Sing That Tune! Will Karaoke Make You Maryland's Next Idol? By Carolyn Krohn

One of the most popular of all local karaoke shows is Eddie Hitt’s Karaoke Jukebox. You can find Eddie "The Hitman" or one of his KJ’s, "The Rocket" Joe Rose or "The Shocker" Shaun Raines around town most any given night of the week.

I checked out the show on Friday night at Annie’s Paramount. The venue was perfect for karaoke, with both the tables and the bar close to the action. Eddie started the show off with some eye-opening music by Earth, Wind & Fire’s "Sing a Song", and then his first song was a country tune that showed off Eddie’s smooth-as-a-Hershey’s-kiss voice. From that moment on, the singers started coming up fast and furious - crooners, croakers and clunkers alike. All were received with hearty applause from the appreciative audience. There were some great moments, several of which were provided by a singer named Drea Lynn.

Karaoke Jukebox is different than any other I have seen, mainly because of the music Eddie plays between singers (discussed more below), which is feel-good music that encourages spontaneous dancing. It is also different because of Eddie himself, and the guys who work for him. Eddie has a great voice and it is clear to me that he has many loyal friends who come out to see him.

I also went to the Friday night show at Mike’s Crabhouse. "The Rocket" Joe Rose was in charge that night. Mike’s has a nice lounge feel, with dark lighting and friendly people. Again, great for karaoke. Joe told me that he has been working for Eddie for about three years. He is also the lead guitarist and singer for the band Absinthe. Joe is a very charming individual who, incidentally, has a kick-ass voice.

I spoke with a singer who goes by the name "Cowboy". He karaokes two to three times a week. He described Joe as "one of the best people I‘ve ever seen". He said, "I come here to have a great time, and I get to be myself. Joe gives us a nice place to go". I got to watch Cowboy sing a few, particularly "Okie From Muskogee", which was a big hit with the audience. I also spoke with "Mikey", who is also one of the regulars. He got up there to sing, made a pitch for the bartenders, and then delved head-first into "Play Me Some Mountain Music". People got up to dance and there was a lot of hootin’ and hollerin’. Mikey said that he used to be a disc jockey, and that’s how he got into the karaoke scene. He said that Joe will let people take and microphone and do what they want - he trusts people to take over the show. He said that Joe makes people feel comfortable, and is great at getting people dancing and singing. I then got a chance to speak in detail with Eddie Hitt:

CMG: How long have you been in the karaoke business? How did you get started? Eddie: I have been involved as far as running shows , whether for another company or myself, in excess of eleven years, maybe twelve. I’ve been singing in this medium probably for fifteen years. My first exposure to it was at a venue in Edgewater, it’s now called Becky’s. At that time it was the Crab Café. I happened to go in with a friend of mine, and a company by the name King of Karaoke was there, and the host was none other than John Donovan. John and I are friends - I followed him around for three to four years. King of Karaoke along with Colette’s Karaoke and Annie’s Karaoke — those three were the three major karaoke companies at that time, fifteen years ago. John was working for King of Karaoke. I followed all of them around. Ultimately, I went through a divorce and had some time on my hands and Colette Kelly, who owns Colette’s Karaoke, asked me if I would like to run a karaoke show. That was at the Szechuan Inn in Severna Park. One of her KJ’s at Coyote Café in Gambrills, Friday night, was moving out of the area to Virginia Beach and she asked me to take over that Friday night at Coyote Café. During that time at Coyote Café, Collette sold me her business. That was probably seven years ago. I renamed the business the Karaoke Jukebox. I was at Coyote Café before it closed on Friday nights for nine years. At that time I began peforming at Surfside 7, I was there for three-and-a-half years During that time period, I became "Uncle Eddie" to the Marine Corps Guard detail for the Naval Academy - they would come in and sing some songs, along with the entertainers from Chesapeake Music Hall out on Route 50. They would come in after rehearsals. From those two groups merged one marine, "The Shocker" Shaun Raines, and from the Chesapeake Music Hall came "The Rocket" Joe Rose. I was getting a lot of requests and I was thinking of expanding. These two singers were the best singers out of those two groups - they exuded the intangible that made people want to be with them. They were entertaining, what some people might call "star quality". I recognized that in them and I asked them if they wanted to learn what I knew and we could expand the Karaoke Jukebox. I trained them in the format that I have developed over the past three years.

