Bucket list item #1
Brncich learns to sing, shares voice with others
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| The Crew Plus One consists of Bob Brncich, his daughter Breena, his girlfriend Pamela Schaefer, and friends Rod and Barb Hill. The group performs karaoke together. (Photo provided) |
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CHANNAHON – Way before the movie had been released, Bob Brncich had written his own ‘bucket list.’
The Channahon resident was going through some difficult times and thought he should make a list of the things he really wanted to achieve in his life before he ‘kicked the bucket.’
Number one on that list was to learn how to sing.
Brncich had long felt he had music in his soul, but not many others shared his sentiment. He even tried to save a marriage with a heart-felt song, to no avail.
Today, though, Brncich is singing to his heart’s content – at nursing homes, at the VFW, at his private home studio, and just about anywhere else that will take him. It’s great, he said. So much fun and a wonderful release.
Brncich is part of a karaoke group called ‘The Crew Plus One,’ composed of friends and family. Also in the group are his girlfriend Pamela Schaefer of Channahon, his best friends Rod and Barb Hill of Channahon, and his daughter Breena of Coal City and Channahon.
They take their ’60s, ’70s and ’80s karaoke music on the road to such places as Morris Healthcare Centers, where the wheelchair-bound may wave their hands in the air and sing along, and the Wilmington VFW, where the Crew presented each with a trophy honoring their service and to other groups – all free of charge.
We do it because we love to sing and we love to share the joy of music with others, Brncich said.
“After all,” he added, “we may be there someday, maybe sooner than we think, and wouldn’t it be nice to have someone think about us?”
Brncich’s only childhood connection to music was playing accordion, which he hated.
He does remember, though, when his father had a stroke at the age of 67, Brncich’s mother would sing to her husband, and he would try to sing back. It seemed to make him happy, Brncich said. That music was the only way he could communicate, and that’s what seemed to keep him going.
Those memories stayed buried in Brncich – buried but still there until later in his life when he made out his bucket list. His secretary found that list and set him up with singing lessons at Denise Gillespie School of Voice in Mazon.
Brncich said Gillespie asked him for a demo disc at his first lesson.
“Lady, you don’t understand,” Brncich told her. “I am overweight, depressed over my struggling business since 9-11, going through some personal issues and can’t sing a note, and you want a demo disc?”
She told him to sing for her.
“You’re right,” she said afterward. “You can’t sing a note.”
The two laughed, and that was the beginning of Brncich’s singing hobby and a new friendship. It was cheaper than seeing a shrink, he told Gillespie one day.
Rod Hill and his wife learned about Brncich’s passion for singing at the houseboat marina in Channahon where they all reside. Hill said Brncich talked them into going to a karaoke bar at Egizio’s in Diamond.
“We were really shy,” Hill said about singing their first karaoke. “It took three months and some drinks before we would get up.”
Hill said he was in a rock band in high school, but he only played an instrument and never sang. But after singing that first karaoke (“Lay, Lady Lay”), he found he loved it. His wife did, too.
They also began singing at Brncich’s music studio in his houseboat.
“He unlocked that need I always had,” Hill said. “We’d sing in there until five in the morning. We shared his passion for singing and music. Now I have my own little studio in my house, and I’m laying down guitar tracks.”
The group eventually decided to share their music with others, but not for pay – for fun. They bring their karaoke teleprompter with its tracks and some simple instruments for their audience to play, such as cymbals and rattles.
“It’s just a good feeling when we see they’re having a good time,” he said. “It’s doing something for someone else.”
They might sing some Eagles’ songs, Simon and Garfunkel, and The Grassroots or “Happy Together” and “Under the Boardwalk.” They pass out roses when Schaefer sings “The Rose” and handed out patriotic trophies when 11-year-old Breena sang “You are the Wind Beneath My Wings” to the veterans.
They’ve begun to blend really well, Hill said. They’ll also walk among their audience and put the microphone up to anyone who wants to sing with them.
A lot of their audience will know all the songs, he said, some from their own heyday and others from listening to their children’s music when they were growing up.
Next on Brncich’s bucket list: Fly a helicopter; Scuba dive; and Skydive.
The Crew Plus One’s next performance will be at Walnut Grove in Morris on Dec. 12. For more information about the group, call (815) 476-4400.
