I'd Rather Be Sailing from A New Brain by William Finn

[YummyZak]

its all a true story which is cool

[MajesticTOASTER]

The second half made my jaw drop. Amazing!

[DemonstrativePronoun]

During the first half of it I doubted him. The rest of it gripped me and wouldn't let go.

[scottyrudders]

Aww i love this defo made made this his own love love love! but i can see why people weren't struck on it x

[bambooguy]

its definitely a ballsy interpretation.

[dancinmachine16]

its a rough transition but its one hell of a jump! somebody get this guy a boat!

[thekismetkid]

That was ridiculous. Insane.

[jonasd4004]

The video had me crying at the end. I thought Kevin sang this quite beautifully and to those who disagree because they think he didn't capture the "essence" of you couldn't be more wrong. Well done sir.

[EddyMorino]

Its an absolutely fantastic rendition of the song, and took impossible amounts of skill and talent, but I feel like it skips over the true source of this song's beauty: its simplicity.

[Musichant]

He made me love this song!

[tolagnis1992]

i think his performance of this song is great and all but come on... basssssic vowel formation. i mean his redo of the melody is great and it shows off his range but would it kill him to round his vowel in the beggggining especialllly!

[BBriannaMMoore]

I love his voice and this song!

[lmichaelj]

IF you really want to hear what this is supposed to sound like, please listen to Nick Giuliani or Brian De Lorenzo.

[charlesthreatt]

I believe whole-heartedly that Kevin Smith Kirkwood does the best rendition of this song. I used this song to audtion to point loma nazarene university, and if I had not heard what he did with it, I would not have had the heart to belt it out. To really feel the song. Thank you Kevin. You are an inspiration.

[jasonlbrown1978]

All of you that are making the negative comments....please stop hating....its very childish indeed....How are your careers doing? Mr. Kirkwood's here is obviously rather good! Again...he was obviously asked to sing this song by Finn himself...and besides haven't any of you heard that if you don't have anything nice to say, don't say anything at all...How you treat others always comes back to you one way or another. :-)

[jeffbowers]

Kevin this is gorgeous! i was a fan since the Bee!! Keep rocking the the stage babe!

[crimmyslarg]

This is certainly a different and admirable rendition. I think people are getting irritated because it wouldn't be appropriate in the context of the show. But this is a concert, and one with the composer present, so I think we should take it in stride.

[ASchlink1990]

Oh man. That's good shit. You remind me of Darius De Haas. Great job.

[rebelsinger123]

@ASchlink1990 Oh my Jesus, Darius de Haas is a god. Great taste!

[rogmofreakymar]

LMAO.  seriously. louder and higher isn't always better. there's beauty in restraint. i think that's what this song actually needs. i think he jumped the octave because he just plain sucks in the lower register. where the fuck is norm lewis when you need him?

[CadenceCaliber]

@kskirkwood ...I don't really have much to say besides that I acted like a huge bitch and I apologize. :P  You're a classy person.

[TheSingingBiologist]

What was with that up the octave stuff? It's so nice and simple and beautiful as it is. There's making a song your own and there's giving yourself nodes.

[terminallyill]

sick.

[RoCkOnRzEzNiK9]

soooooooo freaking amzinggggg

[Boykinkids]

this is why tenors shouldnt sing baritone songs, the tenors make us look bad ;)

[mikylewis]

Amazing

[harlie324]

this dude has a such a good range< i like how hes made this song his own version briliant in my opinion well done!

[derkobold]

that was amazing

thank you very much :)

[84frankiej]

Hated it.

[kingofthecities]

What I like about this rendition is that Kevin actually looks like he's feeling the joy of it all. I've seen a lot of people singing this who look like they want slit their wrists o_O

[kingofthecities]

Yes I am, Just because Gordon is in hospital as he writes/imagines the song it doesn't meant that he's not lost in the bliss of something he loves. If anything there is more reason to enjoy the escapism. Kevin seems to understand that as does John Barrowman and a few others but as I said many people seem to think it should be something sad.

