HOME TO FILKONTARIO

Bring me home to FilKONtario,
Stay, sing with me,
We'll be all right, sing all night
With my friends at FilKONtario!


This is gonna be long, it was quite the weekend for UT! Here we go! (Debbie: More photos will be added, hopefully soon! I still have a bunch in my camera...)

Debbie, Jodi and I were honoured and excited to be asked to be the Guest of Honour at FKO this year. This weekend is sure to be a highlight of our time together as Urban Tapestry. We met wonderful new friends and reunited with friends who are already family. We are thankful to everyone who made this weekend one we'll never forget.

THURSDAY

One of the cool things about FKO for us is waiting in anticipation while all our friends from everywhere arrive in Toronto! This year was no exception. We drove down to the hotel on Thursday night to party with some con early birds- Dave Clement and Tom Jeffers from Winnipeg, Paul Kwinn and Taunya Shiffer from CA, fellow guest Don Neill and his wife, Charity, and adorable baby, Leo (Debbie: I fell in love with Leo this weekend. My heart will never be the same. I knew Leo and I had a connection from the first time our eyes met...). We chattered the night away, sang and ate Chinese food. Deb, Jodi and I travelled back home and Paul and Taunya came to crash at my place, too. Paul and I stayed up way too late talking, but it was fun :).

FRIDAY

I was teaching on Friday, but Deb, Jodi, Paul, Taunya and my husband, John, met at the SF Cafe for lunch. (Jodi: The SF Cafe is SUCH a cool place! If you ever get a chance to go there, take it! I particularly like the 14 foot robot coming out of the wall in one corner...) After that, they swung by the school to get me and Taunya and Deb kept my students amused by drawing knights and dragons on my blackboard as part of my Medieval unit. (Debbie: it was the first time I had seen Allison's classroom! So funny hearing all the kids call her "Ms. Durno". I think I'm going to start calling her "Ms. Durno", especially when I want something. One of the students pointed to my Urban Tapestry shirt and yelled, "Hey, she has one of those shirts too!") (Jodi: When Debbie and Taunya started drawing on the class black board, the kids were amazed. "You're musicians too??" asked one astonished boy - only he stumbled over "musician" so that it sounded like "magician". So one kid piped up with, "Oh cool! Can you make me disappear?" We were in hysterics.) We stopped by Cosmo Music to get strings and picks and capos before heading out to the con. (Debbie: I picked up some fingerpicks...I've always wanted to try these. Any advice, anyone? I was having trouble putting them on my fingers until Paul Kwinn was kind enough to point out that I was putting them on backwards. :-))

Once we settled into the hotel, we headed down to the main room to do a sound check for Judith Hayman's concert later in the evening, but not before Dave and Tom innocently (Debbie: ha! yeah, right) invited us back to their room to introduce us to Rika, a German filker they had met recently in England (Debbie: Rika is soooooooo nice! And way too talented for her own good, too. I had heard about Rika from my friend Fox, so already knew I'd like her. :-))(Jodi: Ditto from here. It was SO cool meeting her!). And spring the first really cool surprise of the weekend-Katy Droge hiding in the bathroom! We met Katy when she was Interfilk guest at FKO last year. It was so great to see you again, Katy!! (Debbie: what an incredibly wonderful and devious surprise! Dave had just finished telling us, rather regretfully, that Katy wouldn't be able to make it this year. In fact, it alarms at how easily our friends were able to pull the wool over our eyes! Especially Katy...she has such a sweet smile; she could say anything and I'd believe her. Hm...I do hope she isn't reading this, else she might take advantage of that fact. "Debbie, did you hear that scientists have proved that chocolate is bad for you? And that it's going to be pulled off all the shelves next year?" Then laugh uproariously while I collapse in a faint on the floor. Hm...I seem to have gotten off on a tangent so will shut up now...) (Jodi: We were very happy to see Katy had actually made it. And when we heard about all the contortions Katy and Rika went through to GET there, we were even MORE grateful. Thanks again for coming, you two!)

