Fan boy! You bet!
I am a 69-year-old fan boy. How did this happen? I am both perplexed by and enjoying the situation.
It’s not like I have never been a fan boy before, in the 70s I waited on every release from Jackson Browne. His poetry, complex arrangements and his decidedly depressive outlook aligned perfectly with my world view. I was accused of being one for Linda Ronstadt, and while I truly enjoyed her singing, and the cover art on Heart Like a Wheel, the connection was simply not there.
Who is this musical talent that has captured my attention and lifted me up? She is a British woman named Lucy Thomas. At 21-years-old she has four albums to her name, starting her recording career at 16-years-old. She caught the notice of a record producer as a participant in a Kid’s Voice contest. They’ve worked together since then producing music suited to Lucy’s skills. Curiously, she developed a business model based on YouTube videos, her channel now with over 1-million followers. Until this year, it seems she had never performed live in a major concert. That changed with a concert in London. You can find excerpts of it on YouTube at Lucy Thomas Music.
But how did I become a fan boy? Her music overwhelmed me. I stumbled upon a video of her singing Hallelujah, the Lenard Coen song, and was blown away by the quality and power of her performance, vocally and emotionally – this from a very young woman. It is one of the very best versions of the song I have heard. Her voice has been described as crystal, pure, rich and mature, and I have no arguments with any of those. In my mind it is a generational voice like a Streisand or Celen Dion. As algorithms will have it, YouTube served up more of her videos to me and each one was a revelation. They were covers of classic songs, a brave choice for a young woman, but she mastered them and then some. She sang them without gimmicks, letting the quality of her voice, the sophistication of the arrangements and technical skills create simply amazing music. And those skills have obviously come from serious training. I know a bit about proper singing technique and her execution could be a master class. (Did I mention that she is only 21?) I have never gotten goose-bumps from music before listening to Lucy.
Lucy has some obstacles to overcome when it comes to my personal prejudices. While she is clearly gifted and dedicated to do the work to be a great singer, she is also beautiful. Why is this a problem? One of my personal failures is that I find uber beautiful, exquisitely talented people to be annoying. Why do they have it all? And I am also a cynic who wonders if this could really be true. Is Lucy an AI construction uniquely designed to capture the heart of aging boomers? I’ve heard of stupider conspiracy theories. But either it is much more diabolical than I first considered, or her management knew they had to deal with petty people like me.
Not only are there scores of videos of Lucy singing, starting at a very young age and continuing right up to the present, but there are home videos and pictures her growing up to boot. And to top things off, she and her younger sister, Martha, sing duets of angelic quality. Yep, her sister can sing too. Videos the two singing together when Martha is 13 and Lucy is maybe 17 are so good but also incredibly sweet. (This also would ordinarily put me off – but the power is strong in those two.)
Cynics may say that I am smitten with her because she is so lovely. Simply not the case. While my Y-chromosome is never completely quiet, I do not have that sort of attraction to her. It may be due to the fact that she seems modest in all aspects of her career, including her dress. Not that she avoids posh frocks by any means, she’s got some glitzy gowns, but she is selling her singing and nothing more. (Beautiful, talented, skilled and modest – my inner cynic should be having a field day, but no.)
Whatever the case, be she a once in a lifetime talent that should simply be enjoyed and encouraged, or an AI conspiracy, I am content, just give me the blue pill (or red, I can’t remember). At this point I am a fan-club of one and likely to stay that way … I’m not much of a joiner. If she comes to the U.S. for a concert, I will take serious action to be there. But it seems that I must simply be content listening to her sing and relishing the goose-bumps as they arrive. In one way, being a 69-year-old fan boy seems a bit silly. But on the other hand, there is no harm being done and much pleasure to be enjoyed.