[CadenceCaliber]

@kingofthecities ...I think a good actor needs to capture both, personally, or it's just boring.ANyways, I think this guy butchers it musically and vocally, so it's kind of irrelevant in my opinion, how he plays it at all.

[gcloud88]

Who ever said this was a bad rendition of this song is DUMB!!! Really? He is performing this song in front of the playwright, directors, producers, and critics, that has heard this song done in the same way millions of time. He was giving them something new and bold he hit his notes and took the song to a whole new level. Not to mention if you had the chance to perform a song if front of all those people, basically, as an audition wouldn't you? Lastly Finn picked him to sing enough said!!!!!

[carlorff74]

This absolutely sucks as a performance. How you can take a beautiful song like this and turn it into some half-arsed gospel crap is beyond me. Talk about ruining a song beyond all measure....

[cantorswaraj]

You gave me hope and a big smile in my face. Thanks

[vicenteps]

Meh...

Amazing belt, yeah... But I think those notes are usually good in small doses... Specially for a man, when you sing an entire chorus up there it kinda loses all the intensity and even becomes a little annoying...

Then again though, this dude can BELT.

[TBon3Supl3x]

Incredibly high belting for a male no doubt, but the beauty and simplicity of this song was completely lost, this rendition completely misrepresented the song. He has an amazing belt "note that I say belt not voice" but it really did change the overall tone of the song all together

[musicpearl]

I am BEYOND blown away! You did a brilliantly fierce rendition, my man!

[Thie210]

Great song and kevin did an amazing job with it!

[mtywilli]

While I do feel this man has an incredible instrument, I must also agree that the joy of this song comes from it's simplicity and there are so many other songs who could have used to blow...this one was not enhanced in my view

[Crenmagicman]

@the octave jump

maybe he really really REALLY likes sailing :D

[bukicapora]

hahaha!

"REALLY" he does. your comment made my day. :-)

[ASchlink1990]

@Crenmagicman BAHAHAHHAHAHA!!!! 

[ventiblackicedtea]

I think this is absolutely awful. Yes, he has range. BUT his voice is not easy to listen to. This song is so simple and I think he ruined it. PLUS, he can't even riff. And sorry honey, buy some vibrato.

[NuclearSnail]

Don't like it at all. He's a very good singer, but I think he turned a beautifully understated song into a chance to show off. I just thought the octave jump etc was completely unnecessary.

Extremely talented though.

[jeffreywalter1211]

this is amazing.

[LiveWvideo]

blow away.... going to destroy my voice trying to copy it...

[innessperet]

to MIkeTitanicNYC : i agree that it's self indulgent, but do you think that the Composer would let the Kevin butcher the meaning when he is sitting there accompanying him?

many notes in the first half are flat. pitch is much more consistent after the modulation. I love the interpretation, though. and that's a pretty nice high Eb ;-). bravo.

[RobBroad4th]

For the record, Bill isn't playing. But he is sitting there laughing his ass off.

[innessperet]

ah, you're right. it looked like he was sitting at a piano, and i guess i "ass-u-me"d

[FraserPUNK]

Holy Crapppp :O:O AMAZING!!

[maxonmillion]

i quite liked this version, bit different, but yer sweeeet!!

[constantDRAMATICS]

I'm not a fan. Changed it so much and he sounds uncomfortable as high as he brought it. He is good though.

[GellME]

thats mental!!!! dunno whether i love it or hate it

[AvariRoman]

He's amazing!

[NorwegianWalksAlone]

i love this version, so much.

chilling.

[Kennyboy88]

oh my

[pvtiongson]

wow... never heard this song sung this way before - but it's good. a good, adventurous version i would say.

thanks so much for posting this. :) love this finn-song so, so much!

[jeffbowers]

Work gurl. i feel my nodes acting up just hearing that fierce belt.

[notafraidoflove]

Haha, Kevin, I love you.

[d2thebop]

i was there lol. i was on the sofas

[JesGerLuc]

um... i don't know what to say about this...