Saturday, August 31, 2013

Swallowing bugs and honoring civil rights

A good attitude is always preferable when accidentally swallowing a bug. Rather than be grossed out about it, maybe you just call it protein and move on? But how do you deal with a tasty bug treat when you are mid-song in an outdoor performance? Well, Julie showed us it can be done gracefully. No one had any idea that she had just downed a little bugger...she continued on like the pro she is. Only afterwards did she humorously share her experience and ask pardon for a quick drink of water before moving on to the next part of the program. Which gave Kami and myself...and the audience...a moment to sing "There was a young lady who swallowed a fly....."

Our last performance in our busy singing summer was in Clinton for a High Priest group summer social at a local park bowery. Kami's aunt and uncle set the whole thing up and hosted us well. And though we don't usually like to eat a big meal right before singing (hard to get those notes out sometimes when you have a newly full belly) how could we pass up dutch oven chicken and potatoes?
It was an especially enjoyable performance...we had a fun audience and Kami had a lot of family members there. Besides the bug incident, another moment that stuck out at me was when we sang "Blackbird"...a song by John Lennon and Paul McCartney written in reaction to racial tensions in the United States back in 1968, specifically the black people's struggle in the southern states. It's a neat song and we've thoroughly enjoyed singing it throughout the summer...but this just happened to be a special day. It was the 50th anniversary of Martin Luther King, Jr.'s "I Have a Dream" speech. So to have the opportunity to share the history of that song and the history of that day before we sang, was also really neat.

It was a great way to end the summer....
(This is Kami's mother, Becky. She has been our biggest fan from day one. And we trust her enough to not only tell us how great we are but also be honest about the things that didn't go so well or that we need to change. We love her!)

Monday, August 26, 2013

Neighborhood Family Home Evening

Originally we had been booked to perform two different dates during Cherry Hill's summer concert series. After performing quite a few shows in early summer, we breathed a sigh of relief when we realized we had a good month to slow down a bit and prep for our second Cherry Hill gig. Rather than do the exact same show, we had planned to change things up a bit...adding in some brand new songs, now that we had time to work on them...including a debut of our new original song "Reach Higher."
But a couple weeks before our August date, we got a call from our contact at Cherry Hill. He told us that a couple of earlier weekends in July had been rained out and those groups scheduled to perform had not been able to. Would we be willing to give up our second date so that one of those groups could have the opportunity to perform? Though quite a bit bummed, how could we say no?
(Can you find the 3 mics in this picture? I'm holding one for Kami to sing into, Julie is holding one down low to pick up the guitar, and the one peeking out over my shoulder...that one is for the two of us to sing a little back-up on the chorus. And then of course Kami's darling daughters who accompanied with percussion.)


We'd had many friends, neighbors and family all set to come to our Cherry Hill show, the majority of which had not been able to make it to our first. So it was with disappointment that we shared the news on our Facebook page letting everyone know that the show was off.
(Often times we see pictures of ourselves performing and think, "is that what I really look like when I sing??" Clearly the camera caught all three of us with some silly singer facial expressions this night! So why not accept it and document it, yes?)

A sweet friend and neighbor of Kami's and Julie's decided that there was no need to cancel the show entirely...just to move the venue. And she offered up her backyard as an alternate. We were touched at her kindness and jumped at the chance to make this an even more casual Monday night/family night neighborhood party. Everyone brought treats to share and a blanket to sit on. And we had a great time singing some fun songs and interacting with all of our friends and family after all!
One of the highlights of the night was inviting up all the kids in the audience do the Cup Song with us. We gave print outs of the lyrics to all the parents and invited them to sing along as well. I personally can't even do that cup thing...let alone sing and do the cups at the same time! So I put myself on camera and video duty and enjoyed watching the whole thing take off. Dang, those kids are good!

-Sarah

Thursday, August 22, 2013

"Reach Higher"

Kami is a songwriter, did you know that? Melodies and lyrics just come to her....sometimes at the oddest of times. We laughed when she had us listen to the recording she had made of herself singing a section of a song she was working on....the melody woke her up in the middle of the night! And rather than get up and write it down on sheet music, she recorded it on her phone so she wouldn't forget.
Last fall she started working on a song that has since been titled "Reach Higher". When our group of five became three this past April and Julie, Kami and I started re-inventing ourselves a bit, we asked Kami to pull out "Reach Higher" again. She had played it once for us back in January but getting ready for our March programs and this, that and the other....it didn't get the attention that it truly deserved.

