PORT TOWNSEND — For some people, getting up in front of a crowd to sing a popular song accompanied by prerecorded backing tracks is a recurring nightmare, like being naked in public or forgetting your locker combination.
But to paraphrase a popular karaoke tune title, you don’t always get what you expect.
Welcome to Louie’s World, where Port Townsend residents Louie Espinoza and his wife, Selena, create an interactive performance environment in which people of all ages, tastes and talent can sing their favorite songs to eager, appreciative crowds.
Couple met in 1992
Louie, 40, was a cook when he began working karaoke in 1992, and met Selena, 46, a few years later.
Soon they were a team both personally and professionally, and developed a routine that is adaptable to every occasion, from rowdy bars to somber memorial services.
They appear at Sirens in Port Townsend on the second, third and fourth Thursday each month and regularly perform at the 7 Cedars Casino in Blyn.
The act is called Louie’s World even though Selena is a full partner.
This has come up before, and Louie has prepared a smooth rejoinder: “I’m Louie and Selena is my world.”
Some karaoke jockeys, what Louie calls “KJs,” stick to the expected standards and don’t add anything to the sound.
But Louie and Selena are committed performers with professional quality singing voices and an engaging stage presence.
They begin each show with Selena on lead for a few songs — maybe a crowd pleaser like Cyndi Lauper’s “Time After Time.”
Some nights people line up for a shot at the microphone right away, other times Louie and Selena provide the vocals until the crowd arrives and decides to participate.
And it only takes one spirited performance to fill the dance floor.
Music mining
While computerized entertainment exists in the hippest urban karaoke clubs, Louie and Selena inhabit a decidedly low-tech world.
Several loose-leaf books are set out on a table, with more than 8,000 songs listed by title and artist, requiring participants to fill out slips with song names and numbers.
Even without a computer to keep track, Louie and Selena remind people of the songs they performed on their last visits, handing the songs to them as they walk into the door.
Each song is stored on a CD, which plays the backup tracks while displaying the lyrics for the sing-along.
Singers often change the words around to suit their mood and location.
A few weeks ago, a guy morphed the Guess Who classic to “Port Townsend woman, get away from meee–eeee-eeee!”
(The women in the room were all too eager to oblige.)
Many of the performers are amateurs that would — and perhaps should — be embarrassed to sing in public, but they are warmly embraced by the audiences here.
“People appreciate that it takes a lot of courage to get up and sing,” Selena said. “So they are polite when someone else is up there. They know what it feels like.”
At some special events the singer might be deaf or autistic, and would never have the opportunity to sing anywhere else.
Other performers are professionals who are out to try something new.
“We get drummers from local bands who never get to sing lead up here,” Selena said. “During the film festival Cloris Leachman was up here with her son, singing show tunes.”
Special events
Louie and Selena don’t charge clubs a lot for their performance, recognizing that nightclub profits have fallen.
They pull in a greater percentage of their income from special events, like weddings and the occasional memorial service.
For memorials, they meet with the family and get a list of the deceased’s favorite songs, to be performed with love and respect by their closest friends.
For weddings, they do that and more.
Selena has branched out into baking, with the ability to create cakes that reflect the bride and groom’s taste and personality.
Louie is an ordained minister, and has officiated at about 18 weddings.
“My niece was going to get married and she pushed me to get ordained on the Internet,” he said. “She never did get married but I decided to do it anyway.”
Picture perfect
Louie runs the show, providing background vocals where needed and shoring up people who appear particularly nervous or ill at ease.
He runs the schedule from the paper slips turned in by potential singers, filling the space between songs with snippets of popular songs that fit the mood.
He can also raise or lower the pitch to accommodate a singer’s vocal range, although he cannot change the tempo.
There are occasional glitches, such as when Louie cued up the wrong version of “I Say a Little Prayer” for karaoke regular Cara Dailer.
Dailer first tried to sing to the remixed version but then stopped, asking for something closer to Dionne Warwick’s original.
Another regular, Robin Davison, always tries a different song from an unexpected artist.
“During the day there is a dog inside me on a leash,” he said. “But when I come in here to sing that dog cuts loose.”
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Jefferson County reporter Charlie Bermant can be reached at 360-385-2335 or at charlie.bermant@peninsuladailynews.com.
