When an audition just isn’t enough.

In the business of voice over, you have to “put it out there” every day, auditioning for potential clients and for people who sit on the far side of an agent. Often, you never hear anything back – not even a thank-you. You learn pretty quickly not to invest anything in the auditions other than giving it your best shot – after the recording leaves your outbox, you put it out of your mind as well.

Sometimes, though, an audition sticks with you. Maybe you stretched your range and found you liked the result, or the copy just grabbed you – and you think you’d really like to find a way to keep it in your life a little while longer. That happened to me this weekend. I received an audition request from an agent that included a part for a cowboy and a part for an "announcer". The cowboy was supposed to be male, and they said they would consider a female announcer if she had the right sound. Well sir, I just felt like being a cowgirl, and I really liked being a cowgirl. Since I was pretty sure I would never hear another word about this audition, I decided to see if I could get somebody else interested in having fun with it too, and sent it to my friend and colleague Ben Wilson, a terrifically talented voice artist with fantastic production skills.

You can listen to the result here. Ben, thank-you so much for humoring me and for contributing your amazing voice and production talents to this piece.

Oh, and there are even some desert birds in it!!