A Cappella Always and A Cappella Holiday: the all-a cappella radio stations

2008-12-02T18:13:00.001-08:00

I've been very lax about updating the blog. But adding music regularly... so keep tuning in, and I'll try to get caught up with some updates here. :-) Thanks, as always, for listening!

2007-12-03T20:58:00.000-08:00

Three new holiday songs from the Liberty Voices (arranged by the legendary Derric Johnson): "Christmas Time Is Here," "Mary's Boy Child" and "The Hallelujah Chorus," all from Christmas in Velvet: Volume V.

2007-11-30T09:47:00.000-08:00

New tracks over the last few weeks:

- From Brazil's talented BR6, I've added three gorgeous tracks: "Waters of March/Rhapsody in Blue," "They Can't Take That Away From Me" and the layered, rich "instrumental" piece "Pato Preto." All are from their album Here To Stay: Gershwin & Jobim.

- From Brian Free & Assurance comes a traditional, stirring "Foundation Medley," off their Live in New York City.

- Long-time faves M-Pact bring us three new songs from their self-titled release: "Over the Rainbow" (featuring Elyse Materson), "Baby I Need Your Loving" and "Northwest Passage."

- Off the 2006 Harmony Sweepstakes disc, listen for the live recording of Clockwork performing Radiohead's "Creep." Talk about building to a crescendo... they really go there.

- Realtime, the 2005 International Quartet Champions of the Barbershop Harmony Society, bring us a solid Barbershop track: "Waltz for Debby." It's from their CD Ain't That a Kick. (Thanks, Brett!)

- And finally, one of my favorite groups ever, the 17th Avenue All-Stars, delivers three awesome cuts from their disc Blend. Listen for a rocking "Something About You," a spot-on "Good Vibrations" and "My Best Friend's Girl."

And over on a A Cappella Holiday, I've added Daniel Gillis' performance of "The First Noel," as arranged by Joe Johnson. And still more holiday music to come!!

2007-11-06T16:43:00.000-08:00

Great news! I upgraded the sound quality on A Cappella Holiday today-- now both stations play at CD quality. Hurrah!

There's also some great new holiday music up: from Sean Altman and the GrooveBarbers, off their new CD Glory, listen for "Angels We Have Heard On High," "Jingle Bells," "Oh Christmas Tree" and that classic "I Have A Little Dreidel." (It's so great to be able to play some holiday music that isn't just Christmas songs!)

I also am playing three tracks from The Standards: "Let Ring Out The Bells," a peppy cover of "Little Saint Nick" and "Dance of the Sugar Plum Fairy." All off their disc A Night To Remember.

I've also set up a new way for groups to add music to the station: you can now upload tracks directly to me, instead of sending a CD or dealing with email. So if you're in an a cappella group, I'd love to play your stuff...

2007-10-31T16:02:00.000-07:00

A Cappella Holiday temporarily off the air for a few hours while we do some maintenance and get it fixed up. Check in later tonight or tomorrow for your fave holiday tunes!

In the meantime, on A Cappella Always, three new tracks!

A flowing, lush cover of the Beatles' "Michelle" by The Singers Unlimited, off their album A Capella.

The Backstreet Boys recorded an a cappella version of "All I Have To Give" back in 2001-- I just found it and like it, so it went up, too!

Finally, and this one's tricky, a Russian group whose name I can't type recorded an a cappella track with a title I can't type... off their album whose name, you guessed, it, I can't type on this keyboard. :-) Check out their site at http://www.turetsky.ru/ ...I wish I knew what any of those names are in English (anyone?)! Oh well. In the meantime, while I'm trying to figure that out, I am enjoying listening to the track!

2007-10-27T20:48:00.000-07:00

Hi all, It's been a while since I've posted updates but I'm trying to get things freshened up for the holidays-- especially looking to get some fresh holiday music in place on A Cappella Holiday this year.

But in the meantime I've made a big change which I hope you'll like.

Since the beginning of A Cappella Always, back in August 2001, I have never been incredibly satisfied with the sound quality. A cappella music often has quiet passages and tight, razor-sharp harmonies... subtleties which were often lost because of the scratchy, "lo-fi" way the station was being broadcast. It wasn't bad, but it wasn't terrific, either.