Our sound check with Judith went well in a goofy and energetic way and then we went to prepare for the Tie and Tails opener in the con suite. (Debbie: lots of great interpretations of Tie and Tails at that party! Jodi's, Allison's and my interpretation was rather lame, I'm afraid. We all wore our hair in ponytails and tied them up with bow-ties. I chose an especially huge bow-tie which kept wobbling on the back of my head the whole party; I'm surprised it didn't fall off into someone's drink.) A toast and three cheers to Lloyd and Yvonne Penney who once again organized a great con suite (Debbie: they put on an AMAZING spread, and also gave us a private bag of mini-chocolate bars, yum. We hoovered through that bag during the convention, and I finished off the last of them when I got home. Mini-chocolate bars are insidious, don't you think? You think nothing of just popping one or two in your mouth because they're so tiny, they're barely worth thinking about. But when you've done this about two dozen times in an hour (as I've been known to do), it's something else entirely. But there I've gone off on a tangent again...). The munchies and drink spread and their famous chili (Debbie: I dream about their chili. I'm not kidding. I also marvel at the zillions of different spices they always have available. Did you know that Lloyd and Yvonne have been known to put CHOCOLATE in their chili? i love that idea. But it's true about my chili dreams.) (Jodi: I believe it, Debbie. Of course, we're talking about someone who's fridge talks to her... ;-))(Debbie: Yum, and don't forget about Joel Polowin's heavenly chocolate-cheesecake brownies!) were greatly appreciated all weekend long. Lloyd and Yvonne also promoted the "TO World Con in 2003 bid", so if you would like to support the cause, please contact them! Word has it that if TO gets the bid, FKO will be running the filk track. I also picked up three new and highly-anticipated recordings early in the con- Judith's "Sea of Stars", the FKO 8 compilation "Where The Magic Is Real" and Karen Lindsey and Lloyd Landa's "Road To Roswell".

We moved from the Tie and Tails into the mini-concerts. Kathleen Sloan and Howard Harrison gave excellent, entertaining sets. (Jodi: Unfortunately, all the sets were put back a bit because Peggi Warner-Lalonde, who was supposed to give a concert, had gotten sick and was unable to sing. :( She was still at the con though and very VERY graciously offered to help all us musicians out of a tight spot by selling our merchandise for us and for the con when Glen Simser, our usual local filk dealer, was unable to make the con at the last minute. Thanks so much, Peggi! Hope you're feeling better!) Judith's concert, celebrating the release of her CD, "Sea of Stars", was loaded with inspiring music and great fun. UT had a great time doing vocal back-up and "roo" choreography on "Kangaroos From California" along with Freddy Brown and Don Neill (Debbie: that was fun, especially seeing people in the audience doing the "roo choreography" with us) (Jodi: Boing, boing, boing boing... :-))

While registering for the con we finally got to read the already infamous bio Mark Osier had written about Urban Tapestry for the program book. (Debbie: we must kill him.) (Jodi: Oooooo yes.) Our indignant gasps and helpless giggles as we read would have done Mark's heart good. (Debbie: I object to that giggling comment. We don't giggle, Allison, no way. I've never giggled in my entire life. The word 'giggle' sounds too airheady and schoolgirlish, don't you think? I prefer the far more mature term 'chortle' instead. Um, or 'snickered in a dignified fashion'. Hm...I've have to look up more in my Roget's.) We were thrilled to see him make a last minute decision to come to the con Friday night, even though UT is gonna kill him, anyway :). (Debbie: vengeance will be sweet...) And all because of our innocent, heart-felt MarkO tribute basket at Contata... (see Contata report)

After Judith's concert, we attended the start of Interfilk guest Harold Groot's Bardic Circle. Harold is a lively and fun guy with a ton of fannish stories and even more filksongs at his command. Just -how- lively and fun a "guy" Harold was UT would have more reason to discover before the weekend was done :). (Debbie: Harold is so cool! Sure wish he lived closer to Toronto)(Jodi: He's a *really* talented recorder player too! Got a chance to see a lot of that over the weekend, I'm happy to say. You can move to Toronto ANY time, Harold. :-)) (Debbie: Just think of the havoc we could all wreak together. I was really impressed by Harold's versatility and talent during the weekend. He performed such a wide range of music, could do great schtick, played a mean recorder. Plus I love his twisted sense of humour.)

