Accappella or is it a capella, acapela... acappella?

   Aside from being really hard to spell, a cappella (that is the official spelling, I checked) is an amazing genre of music in which no instruments are used. It's all vocal. So that means when you're singing N*Sync in the shower you are singing a cappella... fancy huh? But hold on to your loofa (I did not check for the official spelling of that) because the genre goes so far beyond bad shower singing! There exist groups of people who are experts in this fine art. Such people create entire songs, both original pieces and covers of any song imaginable, in which the lyrics, guitar, bass, harmonies, percussion and any other sound you've ever heard in a song are all created using only their voices. Like anything else, there are a lot of good groups, a lot more really mediocre groups and a just a few truly amazing groups. I for one, would like to say thank you to the a cappella nerd over at NBC who has so kindly given us The Sing Off so we may marvel at groups from all of these categories (however we will only be discussing those in the amazing category). What's that? You haven't seen it? Well never fear, hulu has all the episodes and clips you need to get caught up.

*This is the part where you go watch a couple of videos if you have no idea what I'm talking about*

     Fun right? I bet a lot of you know that in high school I sang in a similar group (shout out to the 08-09 Angelaires!) We were 11-16 people throughout the year due to some freak vocal upsets and while we did a fair number of pop tunes we were mostly accapella jazz based. And to put it simply we just freaking rocked. The group has won top honors at jazz festivals all over the state (and occasionally elsewhere) for the past... I don't even know... a lot of years. And to be perfectly honest that was the most in touch and connected I have ever been able to feel with both the music I was singing and the people I was singing it with. Singing that particular music with that particular group really opened me up as a musician and a performer (Thanks Mr. Taylor). It is just a shame that we had such a short time together.

     In case you haven't caught on, I really miss that group. I miss the people, the music, the atmosphere, and just being a part of such a high caliber group. That is why I love The Sing Off. It allows me to relive my glory days vicariously through other accappella groups (do I sound like an old dude in a beat up la-z-boy reminiscing about some war or another? Oh well. Listen up Sonny!) Monday is the Finale where America gets to vote for the winners and I know that this blog has a lot of influence *Puffs out chest, puts hands on hips, and looks dramatically into the distance* so I thought I would do what I can to help you decide who to vote for.

   There are four groups who are still in the running to win the grand prize (which is some amount of money and a nice little recording contract). It all comes down to:

• Committed *swoon*
• Jerry Lawson and the Talk of the Town *awww*
• Street Corner Symphony *Rock on*
• The Backbeats *Booo!*

    I gotta say, I am so glad I'm not in charge of picking the winner here. The three groups that I like (I'm sure you've guessed who those are) I really like. I think every one of them is completely deserving of the prize and a further career in music. And honestly, even the group that I don't like is quite good and I'm sure that they would record a perfectly decent album if they won but they are just missing what I consider a really big element of a rock solid group (which I will discuss later) . For me there is a 3 in 4 chance that I will be really happy for the winning group but at the same time will feel really badly for the other 2. I would love to see them all gain the interest of recording companies through their stint on this show so that whether they win or lose they can still go on in music.

     In the interest of not writing a 14 page post that no one has the attention span for (like this one) I'm going to show you each of my favorite groups over the next 3 days (the last will be on Monday before the big Finale) in the hopes of sharing this awesome music with you... and maybe swaying you to vote with me in the process ;)

   Come back tomorrow!