Due to limitations of the technology I have been using to broadcast A Cappella Always and A Cappella Holiday, I couldn't do much to improve the sound quality. Until now.

I've changed the station so the the quality of the broadcast is much, much better. This change also requires that you have a broadband connection (like DSL, a cable modem or just listening to the station at work or school) but I think that requirement is worth it. Back in 2001, broadband connections were expensive and uncommon... these days, even my 67-year-old Dad has a $19.95 DSL connection coming into his house. So I don't think this is a big limitation.

(And even better, if you are a "VIP" subscriber to Live365, which costs as little as US$5/mo, you can use their "mp3Pro" player to listen to the music at CD quality. But you don't need to subscribe to enjoy the higher-quality broadcast feed.)

As of today, A Cappella Always is on the new higher-quality feed, and I'll be changing over A Cappella Holiday in the next few weeks as I add fresh holiday music to the mix.

Thanks you for your continued support and listening!

2007-10-26T09:04:00.000-07:00

Just added tracks from Quicksand, from the Penny Loafers of U Penn. Listen up for "Your Ex-Lover is Dead," "Keeping, " "Chocolate," and an anguished cover (in a good way!) of "Because of You."

By the way, in December, the Penny Loafers are traveling to Beijing, China to sing at the Greenpeace International Charity Concert. Help offset the $10k cost of airfare by purchasing their album!

Then, turn your ears to long-time favorites Fourth Avenue and their just-released CD High Energy Harmony. Listen for "What I Like About You" mashed up with "Do You Love Me," as well as "Fast Track," "Shut De Do," "Footloose" and the classic "There's a Change In My Life."

2007-10-24T11:06:00.000-07:00

One more very fun track-- a super-country-fied version of Sugar Ray's "Fly," from Three Men and a Tenor... these guys are clearly having a lot of fun with the audience in this live recording.

2007-10-22T11:22:00.000-07:00

A new song online from Peter "Pikey" Butler, performing in France: "Suddenly," in a classic doo-wop arrangement.

2006-03-10T19:57:00.000-08:00

Yipes! Just found out my posts from earlier this year weren't coming through-- nuts. Oh well, the music's been playing, it's just here on the site that you didn't see the updates. You know, I love the Internet, but why does it have to be on computers?! :-)

Here's something fun and new... a random Bobs track, "Beluga." Terrif, as always.

2006-03-01T11:18:00.000-08:00

March brings us THREE delicious new tracks from Chapter 6: "How Deep Is Your Love," "Theme and Variations on 'It Don't Mean a Thing'" (this is really fun!) and "What a Wonderful World." All from their CD Swing Shift. Enjoy!

2006-02-19T15:06:00.000-08:00

Just added tracks from two new CDs...

First, Sam Rogers' One Mouth Band brings us two tracks from 100% Organic Human: "Meter-ific" and "I Wanna Take U Higher." Pretty impressive stuff for a single voice...

Then, listen for the talented tones of Vox One, who gives us four hot tracks... the improv-y "Kind Of A 3," a charming "Take Me Out to the Ballgame," a terrific cover of "I Wish" and an even more impressive "Pure Imagination" (yes, from the old Gene Wilder version of Charlie and the Chocolate Factory!). By the way, random trivia bit: Paul Pampinella of Vox One is also a member of Five O'Clock Shadow.

2006-01-27T22:35:00.000-08:00

New stuff for the new year! Listen up for hot tracks from the new House Jacks CD, Fitchy & Grikko&mdash"Why I'm With You" and "Athena."

2005-12-02T09:03:00.000-08:00

Once again, A Cappella Always has been chosen to appear in Apple's iTunes Radio Tuner, in the special "Holidays" section. Today, it looks like we're just one of TWO stations featured there (though I'm sure more will be added). So, if you have iTunes and want to listen in, just click 'Radio' and look for the 'Holidays' section. (If you don't see it, you may need to click 'Refresh' in the upper-right corner.)

Thanks, Apple, for helping spread a cappella music! And happy holidays to everyone...