At 11:30 we moved into the Media Filk we were hosting. A variety of goofy Star Trek, Xena and X-Files songs were played and a good time was had by all. Media filk evolved into open filk, which I reluctantly left at 1:30 as my lack of sleep from the night before began to catch up with me. (Debbie: Jodi & I crashed soon after. Wanted to stay up later, but we realized that we probably needed to stay semi-conscious the day after.)(Jodi:Just *remembering* how tired I was at that point makes me want to yawn...)(Debbie: Stop yawning, Jodi! Now you're making me want to yawn. And we can't be yawning in the middle of Allison's FKO report, can we? She'd kill us if she knew)

SATURDAY

The day started with a truly international breakfast as we were joined in the restaurant by Dave, Tom, Rika, Katy, Andrea and Tom. (Jodi: Yay! What a happenin' crowd. Tom and Andrea were talking about their recent trip to the Bahamas and how they'd spent the mornings eating breakfast on the veranda with the light breeze blowing off of the ocean... (sigh) Of course, it's March in Ontario. Need I say more? I was extremely jealous - but glad they had a good time - and VERY glad they decided to come to FKO after that!) From there we headed to our Arrangement Workshop. The workshop was well-attended and I really enjoyed hearing all the stories and experiences of other filkers' attempts at vocal and instrumental arranging. (Jodi: I was particularly interested in the musicians that came from a dramatic background and how arrangement played a big part in their performances. Thanks for Taunya of Puzzlebox and Mark Bernstein for the insight!)(Debbie: Boy, was I nervous at the beginning of the workshop. I hate public speaking! But everyone was so great, contributing all kinds of ideas and feedback...it became much more of an interactive discussion than a lecture, which is exactly what we had hoped would happen. I learned stuff during that workshop, too! :-)) After a quick bite in the con suite (Lloyd and Yvonne chili, yum!) (Jodi: Whoo boy. These two should open up a restaurant. :))(Debbie: In Toronto. I don't want them moving away.), we headed down for the first of the afternoon concerts by FKO Filk Waif, Don Neill. Oh, my! I knew Don was a fabulous guitarist, but this concert really brought home to me what a wonderful songwriter Don is, too! I especially liked his closing song, "Life". Someone make this man record a tape of his songs! (Jodi: Don has always impressed me enormously as a musician but as Allison mentions, this was really the first time I got to hear a lot of his songwriting in action. And it's *wonderful*. What a treat to get a chance to hear it. I was enthralled that entire concert.) (Debbie: I was really impressed by Don's concert, too. And what a great songwriter!)

Harold Groot's concert was next and was full of the many fun stories and history of filking we had first experienced the night before. After his concert, UT joined Puzzlebox in their two-shot to sing "The Darkman", always a treat. (Debbie: That was fun, though I felt way out of practice. I remember stepping up on the stage beside Alisa, and both of us confessing in whispers to each other that we hadn't played our Darkman flute parts for ages. I covet Alisa's wooden flute, by the way...it sounds SO great.) We are also pleased that the PB/UT version of "The Darkman" we sang at FKO last year is on the new FKO 8 compilation tape, "Where The Magic Is Real". (Jodi: Yay!) PB's two-shot version of "Persian Rose" was also intense and beautiful. (Jodi: Another breathtaking moment.) (Debbie: Love that song. I remember hearing Syntax do it at Consonance. Puzzlebox does a wonderful rendition of this song!)

(Debbie: I also quite enjoyed all the mini-concerts we got to hear during the weekend ("two-fers"?)...lots of great talent out there! Also quite enjoyed hearing Rand and Adam's new "Mr. Worf" song. :-D During one of the breaks between programming, by the way, Steve Macdonald beamed a Pilot version of Battleship at me, and we had fun Piloting at each other for a brief time. I love being a technonerdgeek. :-))

Sadly, we missed Nate Bucklin's concert due to preparing for our own, but we would make up for it in the evening when we heard Nate's incredible contribution to the jazz jam. (Debbie: I was *so* happy to see Nate at FKO.) We did get back in time to hear Dave, Tom, Rika and Katy's lovely one-shot version of Chris de Burgh's "Discovery". (Jodi: (sigh) That afternoon was SO full of excellent performers. And to think that they hadn't really had a chance to rehearse the song beforehand all that much! But as Rika would say, "Rehearsal schmersal. We don't need no rehearsal." :-))