CMG: What is different and special about your format? Eddie: There are three styles of karaoke: one is "bingo calling" where the host calls someone up, there’s dead air, the person sings, there’s dead air again, etc. Everybody waits for the singer. It’s boring for those who don’t sing. The second style has a music background - someone puts a cd in and it fades in and out - there’s always music in the air, but it’s just a backtrack. The third style is what we do. It is targeted music from the era of the song the next person is going to sing, and it is an ultimate crowd-pleaser. All of the generations know it. It has to be a crowd pleaser. And you give them about fifty seconds of that song while the people are walking up to do their song. You call the karaoke singer to come up, and you give the audience about fifty seconds of that genre song. If you’ve ever been in a car and a great tune comes on the radio, and you get that rush because it’s a great tune, you only need fifty seconds of it to feel real good. We’re doing that over and over again for people who are not the karaoke singers. If it’s a dance tune and we get couples to the floor, then the singer will wait and allow the audience to dance.

CMG: What makes you decide who you will call up to sing? Do you tend to call the better singers up more often than the ones who can’t carry a tune? Eddie: There are rules. It’s "sing one bring one". We try to play it in the order that the slips are given to us. I do allow flexibility with the kj because we are playing a show. At the Jetty, I do have a dance break for a half an hour. But sometimes I will bring special people up to get the dance break going.

CMG: Have you ever been in a situation where no one wanted to come up and sing? How do you get people motivated to come up and sing?

Eddie: Good question. That’s why I have three very strong singers. If you don’t have people coming up to sing, then we are the entertainment. These guys have national quality. We have opened up for national acts before - Gene Vincent and the Cadillac Cruisers out of Baltimore . . . Special Event Productions in Ocean City and we had a major karaoke contest and we selected probably the top six to go onstage to open for the Rock, Roll & Remember Concert featuring Bill Haley’s Comets, Martha Reeves & the Vandellas, and the Herman’s Hermits featuring Peter Noone. The most memorable thing in Ocean City after we brought up the first five, then we brought up a 90-year-old karaoke singer named Miss Ruby Steinbach. She used to come every Tuesday night to my show. She was up last, and was escorted by Steve Rouse from Rouse & Company. She sang "Born to Be Wild" and she brought the house down. It was like Steve Rouse and I were her Pips. [Another "most memorable moment was] when we opened the show for Gene Vincent and we did a three-part harmony on "God Bless the U.S.A." by Lee Greenwood. The New Year’s Eve Famiy Celebration is at the Ocean City Convention Center - we do our karaoke show at one of the ballrooms there. The beach ball drops in the main ballroom, Gene Vincent does "Auld Lang Syne" and then we step up on stage and do "God Bless the U.S.A." before they go home.

Let me tell you why "God Bless the U.S.A." has such special meaning for us. As I mentioned before, I kind of became "Uncle Eddie" to the Marine Corps Guard for the Naval Academy, and Shaun Raines was a leader of that group. After 9/11, that group became very close to us and all of those boys are in Iraq right now. So singing "God Bless the U.S.A.", since Shaun is a marine, has a very special meaning to us. We are very supportive of our armed services and our public services, police and fire, as well.

Shaun was called up to go to Iraq. He got to Camp Pendleton. He has a service injury that prevented him from going over there, otherwise he would have been with his boys. He is very upset about not being with his boys. It’s like a football player not being able to play in the Super Bowl. I told him God gave him a gift - it’s his voice - to support his boys and make sure the people we sing to support our troops over there fighting for our freedom. Our goal when we do that song is to make sure people feel it. They were sent over there to do what they were told to do - whether you support the politics of it or not. We sang that song before Shaun left to go back into active duty. So when we sang that song at the Jetty at his going away party, there wasn’t a dry eye in the house.

CMG: Is there anything else you would like to say? Eddie: The main thing is our goal is to make sure that everyone, not only the karaoke singers, but the audience there just to listen, has a good time. We know when they are having a good time and when they are not. When we finish for the evening we want to feel good about the work we have done and make sure that everyone has fun for the evening. That’s our job. Check them out on the web at www.karaokejukebox.com.

Foot Note: Karaoke Jukebox has recorded one of their shows from the Jetty. They taped it and put together a television pilot. They’re negotiating to get permission from Queen Anne’s County television to run it on local access cable so that people in that area can see their friends up on the stage singing. If they’re successful, and people want to see it, they’re hoping to do a traveling road show, where they will videotape the show and hopefully put it on local access television. So hold on to your seats, folks - you may be able to see your friends on television singing their hearts out!