Harmonizin'

Today my buddies and band mates Luke and Austin are meeting up with me to practice singing harmonies for a few of our songs. It's something I should have been doing with my bandmates for years now but have just gotten around to implementing. I love rehearsals of all sorts (the reasons why will be another post)--but these ones are a favorite for a few simple reasons. All I have to do is sing and listen as they settle upon their parts, so it's quite relaxing. I let each singer have final say on what he sings, because he'll sing it better if he's created it himself.

So really the only frustrating part is that I'm made to keep singing the same phrases the same way--I come out of jazz and blues music as much as anything, so I love changing rhythms and altering harmonies when I sing as a matter of course. These harmonizing practices make me stick to the script, but it's probably good for me to do so. All the better, really, because it allows me to step back a little and listen close to the others, and weave something that meshes well with what they're doing.

The hard part is that my fellow singers aren't as experienced as I with singing this type of music, so I've got to find ways to convey to each of them that, "Hey--there's no hiding here. You've got to sing with a voice that Is You or else you're coppin out. This needs to be sung with joy, conviction, playfulness, and our trademark wry and jovial spirit." I don't put it just like that, but maybe today I will...

Please listen to the results--just come out to one of our two shows in Portland next week. You'll hear harmonies on "Nature's Gospel," "Common Ground," "Funeral Pole Blues," and "Freeways at 3."