And we were up next! Our concert was started with the unexpected announcement from Randy Hoffman that the UT songs "Sex and Chocolate" and "Cuz He's A Guy" have been scheduled for play on the Dr. Demento Show. Pretty cool!! (Jodi: Definitely! We'll have to get a hold of a copy of that somehow... I'd love to hear it. :-)) Thanks for your help in that, Randy! (Debbie: Yes, that was VERY cool news, and totally unexpected.) Two guest performers helped liven up our show. Don Neill was an uncanny Marvin in our song tribute to our favorite Martian. Thanks, Don! (Jodi: We've decided to make it a tradition. Last year it was Alisa of Puzzlebox's wild Xena yell at the end of our one shot. SO much fun!) (Debbie: And Don was so good about it. We only asked him just before the con.) And Harold Groot joined the ranks of "the brotherhood of The Guy" by being our male voice on "Cuz He's A Guy". What a hoot! Harold took to his role with a vengence, hamming all over the stage and breaking Jodi up in the middle of the song. (Jodi: I just couldn't help it. He was so much fun to watch that I forgot where I was in the song. :-)) We were all amused and caught off-guard by Harold's enthusiasm! (Debbie: I only wish that someone had videotaped that bit, because I missed most of it from where I was standing. What parts I *did* see sent me into hysterics, and I couldn't play flute! That was so fun. :-) We had emailed Harold months before FKO to ask him if he was interested in helping us out on that song, and he wrote back a brief but friendly reply. I got the impression that he was a bit shy and quiet but boy, was I wrong. :-) Sure wish we had more time to hang out with him...Harold, move to Toronto!) Thanks for your help, Harold! Glad you had such fun! Our final song is a memory I'll keep for a long time. We debuted our new song, "Home To FilKONtario", with a tribute to the FKO concom and all the wonderful experiences our home con of FKO has given us through the years. And to hear all the friends who shared those experiences with us singing along on the chorus of that song was special, indeed. (Jodi: A definite Kodak Moment. It's always great when people sing along with our songs but it was particularly special then.) (Debbie: I can't tell you how touched I was to look up near the end of the song and see almost everyone in the room singing along on the chorus...such a magical moment for me.)

The FKO Banquet followed our concert and the company of Dave, Tom, Rika, Katy, Kathleen and SteveMac made for good times. The Filk Hall of Fame awards were memorable and moving as Gary Anderson, Dave Clement and Mary Ellen Wessels were inducted for membership. I thank the fates that had me sitting next to Dave when his name was called and it was the emotional highlight of FKO 9 for me to hear phrases from my nomination used in Dave's citation. I wouldn't have missed it for anything. I just hugged Dave and cried :). (Jodi: We were all in tears and hugging each other and laughing and crying... It was quite a moment.)(Debbie: All the speeches were excellent. I was especially moved by Alan Thiesen's reading aloud of the letter from Gary Anderson's wife.) It was equally touching watching Judith struggle for composure as she inducted MEW into the Hall of Fame.

Next came the "To Space" songwriting contest and the many entries were excellent. Congratulations to Diana Huey, Paul, Taunya and Alisa Shaefbauer of Puzzlebox and Dave and Tom for taking prizes in the contest. (Debbie: lots of great entries in that contest! I think it's wonderful how these song contests generate such creative output.)

The Interfilk auction started off with a grand flourish as the Interfilk wenches entered complete with Roman togas and laurel wreaths. We are proud and stunned to say that the UT tape and basket we donated to the auction sold for $550! (Jodi: I had to pick my jaw up off of the ground... Wow!) We are not worthy, Steve Brinich! Thank you for supporting Interfilk, Steve Brinich! (Debbie: Steve, thank you thank you thank you! And thanks so much to everyone else who supported the Interfilk auction; I am always astounding by the outpouring of generosity evident at Interfilk auctions. Allison, Jodi, and I will always be grateful to Interfilk for helping us in the past...they sent us to Conchord a while back! And without Interfilk, we wouldn't be enjoying the splendid company and music of Harold Groot at FKO. The Interfilk auctions themselves are also so much fun...I LOVED the "Muse" costumes worn by the Interfilk runners this time. Joey Shoji looked especially scrumptious in his toga and leaf-crown >:-)) Other popular items included pre-release copies of the new Steve MacDonald and Dorsai CDs and a Windbourne songbook. The auction raised $2,294! Keep supporting these auctions, everyone! The filkers, like Harold Groot, that Interfilk sends to cons, benefit our entire community.

The next panel, Joey Shoji's Julia Ecklar tribute, was a treat for me as Julia was one of my earliest and strongest filk influences. It was wonderful to hear all her songs again and we enjoyed singing "The Dark Is Rising" to close the tribute. (Jodi: I particularly enjoyed Joey's rendition of "Horse Tamer's Daughter" in parts in between each of the songs. I don't think I've ever heard that song played all the way through and the way Joey did it was great! Thanks, Joey!)(Debbie: I got a kick out of seeing everyone sing along on most of the songs...Allison knew ALL the lyrics to ALL the songs, it seemed! :-) Even though I'm not as familiar with the songs, I enjoyed listening very much.)

