Don Mason emailed me a new assignment last week, a challenge to learn another song that I had never heard. After listening to Reba McEntire do the original, I thought to myself, this is gonna be the most difficult song I'll ever attempt, and I damned near gave up at the end of the first day. The next day, I rummaged through the keyboard, picked a Piano Ballad style, then went to work trying to put everything together. Finally, I emailed it to my wife, daughter and my wife's best friend and asked their opinion. My wife said it's OK, but not your best, my daughter said it made her cry, and my wife's best friend said "don't do this one at the senior places or they'll be bawling their eyes out like I did." So, I got a two out of three on the survey. Don Mason said it sounded really good to him, and that he may begin performing it at Ernest's Restaurant this weekend.

At first, I was reluctant to post it here, figuring that Boo would tell me that I needed another 3,000 transition chords of the song sucks. Well, Boo told me he was temporarily banned, so that won't happen. Next, Donny is gonna tell me to sing it a half step higher, which I tried and couldn't do because I no longer have the lungs to do that. Tony Mads will likely tell me that my playing sucks, but I already knew that so nothing new here.

Here's my rendition of The Greatest Man I Never Knew using the PSR S-950, my Sennheiser E-855 mic, and the keyboard's onboard USB recorder. The mic is plugged into the TC Helicon Harmony-M, the reverb is set to about the 25 percent position, then fed into the keyboard's line in. It's a one shot deal, no editing other than converting it to an MP3 using Audacity. So what you hear is what you get if you're in the audience.

I have broad shoulders, so bring it on guys,

Gary

I have NEVER said that !!!

Just kidding, Tony. You are too much of a gentleman to say that to anyone.

Gary

Gary you gave it your best shot,....sure it needs a little improvement here & there but it's a work in progress,...now that your home retired from playing out you'll have plenty of time to fine tune the song. Thanx for sharing your work with us.

good luck

Not really sure what to say Gary, It sure struck a chord.

Col

Thanks guys.

Gary

Gary I think the original one you did, a key higher sounded better. It's a really tough song and you accepted the challenge and probably do it better than I would. It's such a beautiful song, I don't think I will attempt it in case I screw it up.
Besides that, it is FISHING season and I don't want to spend several hours working it up!

This is a very touching song and I looked up youtube vids of Reba singing it and she gives an emotional performance ...

I wouldn't sing this song either, as I wouldn't want the audience to think I was singing about MY father, who, for as hard as long as he worked always let us know how much he loved us, through his words as much as through his actions ...
He has been my role model and my inspiration throughout my life ...