Ted Williams & a local slant
Posted: Sun Jan 09, 2011 8:29 pm
With Ted Williams becoming an overnight internet sensation I wanted to share with you about a local slant on a similar story.
Last fall I came across a homeless busker on the downtown streets of Vancouver. His voice literally stopped me in my tracks. Since last fall I have befriended André Girard. I seek him out on my lunch hours, give him gift cards for Subway and other stores, give him a bit of cash, buy him items that will help him stay warm etc.
On the advice of friends to "strike while the iron is hot, I wrote the following email to 3 local News stations. Today, I got a call back from the CBC! They are trying to locate André to do a story on him (being homeless, he's not an easy guy to find) but I told the CBC that I had made arrangements to meet André at 1:30 PM on Monday to give him a stack of CDs (he has a professionally recorded CD and sells them for $10/ea -- I help him out by buying the blanks and burning them for him). Here's my blurb I wrote to the media.
This past week, Columbus' "Man with the Golden Voice" has been an internet sensation and has brought recognition and notoriety to Ted Williams.
For years Vancouver has had it's own version of Ted Williams - André Girard - a homeless man who truly has a "Golden Voice" and has written a song titled "They Say I Have a Golden Voice". http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3AqBDFFR ... D9&index=1
I have had many conversations with André about his being homeless, his children, how he ended up on the streets. Over the course of our conversations, I have come to be touched by this man in a positive way. My conversations with André have opened my eyes and my heart. Having worked downtown for more then two decades, it's easy to just walk on past the panhandlers on every block. I would've done the same with André on that fall day but had it not been for his voice that stopped me in my tracks. I threw some change into his hat and started to walk away. Then his voice stopped me again. I sat on the bench near him and listened to three of his songs. Then I bought his CD. I came home, put the CD on repeat and wept all that night. His songwriting and his voice touched my heart and moved me like no music has ever done before.
André has a high quality CD of his music (most songs he has written himself). André tells me that his song "They Say I Have a Golden Voice" is going to be used in a movie. (It would've been the perfect song for Ted Williams' story now, wouldn't it?).
There are a handful of videos on YouTube of André showing him playing and talking about what it's like to be playing on the sidewalk, people walking by as though he doesn't exist; what it's like to be homeless.
I explain my interactions with André as "I feel like my soul has been a volcano that has been dormant for 47 years and now it's starting to rumble awake".
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8hN3-jmD5h8
Last fall I came across a homeless busker on the downtown streets of Vancouver. His voice literally stopped me in my tracks. Since last fall I have befriended André Girard. I seek him out on my lunch hours, give him gift cards for Subway and other stores, give him a bit of cash, buy him items that will help him stay warm etc.
On the advice of friends to "strike while the iron is hot, I wrote the following email to 3 local News stations. Today, I got a call back from the CBC! They are trying to locate André to do a story on him (being homeless, he's not an easy guy to find) but I told the CBC that I had made arrangements to meet André at 1:30 PM on Monday to give him a stack of CDs (he has a professionally recorded CD and sells them for $10/ea -- I help him out by buying the blanks and burning them for him). Here's my blurb I wrote to the media.
This past week, Columbus' "Man with the Golden Voice" has been an internet sensation and has brought recognition and notoriety to Ted Williams.
For years Vancouver has had it's own version of Ted Williams - André Girard - a homeless man who truly has a "Golden Voice" and has written a song titled "They Say I Have a Golden Voice". http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3AqBDFFR ... D9&index=1
I have had many conversations with André about his being homeless, his children, how he ended up on the streets. Over the course of our conversations, I have come to be touched by this man in a positive way. My conversations with André have opened my eyes and my heart. Having worked downtown for more then two decades, it's easy to just walk on past the panhandlers on every block. I would've done the same with André on that fall day but had it not been for his voice that stopped me in my tracks. I threw some change into his hat and started to walk away. Then his voice stopped me again. I sat on the bench near him and listened to three of his songs. Then I bought his CD. I came home, put the CD on repeat and wept all that night. His songwriting and his voice touched my heart and moved me like no music has ever done before.
André has a high quality CD of his music (most songs he has written himself). André tells me that his song "They Say I Have a Golden Voice" is going to be used in a movie. (It would've been the perfect song for Ted Williams' story now, wouldn't it?).
There are a handful of videos on YouTube of André showing him playing and talking about what it's like to be playing on the sidewalk, people walking by as though he doesn't exist; what it's like to be homeless.
I explain my interactions with André as "I feel like my soul has been a volcano that has been dormant for 47 years and now it's starting to rumble awake".
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8hN3-jmD5h8