After that Jodi, Don, Freddy Brown, MEW and Nate joined together for an hour of jazz music and the calibre of the performances was stellar. Jodi was high for hours, nay, days, after coming out of that jam :). (Debbie: Wow, was that filkroom rocking! (or should that be 'jazzing'?) Super music, and amazingly fun vibes. A lot of talent in that room. :-))

(Jodi: Definitely one of my highlights. I so rarely get to do that sort of thing and having stellar musicians like Don, Freddy, MEW and Nate there to join in just made it all the more special. What a great time it was! I'm in the middle of it and all the while I'm listening to these *fabulous* guitar leads and great bass guitar beats and the gorgeous voice and harmonies of MEW beside me and thinking, "I'm in heaven. How did I get so lucky as to participate in this??" Woah. Thanks so much for making that part of the con so very special for me, guys! Let's do it again some time soon!)

We finished the evening moving back and forth between the different rooms of open filk. We got to reunite with Paul Kwinn and the Dangerettes to sing "Dangerman" (Debbie: "Danger Man, you're so bad it's a CRIME...") and also reunite with Joey to sing "Star Sisters" as well as listening to lots of good music. (Debbie: I also enjoyed participating on a song ("Home Is Wherever" by Anne Passovoy, arranged by Alan) with Alan Thiesen, Mary Ellen Wessels, and Taunya Shiffer! Alan had scored the parts out for us. Also jamming with Joey when he did Suzanne Vega stuff. Also hanging out with Lyanne Quirt! And HEY, she made me a wonderful birthday card with a homemade beaded lizard thingy!!! I was extremely touched...)

As John Hall said elsewhere, FKO this year was a listener's joy! Hearing Luis Garcia sing "The Sun Is Hot" with his son, Tommy, was another fun moment. Joey's rendition of "Cranes Over Hiroshima" touched us, too. (Jodi: I cried. I haven't heard anyone perform that song before though I knew how wonderfully Joey did it. I'm really glad I got a chance to hear it.) (Debbie: "Cranes Over Hiroshima" was the first song I ever heard Joey sing, and it made me cry then, too. Funny thing is, Joey actually asked me to play flute accompaniment on this song this time, but hadn't mentioned the title of the song. I always enjoy noodling on the flute, so I said sure. And I did noodle a bit, until I realized what song he was singing! Then it was time for the kleenex. :-) I love this story. Anyone who hasn't read Eleanor Coeur's (sorry, I'm not sure if that's the correct spelling) children's version of this story definitely HAS to go out and find it! Years after I first heard the story, my mother fell ill with cancer. It was a truly awful time. To help me keep sane, I started doing origami. I think I must have folded hundreds of cranes during those weeks. Jeff started making origami, too, and give his creations to me. Other friends (the first ones were Allison and her husband John) started sending me paper cranes and other origami figures as well...I still have some of these. And after my mother died, a friend of ours and her mother in Japan mailed us strings of colourful cranes to put on her grave. Ever since then, that paper crane story has always held a special emotional significance for me (esp. when Joey sings it), and paper cranes have always reminded me of the wonderful friendships I am so lucky to have.) As the clock struck 4:30 we left the still lively singing to head for bed.

SUNDAY

UT split up into individual brunches on Sunday morning to catch up with old friends and then we came back to attend the Filk Hall of Fame concert. The concert started with Ed Stauff directing the FKO choral group in two songs, including a gorgeous version of Cat Faber's "The Word of God". Ah, I want to join one of the filk choral groups some con soon! (Debbie: wow, I was SO impressed by that performance, especially considering this group hadn't practiced together before the convention! Great arrangements of songs, too.) That was followed by excellent performances by new Hall of Famers Dave and MEW (with Ed), as well as Mark Bernstein, Joey and Alan Theisen singing some of Gary Anderson's favorite songs. Hearing Dave sing "The Highwayman", my favorite song of his, followed by MEW singing "A Healing In This Night" was particularly moving for me and many others in the room. (Jodi: Sundays of a con are always the most difficult for me (and for a lot of us, I think) I was teary-eyed the entire concert. Judith kindly offered me a tissue. I *definitely* needed it.) (Debbie: I confess I was in puddle mode as well.)

