One of the greatest and coolest things to ever happen to me!
Some background information...
MNQS stands for Monday Night Quancert Series. A musician named J.R. Moore started a Facebook live series in 2020 at the beginning of the COVID pandemic. Musicians could no longer perform live in front of crowds, so, while stuck at home, many decided to make the most of it and connect with fans by doing Facebook live events. J.R. started doing them every Monday night and one of his followers coined the term "Quancert" meaning quarantine concert. It stuck.
I found J.R. when he posted the links to his band's Facebook page. His band was Ingram Hill, which I loved (and still do!). I didn't know the individual members until this time. Little did I know that he is one of the funniest, coolest, most down-to-earth human beings. Unbeknownst to me, he has somewhat of a solo career as well another band known as Allen, Mack, Myers and Moore. Once I found his quancerts, I've watched every one since.
He does some of his own songs, his bands' songs, as well as so many covers. I love it all! He's extremely talented. You can tell he has such a good time performing for us, otherwise he wouldn't have continued them for as long as he has. He cracks himself up often, but the live chat can really get him going as well. Many have dubbed themselves "The Jerks" because there's a lot of good-natured ribbing, but it's all in good fun.
One thing he gets accused of is never granting requests. While they are few and far between, it does happen. That's where the story of the coolest things to happen to me begins. He put out a post a few days ahead of his next MNQS saying he was going to do a show of ALL REQUESTS! I thought I would put in my suggestions, even though I was sure there was no chance of him actually picking any of them, no matter how good they were because I'm invisible. He would "talk" to members in the chat, but never addressed anything I ever said. If you know me, you know it is VERY difficult for me to pick a favorite song. I'm always afraid I'm going to forget something really good. It's so hard to rank one better than another. So, I ended up sending like 30 songs!
The night of the All Request night came and I was so sure that in the 13 or 14 songs he chose, that there just wouldn't have been room for anything I suggested. Well, I couldn't have been more wrong! He got about halfway through and started to announce the next song. He said he couldn't believe it had taken him so long to play this song, but he loved it. Before he knew it, he said it was one of MY songs!!!! He joked that I "came in hot" with so many suggestions! At this point, I think I blacked out...and thank goodness you can go back and watch these videos because I didn't hear anything he said after that. My heart was beating so fast and my face was burning red with excitement/embarrassment. But he didn't stop there!!! He said he loved all my choices and that they weren't like all of the really common ones he gets all the time like "Free Bird", "Jesse's Girl," and "Brown Eyed Girl". My work had paid off! I know we have very similar song taste (aside from the Country) because he picks so many songs I like to cover. I specifically picked ones that I thought he would sound amazing on and weren't ones he's ever done before. He said when he got to this song, he knew this was the one. I was DYING to know which song it was! And he still wasn't done with the compliments...he said "Lori Showalter, you won the night!" OMG! I could have just died! And, I still didn't know which song it was! When he FINALLY got to playing it, I could not have been more shocked! It would not have been my guess, the way he went on about it. I'm actually shocked he even knew the song!
It was "Cough Syrup" by Young the Giant!!!
He sang it so well, and he was so totally himself through the whole performance at the end, which makes me so happy to have it recorded and to go back and watch it. He even did the thing where he stops at the end and then kind of stares at the camera, and then does a final strum on the guitar. He gave me another shoutout for the great song choice and laughed at everyone who commented that they were like chopped liver with their requests. He said he was sorry to those who felt a little "booty hurt" about their requests. He said not all of their song suggestions were crap, just some of them. He still wasn't done and gave me yet another shoutout! I commented thanking him for choosing my song and how I usually go unnoticed and invisible. He saw it and specifically said I wasn't invisible and was glad I enjoyed his performance. And if you thought he was done, he wasn't! He AGAIN said how great my song list was and said it was a little intimidating, but it was a good list! OMG! I died. When stuff like that never happens to you, you have no idea just how exhilarating and exciting it is when it finally does happen!
I recorded the whole segment on my phone because I wanted to be able to watch it whenever I wanted and didn't want it to ever disappear. I can't tell you how many times I listened to it, I couldn't get enough of it.
