Masha du Toit

Shower Songs just did another house concert, celebrating a full moon night at our friend Richard’s place.   The audience was small –  I think most people were still recovering from Africa Burns – but it went really well.

“Shower Songs” is Brendon on mandolin and myself doing vocals, performing the kind of songs we like to sing in the shower:

We do a really eclectic mix of everything from folk to punk with bits of jazz  in between.  Most of the songs are quite dark, and tend to feature coffins, prisons and guilt. For example, St James Infirmary…

I went down to St James Infirmary
And I saw my baby there
Lying on a white marble table
So cold, so sweet, so fair.

When I die, I want you all there to bury me
In my box top Stetson hat,
Put a gold piece on my watch chain,
So the boys will know I died standing pat.

Get six gamblers to carry my coffin;
And a pretty girl to sing me a song –
Put the three ball on my hearse wagon,
And we’ll raise hell as we roll along…

Or that fabulous song from the movie “The Triplets of Belleville”:

I won’t finish my life in Timbuktu
Cheeks so tight my lips are turning blue
I’d like to be wrinkled
Utterly wrinkled
Wrinkled like a Triplet from Belleville!

I won’t be an old woman in Singapore
Playing Scrabble and eating petits-fours
I want to be wicked,
Utterly wicked,
Wicked like the Triplets from Belleville!

The “house concert” idea works really well.  The host invites a number of friends, and we show up  and play right there in the lounge.  It doesn’t need a lot of space – we’ve played in some pretty small rooms – and we don’t use a lot of equipment – just Brendon’s acoustic amp.  It’s very informal and friendly.  Richard and Catherine created a lovely cosy space (thanks guys! ❤ <3).

And thanks also to Niklas Zimmer for the excellent photographs – all photos in this post are by Niklas.  You can see his Flickr portfolio here.