2005-11-10T12:59:00.000-08:00

Lots of new holiday tracks on A Cappella Holiday, from two top groups.

First is The Blenders, my favorite Minneapolis-based group named after a household appliance. :-) From their brand new holiday release Most Wonderful Time, you'll hear their crazy-tight harmonies on "It Came Upon a Midnight Clear," "O Little Town of Bethlehem" and "Away in a Manger."

The other group, First Call, you may not know. Their two CDs an evening in december (volumes one and two) are something of a legend... as a-cappella.com explains about volume one, "this Tennessee trio of studio singers and friends created this opus of a Christmas album in 1985, not knowing just how popular it would become in the a cappella community - and how sad so many people would be when it went missing for a while. Thankfully, Discovery House Music picked it back up in 2005." I have tracks from both discs, and you should listen for a couple a fun medleys, "Caroling, Caroling," "How Great Our Joy!," "I Heard the Bells," and a fun take on The Twelve Days of Christmas, titled, appropriately enough, "The New Twelve Days of Christmas."

I'm working on getting more holiday music on A Cappella Holiday so if you have a favorite a cappella holiday CD, please let me know about it... I'm always hunting for more new tracks. Thanks and enjoy :-)

2005-10-26T16:07:00.000-07:00

More new tracks in the past couple of weeks!

First, Tonic Sol-Fa released yet another another full-length CD, Boston to Beijing (these guys are nothing if not prolific...) and from it I pulled the title track, the great ballad "Chances" and another nice little poppy number, "Rescued Me."

By listener request, the classic Nylons track "Kiss Him Goodbye" is on the station. Yes, there's a little percussion on the track that doesn't come from a human... but since this song is really one of the cornerstones of popular a cappella, I thought I'd let it slide. :-)

Finally, off their brand new CD An A Cappella Trek, Voice Trek gives us two great covers: a fun, loose arrangement of the Beatles' "Ticket to Ride" and Dusty Springfield's "Windmills of Your Mind."

2005-10-16T13:52:00.000-07:00

Hey, BIG congratulations to Blue Jupiter for winning the Oreo jingle national singing contest! Their tune, which we'll get to hear nationally starting November, was chosen after an exhaustive search of hundreds of groups and then ten finalists. Nice job guys! To celebrate, I pulled a couple more tracks off their 2002 CD Ear Candy: listen for "Sir Duke" and "Wrapped Up In You."

I don't know anything about Popchor Berlin (how's your German?) besides the fact that they seem to have a good sense of humor... listen for yourself, since they bring us an a cappella cover of Devo's old track "Mongoloid." Don't know the song? The lyrics go something like... "Mongoloid he was a mongoloid / Happier than you and me / Mongoloid he was a mongoloid / And it determined what he could see / Mongoloid he was a mongoloid / One chromosome too many" --etc. :-)

Nice, eh? :-)

More soon-- Eric

2005-09-26T23:02:00.000-07:00

WORLD PREMIERE TRACK! Listen for the amazing, great and unreleased new version of "What a Girl Wants" from the 17th Avenue Allstars. I talked to Tony Huerta from 17th Ave and commented on the thumpin' bass; he said: "The bass is actually two tracks with two different microphones. One normal bass mic for one, and then the sub-bass notes are a lip buzz on a kick-drum microphone."

He added, "We went way out of the traditional 'group' concept and tried for a more pop concept. Jenn Butler is the lead female and is backing herself with several tracks. She is the only female we have and wanted girl backing vocals. We had a lot of fun trying new recording concepts on this one."

Judging by the quality of the track, I'm guessing they had a great time with it... enjoy!

2005-09-22T12:57:00.000-07:00

Two new tracks today, from The Persuasions' new CD, The Persuasions Sing U2: "Sometimes You Can't Make It On Your Own" and "The Wanderer." Both songs suit themselves so well to The Persuasions' old-school, soulful sound. You can buy the CD here.

