My Tribute to Paul MacLeod: love Cindy

My tribute to Paul MacLeod

There are many great things that happened at Paul MacLeod’s Sunday memorial show at the Starlight in Waterloo.

This is one of them: Going to that show got me thinking about Paul – really really thinking about him.

I catch myself singing his songs & appreciating him.

Talking to everyone at the show on Sunday was fabulous!

I LOVED: Hearing stories about Paul from the musicians – hearing people speak of all the wonderful memories and treasured moments they had with Paul – hearing his music again through the lens of people who love him

THAT is what happened to me on Sunday at the Paul MacLeod show.

I like having Paul MacLeod on my brain right now.

It feels good to process what he meant to me in my life.

I catch myself singing “We won’t stop at one, we won’t stop at two, we won’t stop at anything . . . . .” all the time. For example, just before sitting down to write this tribute I was doing dishes – it was 3 days’ worth & not a pretty sight – I think I sang the same song over and over again about 5 times, haha. It was fun.

So, I am thinking about what Paul meant to me in my life.

I would like to give him thanks – he did something very special for me.

I was the owner of the Boathouse prior to Kevin (back in early 2004 was when I got the city contract). Paul started playing Sunday nights fairly early on.

Why Sundays?

Because I remember Paul playing Sundays at the Walper in the late ‘90s – back then Paul was my Sunday night saviour. I had been going through tough times for a few years & I followed musicians like Paul, Shannon, Danny, Mark & a bunch of others.

For me, Paul's music was “healing.”

Funny, I recall many instances of having a few too many beers and then singing along in the audience at the top of my lungs – I always thought people liked it (because, ahem, I was such a great duet’ist, haha – the things we do when we are young : )

Anyways, when I started the Boathouse, I had dreams of singing on stage. I thought surely as an owner, I could, at the very least, crash the stage when the moment was right for a duet : )

I soon learned that most musicians did not fancy it as much as I thought . . . . Most didn’t say anything - they just smiled, went with the moment, and then shooed me off the stage nicely.

One band – and I totally forget who – gave me a talking to afterwards, haha. So I did stop crashing stages for the most part : )

WHO LET ME CRASH THE STAGE AND SING WITH HIM??

PAUL DID

At the end of the night he would often invite me on stage to sing a few songs – he knew I had a desire to sing. He was kind, inviting and generous.

It was some of the happiest and best times I will ever remember – singing on stage at the Boathouse with Paul at 2:00 in the morning - It made me feel so happy.

THANKS PAUL

LOVE CINDY

Hey - does someone know how to start a Tribute page on Facebook? Maybe there is one out there already?

lemme know - cheers - sincin28@gmail