In the summer of 2012, I was invited to audition for "The Voice." Normally those types of shows make me nauseous, but I had nothing else going on, and my music career was all but dead, so I figured why the hell not.

To prepare for the audition, I was coached by vocal teacher extraordinaire Jeffrey Allen who, over the course of a couple of months, managed to renew what little faith I had left in myself as a singer/songwriter. In between Freddie Mercurial vocal exercises, he encouraged me to publicize myself more.

"All you have to do," he said, "is record yourself singing one of your own songs. Alone and acoustic. Then put it on YouTube. You'll get millions of hits."

I knew from experience it wasn't that easy, but I appreciated his enthusiasm. So I asked my friend and longtime collaborator Stephen Epstein to help me. Steve was well-versed with filming and editing. Plus he had a video camera that was significantly better than my iPhone. I told Steve I wanted a single shot of me performing a song like my teacher suggested. Shouldn't take more than an hour.

"I've got a better idea," Steve said.

Turns out Steve's brother-in-law was the stage manager for an 1,800-seat theater in Los Angeles. Steve's idea was to film me singing some of my most personal and intimate songs in this theater - while it was empty. Seemed like a slightly more dramatic setting than my living room, so I agreed to do it.

After raising $2,500 on Kickstarter (for which I can never thank my fans enough), and recruiting several friends to help out - including Barry Norwood, director of photography for multiple artists' music videos such as Jay-Z, Foo Fighters, and Justin Timberlake - the theater was booked, and the day of filming quickly arrived.

Unfortunately, my charisma did not. Try as I might, I couldn't get into the mood. I'd perform a song, we'd cut film, adjust microphone placements or lights or whatever, then repeat. Something about rhythm of the whole thing was throwing me off.

Steve, who so freakishly wise he should carry a wizard's staff, made a call that changed everything: "We're not gonna cut. Josh, don't stop after one song. Just keep singing."

That was all I needed. Going straight from one song into the next gave me the boost I needed to perform, and let me soak in the applause from the 1,800 ghosts that happened to be in attendance that day.

And if they weren't, you could've fooled me. Because singing in that vast and desolate theater was one of the most spiritual experiences I've had in my life. And one of the best performances I've ever delivered.

Too bad you weren't there to enjoy it. Luckily, I think we've done a decent job of capturing the concert on audio and video.

Oh, in case you were wondering, as soon as I walked in the door of The Voice, before I even started singing, the producers collectively (and predictably) shook their heads "no," so that was that.

A door closes, an empty theater opens.

-JP

To see the Concert In The Dark videos, go to YouTube and search for Joshua Path - Concert In The Dark.