2005-09-11T13:48:00.000-07:00

Just got this in my email from Jeff at Sons of Pitches-- "Vocal talent/Bass sought for successful, high profile, professional vocal band based in Ithaca, NY. The attached is being posted with professional music organizations and national talent agencies. Please forward to any potential candidates. This is a national search for a male in his 20's who wish to pursue a serious performance career. We are looking for a bass but a baritone/tenor might also work. Please contact SOP management at pat@sonsofpitches.com and see us at http://www.sonsofpitches.com.

2005-09-09T19:45:00.000-07:00

It's been a while since I've posted updates-- though they've been happening, it's faster to upload the music and get it out there than it is to type up these descriptions. So, sorry about that, but I hope you've been enjoying:

- Ryan Noakes of Canada's Broken 5th sent me a nice note and a copy of a CD that he put together, The "Broken" Compilation. Listen for "Blackbird" and the old spiritual "Siyahamba."

- Off Cadence's new CD Twenty For One, listen up for a rockin' "The Things We Do For Love."

- The jokers at Moosebutter are back with their full-length release Udder Won and I'm playing the fun track "Rubber Monkey."

- From 1993, the Great Northern Union Chorus harmonizes on a lovely "Broadway Star Medley," off Evolution.

- From the latest John Wesley Harding project, Love Hall Tryst, "The Abandoned Baby" off their concept CD Songs of Misfortune. (All songs are morbid British folk tunes-- or in that style-- and in total, depict 13 gruesome deaths across the eleven tracks...)

- Finally, on a lighter note :-) the ever-popular Groove Society brings us "You're No Good," a "Tribute to Earth, Wind & Fire" and a light cover of Gershwin's "Summertime." These are all from their new release a cappella.

2005-05-16T12:31:00.000-07:00

Just added:

- Japan's Sugar Moon brings us three tracks off their self-titled album: "Shima-Uta, an Island Song," "Satoukibibatake, Sugar Cane Field" and "Ave Maria." I love the light, delicate harmonies of this female trio!

- A couple more tracks from Moscow's A'Cappella ExpreSSS: a clever arrangement of "Love Me Do" and "Around the World."

- From No Strings Attached (courtesy A Cappella Radio International), listen for "Trickle, Trickle."

- And the UW MadHatters bring us a cool Britney Spears medley, a cover of "Prayin' for Daylight" and "All For You."

2005-05-01T11:30:00.000-07:00

Piles of new tracks in the past few months... here's the highlights:

- A couple of classic old tracks from the Harvard Callbacks... off their 1994 release Kaleidoscope. Listen for a live version of Linda Ronstadt's "I Need You" and a foxy cover of the Indigo Girl's "Galileo."

- The Moscow-based jazz group A'Cappella ExpreSSS (winners of the Ward Swingle Award in 2003 and the CASA Best Jazz Album in 2004) brings us "Middle of the River." So cool that really solid, rich a cappella jazz is coming out of Russia.

- From Select, the Saint Paul Seven brings us a very patriotic George M. Cohan medley, and also a nice five-part arrangement of "Swing Low, Sweet Chariot."

And while I was at it, added some new holiday tracks to A Cappella Holiday from Germany's Die Prinzen, and a bunch of great stuff from Encore (courtesy Dr. Kirby Shaw!).

2005-01-02T13:58:00.000-08:00

Many thanks again to the folks at Apple, who chose A Cappella Holiday as just one of three stations to be featured in the iTunes Radio "Holiday" channel. The channel is gone from iTunes now, but A Cappella Holiday is always broadcasting-- just use the link to the left!

By the way, since it's a new year, I thought I'd list my resolutions for the stations:

- transition to a server that sends the title and artist info while the song is playing in an external MP3 player

- see about getting A Cappella Always listed in iTunes, year-'round :-)

- look into more cross-promotional opportunitues, such as discounts at the big a cappella stores for A Cappella Always / Holiday listeners.

Here's to more singing (and less instruments? heh) in 2005... best, Eric

2004-12-28T22:04:00.000-08:00

A very special thanks to Bill Lynn of Simtech Publications, for his generous donation to the stations. Because of Bill, the stations were able to keep up with the huge deluge of traffic that came from being listed in iTunes. Thanks so much, Bill for helping "share the a cappella love" :-)