Album Notes

"getting sick = fun music"- "Dig This real" magazine

It's sick! It's twisted! And it all really happened!

If you are a nurse, have a chronic or serious illness, love parody music (such as Weird Al), or otherwise just like to laugh, you will get many grins out of this CD.

Tales from the hospital and doctors' waiting rooms from The Singing Patient (Carla Ulbrich), who has survived kidney failure, severe anemia, a stroke, and, worst of all, 8 days in the hospital...

Carla was a full-time performing musician before the health fiasco, and had to re-learn to play the guitar from scratch after having a stroke in 2002. For over a year she shuffled from specialist to specialist in her poofy Snoopy slippers (her feet were to swollen to wear shoes) and synthetic wig (there is no cure for vanity), and until she could play guitar again, her creative outlet was writing parodies- taking familiar tunes and re-writing the lyrics.

In this case, the songs she wrote reflected the reality of a frustrated patient in a dehumanizing health case system (that would be ours, you know the USA's). Many of the lyrics were written in doctors' waiting rooms (including the first song "Sittin' in the Waiting Room").

There is plenty of humor to be found in the darkest of times, and a great deal of truth is told amid the yuks.

The parodied songs are borrowed from Huey Lewis, the Pretenders, Lloyd Price, George Gershwin, and even Carla herself. "What If Your Butt Was Gone" was the #8 most requested song of the entire year (2004) on Dr. Demento's Nationally syndicated radio program.

The music is played by a band so good, you'll think it's karaoke tracks, but it's not. And who's that fantastic guitar player in the band? That's right, it's Carla, with her hands fully recovered.

Writing these songs and recording this project has added a new dimension to Carla's touring schedule- she often finds herself playing for nurses and caregivers at conventions and parties. Patients often give a copy to their doctors or nurses, which makes for great conversation. Though once in a while a patient may not find the CD funny because it's "Too soon," pretty much anyone who works in health care will laugh 'til their "butt is gone."

"A marvelous and heartfelt (and very funny, of course) piece of work." - Dr Demento

"Love it. Cure for the blues." - John McLaughlin, WMUC

"Absolutely brilliant parodies, I nearly got
in a wreck a couple of times I was laughing so hard. And the production was fantastic..." - Tony F, fan

"We want more Carla! I really lost it when I heard what if your butt was gone! I couldn't resist putting On The Camode Again and What If Your Butt Was Gone on the air back to back, or should I say Cheek to Cheek!"
- Byron Lee, host, "The Fun Zone" WTND