a wonderful thing for our local performers. I talked with them after the show an I hope to stay in touch with them. I’ve added their upcoming talent shows to my calendar. If you can get to one, go. You’re guaranteed to see some promising new faces in the music scene.
Hopefully, I can support what they’re doing in some small way and maybe they will return the favor and help out this podcast. If nothing else, I met a few promising candidates for possible future shows!
Link: Spy Guys web site (Also in Music Resources in the sidebar)
