Street Corner Symphony

*Note: Apparently the voting ended this morning at 9, which means I have failed in influencing your vote. But that's okay because I don't want to wield that kind of power anyway. Don't worry, I will finish what I started and show you the other groups I like so you know what to watch for on Monday's 2 and a half hour Finale*

     Day 2, group 2. It is my pleasure to introduce you to Street Corner Symphony. They're a laid back group made up of 2 sets of brothers and some friends thrown in for good measure. They all seem like real, nice guys from Tennessee who enjoy singing and "unpracticing" where, according to them, they not only don't practice but they drink beer while they're not practicing. They've got a great down-to-Earth vibe that just makes you relax and enjoy their work. I really love that there is such an honest connection throughout the group. Every time they perform their passion for making music and their friendship shows through and adds another level to the experience. Plus, their lead singer has been dabbling around in the music business for a while not trying to get something going but so far has just been tossed aside by the record company that singed him. His lead vocals are so touching and heartfelt, he just puts it all out there for us. I think he has more than enough talent to do some big things if he could get under the right management but as we all know, the music industry is like 15% talent, 5% looks (which I wouldn't say he's lacking ;) ), and 80% luck. Hopefully the tight accompaniment and new takes on fun songs that his groupmates are providing will be just extra push he needs to get the attention they all deserve.

Let's take a listen...


     Here's their take on Train's "Hey Soul Sister"

     What I love about this performance is that it still sounds like the song we all sing along to in the car because they were able to identify and build off of the best parts of the existing song and then expand and put their own sound on the other parts. The group who won last year's Sing Off (Nota, check 'em out) were also experts at this, infusing all kinds of genres with their Puerto Rican flavor.
  
     And here is "Creep" by Radiohead

     It's not my favorite song to begin with but I had to put it in here (even over their fantastic Beatles medley, shocking I know) because I was blown away by the emotion and expression that carried the performance from beginning to end. Obviously we see it in the lead vocals, a raw display of talent that goes straight past competition or even performance to the realm of story telling and soul bearing. That is not something you are going to hear from 95% of today's pop artists and certainly not from 99.99% (I don't know why I'm so into percentages tonight) of the a cappella groups covering their songs. And it's not just the lead, the rest of the group is so rock solid and in tune with each other that they succeed in adding a whole other level to the experience. Mad props on this performance.

     Lastly, I give you, my jam, "Down on the Corner" by Creedence Clearwater Revival

     The judges picked this song for them and I don't know how they felt about it but I certainly thought it captured what they are all about. And then they turned around and captured what the song itself was all about, from their subtle but fitting choreography to their down South attitude to the fun way they mixed it up and infused their own personality into it. It was just fun to watch. And may I just point out that there are 6 people there. They are recreating, and even expanding, the sound of a full band who spent who know how much time in a studio putting everything together (though this is CCR so maybe not that much time) with 6 voices. That is no easy feat and they make it look like it is.

     I just can't say enough about these guys and their relaxed, down home style. There is so much talent there and practically no ego. Every time they perform they are locked into making great music and having fun doing it. When you watch you aren't hung up on what they're wearing, how they're dancing, or any kind of under lying tension between them that is showing through, you are able to just relax and truly enjoy the spectacular performance they are putting out for you. Rock on guys!

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!