That means if a mistake was made, it was there forever! And mistakes weren’t uncommon–in fact, some listeners and producers find that mistakes add some raw emotion to a song and interest to a singer’s voice, though too many implies a lack of natural ability.

Now that we have technology to correct or control a singers’ pitch (how close they get to the right note), it’s hard to tell if a singer has any talent simply by listening to their CD. When you hear the artists you love for real, LIVE, it can be incredible or disappointing because they either live up to their product, or they don’t. Since tech-polished vocals are now the norm, and the real deal isn’t often as sweet.

I think that’s pretty unfortunate because there’s plenty of talent to choose from–talent that doesn’t require pitch correction in the studio and lip syncing during live performances.

Take Paula Abdul’s recent performance on American Idol: (skip the first part of the video)

Unwavering, polished vocals, even through all the dancing-an obvious lip sync and obvious overproduction. Paula’s performance is followed by No Doubt: (again, skip the front)

Gwen Stefani’s a crazy fool (read: awesome) jumping and dancing around the stage, yet she performs the entire song live (because that’s the meaning of a live performance), hitting all her Gwen-ish notes. Gwen and those like her definitely get the legitimacy award, but the way of the music industry is largely like Paula’s.

For studio recordings, listeners expect music to be perfect. The opinions swing all over the place about how much tweeking is too much for a particular genre of music. Often, songs with radio marketability are produced to perfection, leaving the listener with the idea of the song’s sound, but not its true quality (electronic music is the obvious exception).

There are plenty of musicians who record and produce their music independent of mainstream record labels so they don’t feel bound to false perfection. They’re happy with their own talent, and if they need more, they invite someone else to help out. That’s the honesty and camaraderie the music community once had, and it’s nice to see it retained somewhere.

I’m kind of a purist in valuing honesty in writing AND recording–I don’t want you to hear electronic Chelsie, just as I don’t care to hear electronic Paula. That approach doesn’t provide any honest feedback for me because it’s not an honest performance. Nothing separates the talent from the assumed talent like playing live and letting the listener be the judge.

This summer, dates and times TBD, I’m playing in the Nashville area and anywhere else I think might be fun. Hope you’ll come hang; it’ll be real. ;)