So we gathered around the piano while Kami played through the melody and sang the lyrics. All three of us had chills by the time she was through and we knew that this song needed to be heard.

It didn't take too long to decide that if this was to be our signature song, we wanted a great accompaniment track for it. Kami has worked with Jim Funk (husband of Jessie Clark Funk....and an extremely talented composer in his own right) on projects in the past. (See here) She called him, told him what we were after and asked about his availability. He said he'd be delighted to collaborate with us and it wasn't too long before we were in his studio in Bountiful sharing ideas and watching Kami record the melody on the keyboard and sing the lyrics in the recording room to get Jim started.
(See Kami back in the recording room? I had some great shots of Kami playing the keyboard....but they were lost in Sarah's-tragic-laptop-disaster. Sigh.)

We made multiple trips to work with Jim and watch the whole thing take shape. On one such trip, after Kami sang the melody once again to make sure the rhythms and timing were correct, Jim sent Julie and myself into the room to sing out some harmonies to give him an idea where to go with the accompaniment. So with Kami's voice singing melody in our headphones, Julie and I made up harmonies off the cuff! It was a lot of fun, actually.
Once we got a rough beginning practice track, we sat down together, all three of us, and collaborated on harmonies, going over countless options and finally writing down the ones that sounded best to us.

Another afternoon we stopped by to watch Michael Dowdle lay down 4 different guitar tracks for our song. Michael Dowdle!!! I mean, you've all heard of him, right? The man is tremendously talented and besides being featured on albums and in concert with just about every other local musician you've ever heard of, he has multiple solo albums. It was fascinating to watch the process!

(He did a few different tracks on acoustic guitar in the recording room, and then a couple on electric guitar out with us.)

A few tracks more featuring light drums and live piano and we now have the completed accompaniment track. (Which we then immediately used in a performance.) We are hoping to get back into the studio soon to record ourselves singing it. Stay tuned!

-Sarah

Thursday, August 15, 2013

Eclipse!

Kevin Jones, the amazing beatboxer from the popular A Capella group, Eclipse, is a friend of mine from high school. If you've ever heard any of Eclipse's music or seen them perform, you know what I mean when I say this group is tremendously talented.
(This is a picture they took during their concert and posted on FB....we're up in the grass near the big spotlight...) 

I've gone to Kevin in the past for advice as to how to run a performing group....the behind the scenes, day-to-day stuff. And he was hugely helpful, giving me details of who does what and how and when and all those things that keep the group running without hurt feelings or stepping on anyone's toes. I can't tell you how much we've appreciated his feedback and encouragement!
























A few weeks ago he sent me an email offering comp tickets for Higher Ground and our families to Eclipse's big summer concert at the Sandy Amphitheatre. We gratefully jumped at the opportunity, and though at the last minute Kami and her family were not able to make it, mine and Julie's families had a such a great time!





















Go catch one of their shows if you can....you won't be disappointed. They are doing a free concert at Brigham City Peach Days on September 7th. Or their traditional Christmas concerts at the Grand Theater in December. (Click here to go to Eclipse's website.)

-Sarah

Saturday, August 10, 2013

4th of July

The 4th of July is one of my very favorite holidays. Is it yours too? Parades and fireworks, family and community...all wrapped around patriotism and love for our country. How can you beat that?
We were asked to do a 30 minute set for the Kaysville City Independence Day carnival. We were excited and flattered because this wasn't something we called about or auditioned for....the organizers had heard about us and got our contact info from the people running the Kaysville Arts Festival.
So though I had to come back to town from the middle a family camping trip down in Springville and Kami left a household full of extended family and friends BBQ-ing back at her house, we got ourselves all dolled up in red, white and blue and did our show. The summer heat was intense....we were red-faced and sweaty by the time we were done. But we had an energetic audience and we had a wonderful time! When we stepped off the stage, the organizers came running over to tell us how great we did....and then asked us right there on the spot if we'd come back and do it again next year! I guess they really liked us....

-Sarah