An hour of fun music followed that at The Great Canadian Filk Preserve. And we had the honour of closing the preserve and the convention with a reprise of "Home To FilKONtario" with everyone singing along and spontaneous harmonies to die for :). (Debbie: It sounded so great!!!! I wanted to take everyone home with me. (pause) I'm not sure how Jeff would take to that, though.) Thanks for that, guys. That was SO cool. (Jodi: It was great! And Mark Bernstein made a standing offer to be our bass if we needed one. We might take you up on that one of these cons, Mark! Thanks to all who participated. It was great fun. :)) And I also got a kick out of Joey's revised chorus on rec.music.filk, "I'll be back to FilKONtario, I'LL play and sing..." :).

We settled in the hall after that to hear Gary Ehlrich and Joe Neff's Lavin/UT crossover "Technical Nerdy Guys". It was hilarious :). I want a copy, Gary and Joe! (Jodi: I laughed so hard I nearly fell out off my seat!) (Debbie: I loved this song!) I also really enjoyed Sharon Cozen's UT parody "Cuz He's A Spy", which Debbie showed me earlier in the con.

We stopped for pizza (and Kindereggs and massages and goofy toy duck races...) with friends before returning to the con suite for the Dead Penguin Filk. The filk was crowded, but energetic, and the Freddy Brown instigated "fish cracker wars" kept things appropriately silly. (Jodi: Allison kept passing off those little goldfish to *me*. Gee. I wonder why... Much giggling and good times ensued.) (Debbie: one of the highlights for me during that particular filk was hearing Kathleen Sloan and Katy perform the "Wizard's Knob" song. We missed Ju :-(, but I think Kathleen did a splendid job doing Ju's part.) About then we started many thankful and teary good-byes before heading for home, sorry to see FKO over, but anticipating our other '99 music trips, BaggieCon in Winnipeg this July and OVFF in October.

And, hey, next year is FilKONtario's tenth anniversary!!! What a milestone! And with Larry Warner and Diana Huey as guests you won't want to miss it! See you all there!

Once again, thanks so much to the FKO concom:

Judith Hayman
Dave Hayman
Heather Borean
Howard Scrimgeour
Carolyn Brown
Sally Headford
Ken Lalonde
Glenn Simser
Yvonne and Lloyd Penney
Peggi Warner-LaLonde

for all the hard work they put into giving us all such a terrific time at FilKONtario! Special thanks to Judith for her faith in us as GOH and for her humour and organization, to Carolyn for all her help as guest liason and to Sally for her kind words and encouragement both before and during the con. I can't tell you how proud Debbie, Jodi and I are to be part of the dynamic Southern Ontario filk community and to call FilKONtario home.

There is only one way to end this report. Everybody sing along! :

HOME TO FILKONTARIO
===================
by Debbie Ridpath Ohi
(c) March 1999 Urban Tapestry


G          F              C                D
I used to feel the lyrics slide inside my head
C                             D
The music filled me up, and I felt I would explode in a
G                 F               C           D
burst of coloured static, and the people all around, their eyes
F                G
on the ground.


CHORUS:
	C        Am      F      G
	Bring me home to FilKONtario
	C  Am  F        G
	Stay, sing with me we'll
	C               Am
	be all right, sing all night
	F                   G        C    C
	with my friends at Filkontario.


G             F                 C            D
One fateful weekend, my friend took me to a filk, "What's a
C                        D
filk", I said, and she laughed and took my hand, led me
G             F              C               D
to a room of people with guitars and easy smiles, and I
F               G
stayed a while.


CHORUS
	
G           F               C               D	
So now I'm hooked, I go to filk cons every year, never
C                    D
get much sleep, why sleep? I could be filking...
G             F                C                 D
The circle changes but the smiles are still the same, and the
F              G
song remains.     


BRIDGE (a capella):
                     C       D                 
(but each time, I) find it harder to say 
     G                 C
good-bye at the end of day, 
G                     Em
may our paths cross again,
     D         G    F    G    F
my friend.


G           F               C            D	
Our voices may not be all perfectly on key, but we
C                          D
lift each other up, and share the melody as we
G                    F            C               D
fill the room with music, and I know I'll be all right as we
F                     G
sing into the night.


CHORUS (twice)

THE END